Vancouver

Saturday 27th September

After an early breakfast, we departed the ship in Canada Place and took a taxi up to the Sutton Place Hotel, our accommodation for our stay in Vancouver. As expected, we were allocated a different room from our previous stay, and as the room wasn’t ready, we checked in our luggage and went for a walk around town to familiarise ourselves with the area. In typical Jim Jimmies fashion, we ended up walking for miles, unwittingly taking in many of Vancouver’s famous sights in areas such as Chinatown and Gastown as we went, we both enjoyed the peaceful Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden we stumbled upon, it was a really special place, you would be forgiven for forgetting that you were in Canada and not somewhere in China, we also came agross the Sam Kee Building, at just six feet two inches deep, it is said to be the world’s narrowest freestanding office building.

Once we were able to access our room, we unpacked and had a short siesta before heading out to Fable, a local Bar & Diner, for our evening meal. A short walk back to the hotel ended a long and tiring day.

Sunday 28th September

We decided to use the local HOHO bus, which fortunately stopped outside our hotel, to explore the city. Most of the journey through the main sights confirmed that we had indeed visited them all on our walk yesterday. As it was a nice day, we decided to hop off the bus on Granville Island for lunch. This area of the city, previously a derelict industrial area, has been gentrified like many such areas with microbreweries, restaurants, art studios and a bustling Public Market, where we enjoyed our lunch sitting by the waterfront watching the boats go by. There is also Vancouver’s version of silo art with it’s Giants murals on the Island. We then hopped back on the bus to take us to the famed Stanley Park, our friend Cheryl had recommended it to us; it was so relaxing walking through the historic trees of the park before reaching the seawall, which provided us with stunning views of the city, and the ‘almost a copy of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue’, Vancouver’s ‘Girl in a Wetsuit‘ statue. Another of Vancouver’s tourist hotspots within the park is a collection of native Totem Poles, which we found very interesting and well worth seeing. We then got lost in the myriad of forest paths, before admitting defeat and returning to the Aquarium area to ask for directions to the HOHO bus stop for our return trip to the hotel, a nice meal after our siesta finished off yet another excellent day.

Monday 29th September

Back on the HOHO bus to take us back downtown to the Canada Place area, where we booked a visit to FlyOver Canada, an interactive and immersive flying journey going East to West over Canada’s spectacular sights, sounds and stories given a whole new perspective. We soared above the various territories, swooped through sailing ships, and over cities, towns and villages. We even took a dip into the ocean and swam with beautiful Beluga Whales. This was an attraction that I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Vancouver.

Despite trying to find The Lamplighters Tavern, reputedly one of Vancouver’s oldest pubs, open on many occasions, we elected to visit the second-oldest, The Cambie (1897), for lunch, which caused us a little bit of confusion, as The Lamplighters Tavern is dated from 1899 and is said to be the oldest. We found this bar to be an interesting spot with good food and beer at a reasonable cost. I especially liked the table tops painted by local artists. We decided to try out the local Skytrain on our return to the hotel, hoping to see some sights from on high, only to be disappointed when most of the journey took place in tunnels. Another local dinner and a couple of beers to end the day went down well.

Tuesday 30th September

A short walk downtown, stopping off for breakfast in one of our favourite Tim Hortons, brought us to Canada Place and the site of Vancouver’s Olympic Cauldron. There was also a large ‘Digital Orca’ nearby, which prompted Jim to think of giant Lego. Whilst there, we caught a free shuttle bus to the Capilano Suspension Bridge visitor attraction. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a narrow, swaying suspension bridge 140 metres long, 70 metres above the Capilano River. The park it is situated in is part of a forest with giant Douglas firs, Red Cedars and Hemlock trees, with the added attraction of the Treetops Adventures, which consists of a series of footbridges suspended between tall trees, taking us up into the tree tops with stunning views of the forest floor below. This was another attraction I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Vancouver.

I will admit that it can get a bit tiring for those of an older generation, as can be seen below.

Still unable to find the Lamplighters open, we returned to the Cambie for a lunchtime pint before going back to the hotel to pack our luggage in readiness for our journey home. The day was finished off by a trip down to Gastown, originally to visit The Moose Garage for our dinner, but on our arrival, we found the music to be far too loud for our aged ears, so we went to the nearby Blarney Stone, an Irish pub, for a good dinner and a couple of refreshments for our last night in town.

Wednesday 1st October

We were collected by our driver early in the morning for our 30-minute drive to the airport, which gave us around 3 hours to hang around, and as our first flight was a domestic one, the departure lounge was pretty basic, but there was sufficient there for us to get a breakfast, and it gave us a chance to reflect on our wonderful adventure in Canada and Alaska. The flight to Toronto was uneventful, likewise the final flight from there to Edinburgh, where we cleared immigration and customs with no problems and were collected by Dan, who was especially happy that we were able to meet his challenge in finding Starbucks outlets, particularly the one in Alaska.

This has been a tremendous trip, full of memories of places visited, stunning scenery, people we met along the way, and, once again, great companionship travelling with Jim. This is one I will not forget in a hurry.