Vancouver

Today we hired bikes and rode around Stanley park (among other things). Having not been on a bike for a number of months, our back sides were in agony after a relatively short time. We pressed on regardless.Above is the Brockton Point Lighthouse with the Lion's Gate bridge in the background.

One thing you notice in B.C. and Alaska in particular is the obsession with totem poles! I know its native art blah blah blah, heritage.... Apparently, this cluster of totem poles in Stanley Park are part of the most visited heritage site in B.C.

After conquering Stanley Park, we continued along the inlet to the south of Vancouver Downtown to the far end. This "Golf Ball" was part of a World Expo & is now Science world. We chose not to go in because the write-ups on it didn't inspire us.

We continued around the inlet to Granville Island. I'm not too sure why its called an island because it isn't even nearly surrounded by water. The entire place is pretty much a big market. It's a bit like the Fremantle Markets back home. Some people really enjoy it, but its not my thing. I hate shopping and crowds so it has two black marks against it from me for starters.

After having a fairly average lunch there we headed back to town. We cheated by jumping on one of the little water taxis (see centre of photo above) that take you to the other side of the inlet for a couple of bucks. The way my rear was feeling, I wasn't about to ride the however many kms back around the inlet. We sat along the waterfront watching the world go by for an hour or so & happily handed the bikes back.

Overall, Vancouver is OK, but its more of a city of business than tourist place. I'm glad I've had a look around, but I would leave it off the list if I was short for time when travelling. Vancouver Island is far more interesting. We're off there tomorrow.

Vancouver

We had some unfinished business in Vancouver from a year ago so we are spending a couple of days there on the way to Vancouver island. One of the things on the to-do list was to go to the
Vancouver Lookout (Vancouver's answer to the Calgary Tower or Sydney's Centre Point). Every second city seems to have one these days.  It wasn't anything too spectacular, but it was OK. Above is Burrard inlet with Stanley Park in the foreground, and the Lion's Gate Bridge in the background. You'll also notice a gas/petrol station in the middle of the inlet for boating customers. The inlet is a busy port & busy airport (sea planes). You can easily sit along the waterfront all day watching the world go by.

Here's proof that Vancouver has a busy sea plane port. Notice the aircraft control tower on top of the nearby building. I wouldn't say Burrard Inlet was as busy as Vancouver Airport, but it's still busy enough to need constant supervision. The aircraft take off & land just to the right of the tower.

This is the business end of Burrard Inlet. It's the biggest port on the west coast of Canada. There aren't many other options other than Prince Rupert. Notice the rail yards in the foreground as well. I'm guessing that most of that freight comes through Calgary or Jasper at some point. The white passenger trains are the Westcoast Express that brings commuters to & from the outskirts of greater Vancouver. The port facility you see is only the tip of the iceberg. The inlet runs quite far inland from what you can see & the industry follows.

We wandered around the city exploring some of the places we hadn't been before including the Gas Quarter.

We had a great view of the twilight from our hotel room.

It was pretty late when the sky finally almost went dark.

Grouse Mountain

On the day we had to explore Vancouver, we took the Sky-Train, Sea-Bus & regular bus to Grouse Mountain. The Train is very slick (more on that later) & the Sea bus is the most incredibly efficient ferry service I have ever seen. Very slick!

In winter Grouse Mountain is a ski park with 4 cable cars (pictured) that run up to the top of the mountain. In summer they have other activities & shows to keep Joe tourist occupies & charge them $32 for the lift ticket.
It occurred to me that the cable car looked a lot like one I rode up to the summit of Mt Pilatus in Switzerland some years ago. I stepped into the car & saw a sign saying "Made in Switzerland". Funny that!

This is the view from Grouse Mountain. This picture was taken from the cable car just after clearing the support poles at the top.

One of the attractions at Grouse Mountain is the Grizzly Bear exhibit. It is actually an experiment the Canadian wildlife protection group are trying to rehabilitate & eventually release orphaned bears. It just happens to be a great way for the public to see the bears, These two males are about 5 years old now & even hibernate in the enclosure which is rare for captive bears.
Our first wild bear sighting will have to wait.

