British Columbia -- Ye Olde Victoria -- Putting On The English At Some Tourist Attractions
"Men in tights," I muttered to myself as I walked through the Olde England Inn in Victoria, B.C., where the staff and buildings try to recreate the mood of Shakespearean England.
The front-desk clerks were wearing knee-length breeches, velvet tunics and white stockings. A man-sized suit of metal armor lurked in a corner of the lobby. Heavy draperies and canopied beds embellished the rooms. There was a gift "shoppe" downstairs and steak and kidney "pyes" in the restaurant.
Out back was the hotel's pride - a full-size replica of the 16th-century, thatched-roof cottage of Anne Hathaway, the woman who became Shakespeare's wife.
The English theme
The Olde England Inn is among the most full-blown of Victoria's English-themed tourist attractions, which include double-decker buses and an (over-priced) afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel.
I lived in England for years and was around the real thing, including the Hathaway cottage in a village near Stratford-upon-Avon. So when a gangly young man in tights led me to my hotel room, I was remembering the authentic and fast turning into a cynical sourpuss.
I stretched out on the canopied bed, whose draperies unfortunately obscured the reading lamp, and decided to try to suspend my cynicism and enjoy my stay at the hotel. So what if it's a fake? So are Disneyland, Leavenworth and lots of other tourist places.
Besides, the room was comfortable, the price reasonable and the staff friendly. And the hotel's English Village, a complex behind the main building of two-story, pseudo-Tudor buildings edged by flower beds and a swath of green lawn, was prettier than a standard motel.
The big draw of the Olde England Inn, which opened in 1946 and has gradually expanded since then, is the Hathaway cottage.
On an off-season, midweek morning I was the only person who showed up for a guided tour (although in summer it draws busloads of tourists). I was led around by a pleasant youth in tights whose knowledge of things Shakespearean unfortunately didn't match his congeniality.
The cottage did remind me of the original, though, with its low ceilings, white-washed walls and antique wood furniture. And its thatched roof is the real thing, made of layers of dried straw like the roofs of old English cottages.
"Royal" rooms
The Olde England Inn is a 10- to 15-minute drive from Victoria's Inner Harbour, the heart of the city. The hotel spreads incongruously across five acres in a quiet suburban neighborhood, surrounded by boxy houses.
A curving driveway leads to the white-stucco-and-timbered main building. The most comfortable rooms are on the second floor of this building. Each is grandly named after royalty; the ornate King Edward VII room has a gilt bed draped in velvet.
These main-building rooms are atmospheric, but when the hotel is busy noise drifts up the open stairway from the restaurant and lobby directly below. Ask for a room at a quieter end of the building.
More rooms are scattered in several outbuildings, including cozy rooms up narrow staircases in the English Village complex (a few have kitchenettes) and plain rooms in the William Shakespeare's Birthplace building, a three-story replica of the half-timbered building where Shakespeare was born in the mid- 1500s.
At breakfast in the hotel's Shakespeare Dining Room, decked out with antique swords, flocked wallpaper and plush carpeting, my fellow guests dug into their bacon-and-egg breakfast and plotted their day's sightseeing. I sat daydreaming about traveling back to England to see the real thing.
--------- IF YOU GO ---------
Olde England Inn: Winter room rates range from Cdn. $55 to $160 a night, plus tax. The hotel has about 60 rooms in its various buildings, but is reducing the number this winter because of renovations and conversion of some to monthly rentals (making the more pricey main building the best bet). The hotel is at 429 Lampson St. in Victoria. Phone 250-388-4353. Anne Hathaway Cottage tours - The hotel offers daily tours for guests and the general public. Tours last about a half-hour and cost Cdn. $7 for adults, $4.75 for seniors and children (7 and under free).
Getting to the hotel: It's about a 10- or 15-minute drive to the hotel from Victoria's Inner Harbour. For those without cars, buses 23 and 24 go to the hotel from the Inner Harbour area or a taxi costs about Cdn. $15-$20. The hotel can give more directions and transit details.
Getting to Victoria: Car ferries go to Victoria from Port Angeles (Blackball Transport, 206-622-2222); Tsawwassen, B.C. (a B.C. Ferries terminal south of Vancouver with frequent sailings to Swartz Bay, about a 25-minute drive north of Victoria, 250-386-3431) and Anacortes (Washington State Ferries to Sidney, about a 20-minute drive north of Victoria, 800-843-3779). The Princess Marguerite III ferry between downtown Seattle and Victoria has stopped service for the winter.
For those who prefer not to take their car, the Seattle-Victoria options include Clipper Navigation's high-speed, passenger-only boats (206-448-5000); float plane service from Lake Union or Lake Washington with Kenmore Air (425-486-1257) ; and Helijet Airways helicopter service (800-665-4354) from Boeing Field. All take travelers to terminals close to or within Victoria's Inner Harbour and are more convenient than flights to the city airport.
More information: Tourism Victoria, 250-953-2033.