Saturday 5 October 2013

Canada - Day Two - Saturday 5th October

An early morning wake up call this morning – although I was awake before it went off, as I had slept with the curtains open all night so that I could see the wonderful view. Well, the lights of the wonderful view anyway until the sun came up. We met Krista from the Vancouver Tourism Department at 7.45am in the lobby and walked up and across the road to the Pan Pacific
Hotel for breakfast. This hotel is situated right in Canada Place, where the majority of the cruise ships dock. The hotel rooms start on floor 8 – apparently the cruise ship height comes up to floor 7. The last cruise ship was in the week before, so we didn’t get to see it for ourselves. An ideal hotel to stay before embarking on a cruise, as your luggage is taken from the room and the next time you see it is in your stateroom. From here we joined a bus that was going to take us on a faster than usual tour of the highlights of Vancouver. The driver was actually South African, although he had lived in Canada for many years and was extremely knowledgeable. We headed down Robson Street, one of the main shopping streets, and then out across the bridge and past Stanley Park to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We spent an hour or so here, going across the suspension bridge (not for the feint hearted) and the treehouse walks and cliffwalk. Those that were glad to get to the other side had a nasty shock when they realised that they had to do it all again to get back to the bus! We had a descendent of Chief Capilano give us the history of the park, and some stories of the tribes. Pinch of salt comes to mind! He did say that totem poles aren’t actually totem poles though. Totem in not an Indian word, and it wouldn’t actually be used by Indians, so there are no such things as Indian totem poles. They call them house poles, or story poles etc. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. From here we drove back over the bridge and through Stanley Park to Granville Island. Such a shame we did not have time to walk in the park – the leaves are turning colour, and there are miles of trails. Beautiful. But this is a whistle stop tour, and here we just whistled and didn’t stop. When we got to Granville Island we had an Edible Canada and Public Market Tour. One of the chefs took us around the market, which was huge, and we tasted odd little things as we went. We had a really spicy salmon at the fish stall – there were live crabs and lobsters in tanks ready to be bought, and row upon row of all sorts of shellfish and fish. The next stop was a funny fruit that looked like a green pepper, but tasted like kiwi fruit. This is apparently only found around here, and has a very short season. We then had pumpkin donuts, three types of charcuterie (preserved meats to you and me) and then a chocolate. This market has all sorts of unusual foods, as well as the normal. It was packed, so is obviously very popular with the locals. From here, we took the Aquabus to Yaletown. A lovely little boat that takes a maximum of 12 passengers, and is part of the public transport system of Vancouver. It has around six stops at various parts of the city, and operates from early morning to late night. We got off near the BC Place stadium that houses the football and soccer teams, and also any large concerts etc. Right next to the General Motors stadium which is home to the Vancouver Canucks Ice Hockey. It is their first home game of the season later on tonight, so there are several ice hockey shirts floating around. Bit like our football scarves I think. We then stopped in Gastown, where the famous steam clock plays a tune every fifteen minutes, and the gas lights are reminiscent of 19th century London. We then went over to the Vancouver Lookout, where we had great 360 degree views of the city. The guide here was Irish – a very multinational population! It gave a great overview of the whole city, and everything sort of fell into place. Great views of the city, the harbour and the mountains beyond. From here we zipped back over to Canada Place where the newest Vancouver attraction is located – Flyover Canada. This is a sort of Disney experience where you get a “pre” film on all four walls of a room before being strapped into seats and flying over Canada in 4D and experiencing mist and water vapour in all four seasons. Sounds a bit corny, but with the imax theatre surround it is actually quite good. This is the longest of its type at eight and a half minutes. We walked back to the hotel, changed, and then met the Fairmont sales lady in the lobby at 6pm for a tour of the Fairmont Waterfront, which has a lovely outdoor pool and vegetable garden up on the sixth floor. Back to the Fairmont Pacific Rim for dinner in the Oru Restaurant, which was excellent. I can recommend this hotel fully!

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