This is just a glimpse of Vancouver through my eyes. We arrived veerry early in the morning and even though it was drizzling, it was wonderful to get some fresh air after 4 days on the train. We spent 3 days in this City of Glass before heading south to San Francisco. It’s a beautiful city and we both loved it - in spite of the rain; it seems they get rain at least half the year. That first day although we were a little sleep deprived, we took a Hop on-off bus tour around the city. The route passed ‘sky-rise’ buildings (great term for high-rise), around the extensive harbour and through Stanley Park which is almost entirely surrounded by water - it is immense and quite beautiful. We saw quite a few community gardens as we cruised around. Vancouver has over 110 around the city in all sorts of locations. I loved it!
We also took a fabulous boat trip into Indian Arm a steep-sided glacial fjord near Vancouver. Rather idyllic! Unfortunately we got caught in a huge deluge as we walked back to our hotel. We got absolutely, totally saturated - and I ended up with a rotten cold. That slowed us down for a day or so but then we were back on the road heading for San Francisco. Vancouver is a city I would happily revisit.
This cute dome is the Telus World of Science, a science centre run by a not-for-profit organization
The Gastown Steam Clock. This is the world’s first steam-powered clock. The live steam winds the weights and blows the whistle which every quarter hour plays the Westminster chimes
Canada Place was dwarfed by two huge cruise ships which ply the coast up and back to Alaska. Big business! They carry thousands.
Not my idea of a ship but perhaps I’m a bit of an oddity. I think there’s a fair bit of smoke and mirrors to create the lux illusion.
This might look familiar- it is almost a replica of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco except green. It had been used in a number of movies - they simply swap the colours! (taken out the bus window hence the black frame at the top - sorry)
North Vancouver from Stanley Park. It’s a very beautiful harbour.
You might need to zoom in to appreciate this building. It is Vancouver’s West convention centre - quite amazing and perhaps unique. Its huge roof grows more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses and is home to 4 beehives to pollinate the plants on the roof - and to produce honey of course (I definitely want a beehive in our garden!). About 40-50% of the building is suspended over the water - a marine preserve, but the building also uses the seawater to produce cooling for the building during warmer months and heating in cooler months. It recycles all its black and grey water. Very impressive!
Heading towards the glacial fjord of Indian Arm. Quite breathtaking with houses tucked between the trees and spilling down the slopes. Many are only accessible by boat.
This was Steve McQueen's house. Superb location.
What you see here is in fact two separate bridges. The lower of the two is a lift bridge - the centre part is up in this pic but when we passed under going up the river it was down.
Some fellow passengers introduced us to the Caesar, a Canadian concoction. It seems that it was the 50th anniversary of the Caesar - cheers!! It is a super special version of the Bloody Mary made with clamato juice (clam ‘nectar’ and tomato), Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce, a squeeze or two of lime, vodka, pepper, rim rubbed with lime and dipped in celery salt. Sometimes served with a prawn, celery stick, pickled bean. A meal!
This was a little intriguing - a dry dock for large cruisers. This one was being refurbished
These piles of yellow stood out like beacons the colour simply glorious. They are stock piles of sulfur, a byproduct of oil and gas refining which happens around there. The sulfur is made onto pellets and used as fertiliser.
There’s a walk and bike path around the harbour which goes for s very long way. Beautiful really. We wandered along here until the sky opened up and drowned us.
We hopped on the Hop on-off bus to get us back home (there was a stop right outside our hotel) but wouldn’t you know it, in Stanley Park the road was blocked by a fallen tree brought down in the storm (the same one we got caught in). We had to wait an hour for police to clear the road so we could get out of the Park - and there we were sitting in soaked clothes and shoes. Oh dear! But we did have a police escort.
The evening and the colours were glorious after the storm!
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