Sunday we had an early start. Got the bus to the airport – that journey wasn’t great, but the driver got us there and dropped us off at the right terminal. Flight not so good – quite a bit of turbulence. Food had to be paid for – bummer!! We eventually arrived in Vancouver airport just after 1400 PST (on time), not too bad considering that we were about 30 minutes late in leaving Toronto. We then got a bus to the Best Western Sands hotel, on English Bay near Stanley Park. We were on the bus for over an hour. If we’d had to stay on there any longer with some rather irritating fellow(!) travellers we would’ve gone mad!!! The hotel was very clean, comfortable and quiet. The view from our windows wasn’t great – looking out onto the back parking lot. But we could see the Coast Mountains between the blocks behind us so that was some compensation. Sunday evening we went for dinner at the Swagat Indian Restaurant. It was an all-you-can-eat for C$10.95. Good food. We went for a walk after that, down the front on English Bay. Saw Pepe le Pew, alive and well, rooting around looking for something to eat. We managed to stay upwind and not alarm the wee beastie. Got back to the hotel and went to sleep.
Monday we got breakfast at Starbucks, before walking up to Stanley Park and explored some of its 980- plus acres. Very leafy and the autumn colours are starting to come in, so very picturesque as well. Lots of boats in the marina. Quite a few black squirrels hopping about too. Next we went into the Vancouver Aquarium – home to all sorts of creatures, including curious hermit crabs, scarlet ibis (one was brooding and feeding two chicks), giant catfish, Pacific white-sided dolphins, sea otters, a great horned owl, a red-tailed hawk and, last but certainly not least, four beluga whales!! The Aquarium holds various shows to tell visitors about some of their animals and we were around to see the belugas call and leap (not very far, they’re not built for major agility!), the two birds of prey presented (both had been injured in road accidents so they were unable to return to the wild), and the dolphins jump, headbutt a basketball and show us how good their protective camouflage is! Much fun was had, and we felt lucky to have the chance to see the belugas up close. After a wee rest back at the hotel we walked up Davie Street to a Mongolian BBQ place. Very basically, you queue up, fill your bowl with raw veg and fine slivers of frozen meat, douse your selection with your choice of sauce(s) then wait for the cook to toss the ingredients onto an enormous hotplate and flash-cook them and the sauce in under a minute. By the time you get back to your table there’s hot soup and steamed rice to go with your dish of goodies…yum yum.
Tuesday we went off to Granville Island - the quickest way to reach the island is via the little ferryboats that run between it and the rest of the mainland. Just a shortish walk from the hotel, along English Bay, past the giant Inukshuk (First Nations sculpture) and a bit of beach set aside for dog walkers – we had to smile at a bulldog playing in the surf with its owners! Got the boat across to the island and had a look around the famous public market which sells everything from fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to bread and cakes, fish, meat, flowers and plants and crafts. Had a bagel each with smoked meat and tried to avoid the hungry, persistent gulls and pigeons, then caught the boat over to the Maritime Museum. There we visited the St Roch, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ship which was first to traverse the Northwest Passage from both directions and circumnavigate North America. Although some of the other exhibits were a bit dated, the display on St Roch was very interesting and well worth a visit – the ship has been in dry dock since the late 1960s and was restored to its current state by volunteers, as was the 1960s research submersible that was on display outside the museum. Somewhat weary and footsore, we limped across the street to the Soho Bar and Grill (a sports bar) for dinner and had a salutary reminder of the larger portion sizes over here – we should have gone for the small plate of Nachos!!!!!
Today we checked out of the Best Western and into the Sylvia Hotel for two nights, just down the street. This is a hotel in a heritage building, which began life as an apartment block in the 1920s and 30s. Breakfast was at Hilary’s Café on Denman Street (where we went yesterday as well!) before we caught the streetcar down to Canada Place, where we were going to pick up the rental car at the Pan Pacific Hotel. Had a wander around downtown, including a short walk into Gastown (named for ‘Gassy’ Jack Leighton, who helped establish the district in the 1860s by setting up a bar for the timber mill workers and was apparently a very talkative fellow, hence the nickname!) where we picked up some souvenirs and took photos of Gassy Jack’s statue and of the lovely old Steam Clock, which marks every quarter-hour with toots from its paddlesteamer whistles! A brief pause for lunch at the Steamworks pub/restaurant/microbrewery before we collected the car around 3.45 – a gold Chrysler Sebring – and gingerly made our way back to the Sylvia while I familiarised myself with driving, Canadian-style! Dinner tonight was at Maria’s Taverna on Denman before we came back to blog and download the latest set of photos. Weather has been pretty bad (rain almost all day) so we’re hoping for better tomorrow when we go whale-watching…
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