Little England

"Rudyard Kipling, one of the most dedicated imperialists of the nineteenth century, admired Victoria immensely. He noted that "Real estate agents recommend it as a little piece of England," but with some precision he went on to clarify that "no England is set in any such seas. To realise Victoria you must take in all that the eye admires most in Bournemouth, Torquay, the Isle of Wight, the Happy Valley of Hong Kong, the Doon, Sorrento, and Camps Bay; add reminiscences of the Thousand Islands, and arrange the whole round the Bay of Naples, with some of the Himalayas for the background."
-from John Lutz, An Alternative Walking Tour of Victoria, BC
http://web.uvic.ca/walktour/tour/intro.html



I went from one end of the world and halfway around but it's like I'm in the same place. Victoria prides itself as being "more British than Britain." Like when I was in London, I walked around a lot trying to get a picture, metaphorically, that best represented The City to me. That shot of St. Paul's from the glass and steel footbridge at the Tate with the blue and gray sky was it. In Victoria, also a very walkable city, though of course considerably smaller in scale, these two pictures are pretty much representative: fish and chips (with malt vinegar of course) and parasailers, handgliders, whatever those things are, down on Dallas Road.


...my sentiment's exactly...