英国王子最爱之城 加拿大维多利亚市 其实这也是我的归宿

英式下午茶、双层巴士 哈利梅根定居这城市 简直伦敦翻版

哈利王子和妻子梅根Prince Harry and wife Meghan 在卸下英國皇室的職務之後，已經舉家遷到加拿大定居。他們夫妻新的住所，也令外界深感好奇。

根據《路透社》報導，哈利和梅根選在加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞省的維多利亞(Victoria)定居，購置了一棟濱海的別墅。

令人莞爾的是，維多利亞是加拿大跟英國皇家淵源最深的城市。城市的名字就是以前任英國女王維多利亞命名。維多利亞女王在位1837到1901年，當時大英帝國正快速擴張，維多利亞城就成了加拿大西岸新殖民地的首府。

正因如此，維多利亞的市容承襲了許多英式風格的建築，很多英國的傳統文化也被保存了下來，例如現在的街道上，還看得到紅色雙層巴士，跟倫敦的一模一樣；每天下午，大批人群湧入英式下午茶店，在皇后酒店(Fairmont Empress Hotel)最有名的那一間茶店，不但茶品道地，門口還插著英國國旗呢。

當地的民眾都說: 維多利亞可能比英國更像英國。每年都會有數以千計個英國退休人士，搬到維多利亞定居，除了因為語言、文化、生活型態與英國如出一轍之外，氣候也比英國舒適宜人。

除此之外，英國皇室成員出訪加拿大時，時常在維多利亞住宿。受訪者大都歡迎哈利和梅根定居在維多利亞，並說當地人比較尊重個人生活，狗仔文化並不流行，哈利和梅根應可享有更安靜的私人空間。

Tea rooms and double-decker buses: Prince Harry may find home in Canada’s royal city

VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) – Prince Harry and wife Meghan have settled, for now, into a seaside home near the most royal of Canadian cities – Victoria, British Columbia (B.C.)- named after a queen who reigned until 1901, during a great expansion of the British Empire.

 

In the summer, tourists pile onto red double-decker buses like the ones that criss-cross London. Every afternoon, hundreds flock to tea at the magnificent Fairmont Empress Hotel, or one of the city’s many other tea rooms that fly the British flag.

“Victoria is probably more British than (the) British,” said resident Bill Bray.

Indeed, thousands of British pensioners have chosen to retire on Vancouver Island, part of the province of B.C., which has a milder climate than the rest of Canada.

Prince Harry, 35, arrived on Monday, just a few days after reaching an arrangement with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth and other senior royals that will see him and Meghan, 38, quit their royal roles to seek an independent future.

Their move has led to questions about what it will mean for Canada. If they settle on Victoria, local residents said they would feel at home and enjoy more privacy than in Britain.

Victoria has often been a stop for members of the royal family who visit Canada, a former British colony whose head of state officially remains the British Sovereign.

George VI, who was Queen Elizabeth’s father and Harry’s great grandfather, hosted a dinner for 250 guests at the Empress in 1939, according to the hotel’s website, and in 1951, a year before she became queen, Princess Elizabeth stayed at the hotel.

In 1966, the queen’s mother visited Victoria and dedicated the cornerstone of the city’s most important museum, the Royal B.C. Museum. In 2016, Harry’s brother Prince William brought his wife, Kate Middleton, and their children to the city during an official visit to Canada.

“When I was a child… we used to sing ‘God Save the Queen’ before school started every morning,” said Helena Isherwood, who works in a boutique shop at the Empress.

Harry and Meghan, with baby Archie, will like Victoria because “it’s beautiful and I think they’ll get some privacy here, and space,” Isherwood said.

That would probably be a welcome change for the couple who on Tuesday issued a warning over harassment by paparazzi photographers after the Sun newspaper published images of Meghan taking a stroll through a park near Victoria.

“We don’t have a big paparazzi culture in Canada, so I do think they will find some contrast to what they’re familiar with coming from the U.K.,” said Mischelle van Thiel, a royal expert at the Royal B.C. Museum.

Local resident Bray said Prince Harry would be “just another bloke on the street” in Victoria.