First we had to go and chat with the locals. Nice mountie uniform Mr stuffed moose. G claims she is still taller if you remove the hat.
The library building was impressive.
We hired bikes (~$35 for two for 4 hours) and rode around Stanley Park, which has great views of the city. Note that G sensibly brought gloves along. I didn't even think to bring gloves but I soon realized my mistake as we looked out to the snow-capped mountains. Fortunately we didn't get any real rain that day.
Looking back to Canada Place from Stanley Park. It was oh-so-cloudy.
A fueling station for the many seaplanes that were landing very often, surrounded by high-rise buildings.
The docks.
First we rode our bikes and then we played on the swings in the park. We were feeling very young again.After touring the city I was impressed but not quite to the level that I was expecting. Sure, there were folks wandering around with snow-boards presumably on their way up to Whistler. There were high-rise buildings, spectacular views, seaplanes landing regularly and of course Stanley Park, but somehow I was expecting more.
It was pretty bizarre being able to drive our own car into a different country (including switching back to the much-more-familiar kilometres and metres), although this also meant waiting around at the border. The wait to get from the US into Canada was about 20 minutes on Friday night, while the wait on the way back into the US on Sunday afternoon was almost 1 hour.
I suspect I'll have to go back in summer to really evaluate my feelings for Vancouver, but for now I think the option of heading south to Portland (without the annoying border crossing) trumps the trip up north to Vancouver.
It was pretty bizarre being able to drive our own car into a different country (including switching back to the much-more-familiar kilometres and metres), although this also meant waiting around at the border. The wait to get from the US into Canada was about 20 minutes on Friday night, while the wait on the way back into the US on Sunday afternoon was almost 1 hour.
I suspect I'll have to go back in summer to really evaluate my feelings for Vancouver, but for now I think the option of heading south to Portland (without the annoying border crossing) trumps the trip up north to Vancouver.
2 comments:
Col, Thanks for your views on Vancouver. Perhaps a summer visit would be a bit different. Our Cruise ship was docked near Canada Place I think as we had great views of the seaplane landings, helicopter dock, with Stanley Park opposite us. The Granville Island market area seemed to be a great place to explore but we didn't have time to have a close look. The border crossing would have been a different experience for you as we were in a coach when we went through it. Still found the process fascinating. K
There were a lot of seaplanes landing while we were there. We didn't make it to Granville Island either but we'll probably go there if we make it back to Vancouver in the summer.
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