Grouse Mountain also has a lumberjack show. It is really quite entertaining, but a bit touristy.
They had two lumberjacks competing against each other in events such as the climb & chop (pictured), axe throw, log saw, Pole climb (next entry) and log roll. (I'm actually not too sure of the name of some of the events.) All the standard stuff, but worth a giggle.
Grouse Mountain also has a lumberjack show. It is really quite entertaining, but a bit touristy.
They had two lumberjacks competing against each other in events such as the climb & chop (pictured), axe throw, log saw, Pole climb (next entry) and log roll. (I'm actually not too sure of the name of some of the events.) All the standard stuff, but worth a giggle.

These guys are nutty! That is a long way up & they were motoring!

The other attraction on the mountain showed off their birds of prey. If you are into birds of prey it was pretty good. Kerri wasn't so keen. Each to their own. I enjoyed it.

I threw this one in for mum, who has a special interest in owls.

Stanley Park

After the Grouse Mountain visit, we had a bit of a wonder around the Downtown shoreline. It's actually a very relaxing spot. There are parks that run alongside the river that you can just sit & relax or there are bike tracks & walk tracks if you feel a bit more energetic.
The backdrop is really quite nice. (See pic). Stanley park is in the foreground. It is a huge patch of parkland with all sorts of things to do & see. We only scratched the surface. It's something we'll do one time we go back to see B.C. properly. Pictured behind Stanley Park is Grouse mountain (right of picture) & the ranges. If you expand the photo & look closely, you will see the summit & the cable car that runs middle to top right of picture.
Vancouver is a pretty place, but the city has become too big for its surroundings. There are 2.5 mil people there now. The problem is the river takes up a heap of area & the mountains jag up so sharply that you can't build anywhere anymore.

I'm not too sure about this ...... piece of art, I guess you call it. I thought it was amusing so I took a pic of it. It sits between the Vancouver Downtown & the river front.
These Canadians are claisey! (Not really, they are nice folk over here).

The tourist shops are just as bad as anywhere else in the world. Check out this merchandising ploy.
They have an obsession with killing animals & sticking them on their heads over here. (I guess we do in Australia as well.)

No, you can't take him with us!
Kerri took a liking to this bear at the front of one of the tourist shops. She wanted to take him with us & then send it back to her mum. Fortunately he wasn't for sale. The freight costs would have been horrendous! It would have been a great gag having him sit next to us on the train trip over to Calgary.

Vancouver Skytrain

Before I leave Vancouver behind & start on about the Rocky Mountaineer, I mentioned the Vancouver Skytrain before. These run about every 3-4 minutes around Vancouver, & they're fast! The freaky thing about these trains is that they don't have a driver!!! They're all controlled by a central control room. It must be like running a gigantic model train set. Bad news if you get it wrong!

As for most major cities around the world, they look much nicer at night. The photo below was taken around 11pm from our hotel. Bloody twilight near the Arctic Circle! Doesn't make it easy to sleep! I'm sure we will learn to live with it. The 6 hrs of daylight in the middle if winter could be less of a novelty.

Vancouver

Today we made our last flight of the trip to Vancouver. It was a pretty daytime flight above the USA Rocky Mountains in a very nice little 120 seat jet that Air Canada flies, an Embraer 190. They are very new & comfortable with the full electronic entertainment system in the back of the head rest as on many of the long haul jets. The flight was only 90 Min's. Can't wait for another trip on one of these.

I'm liking Canada already, although we had a bit of a rocky start.
A couple of nights before we left San Fran, I had discovered that I had not bought a copy of my University qualification which had been an "essential" document for a work permit. So I was stressing for two days & was sleep deprived going into Canada. It turns out that the Immigration officer wasn't too interested in the paper work, but was more concerned about Kerri trying to piggy back off my permit. Maybe it distracted her, but luckily her fellow officer beside her set her straight & it just took time to process the application.
The trouble started when we tried leaving the airport. We had had some success with Airport Shuttles to & from SFO, so we thought we would try it here. Big mistake! Instead of a 9 seater van, it was a coach & it took us 2 hrs to get to the hotel. They were not very cheap & complete rubbish! Not again! Taxi next time. The airport here is spitting distance from downtown.
We are here now & really excited! Canada is a beautiful place.

Our hotel is really nice. We are paying for the privilege a bit.
Off to explore tomorrow, then on the train the next day. Can't wait!
Did I say Vancouver is really nice? Oh, & the sun doesn't set until 10pm (I guess.). We haven't seen full darkness yet.