Town and Country

Monday, 7 September 2009

Road Trip Day 19

Another hotel and another "Continental Breakfast", but here there are croissants and pain chocolat. I'm thankful for the French influence here after all.

One Day in Vancouver

My trusty guidebook that serves me so well in the USA is, of course, useless here in Canada. So, I made a web search and found a local tourism site which gave a suggested itinerary for a day in Vancouver. I followed much of it, but skipped some of more crowed spots and obvious tourist traps.

To get to the first point on the itinerary meant a trip through the City from my hotel. Vancouver is a very clean, modern city. There are swanky new glass fronted office and apartment buildings all over the place, especially close to the water front. I saw some older, less salubrious parts but on the whole this has the feel of a modern, well-to-do city that is very much on the up right now.

Stanley Park

I started my one day tour at Stanley Park, a large municipal park one the bay with all sorts of activities for tourists and locals to enjoy. Amongst the many different playing fields I found further influence from Britain as a Cricket tournament was under way. Ahh, the sound of leather on willow.

Further along the shoreline road which circumnavigates the park is a very splendid display of Totem Poles made or designed after authentic designs by Native North Americans. My favourite has a chief riding a killer whale. The expression on his face makes it seem like he's having second thoughts about how good an idea that was.

Big Bridge

I finished my circuit of Stanley Park at Prospect Point which, if it were not partially closed off for repairs, offers views over the iconic Lions Gate bridge as well as Grouse Mountain and other peaks in the Cascade Mountain range which rises dramatically to the north.

Once out of the park I looped back around and through it to drive over the bridge I'd just photographed and part way up Grouse Mountain. On the way up I stopped to view the dam and reservoir which keep the city supplied with water then continued to the Grouse Mountain car park.

Today is the Labor Day public holiday in Canada as well as America and this already popular tourist attraction was packed. As the car parking wasn't free and there was no view due to tree growth I turned around and drove back down. I could have stopped and taken the Sea to Sky cable car to the summit, but as it was shrouded in cloud and I'm not great with heights I ruled that one out even before I checked the price list.

Quiet in the City

I assume the City was extra quiet today due to the holidays, so there wasn't much retail therapy to be had. I made a couple of stops in trendy neighbourhoods and window shopped the fancy galleries and boutiques then returned to the hotel for a bite to eat (a not very satisfactory Monte Cristo) and to get some more ideas from the web.

Facing Fear

I'm glad I did take the chance to come back for inspiration as it led to me finding Lynn Canyon Park. One of the tourist traps I avoided in the morning was Capilano Regional Park with its famous swinging pedestrian suspension bridge. As I said I'm not good with heights so wobbly heights are even less desirable.

Anyhow, when I read about Lynn Canyon Park, it too boasts a recently renovated passenger suspension bridge as well as several trails to walk and a pretty, burbling river to admire. I parked, fetched a map from the visitor centre and went to find the trails. Seeing as how the suspension bridge was immediately next to the car park I thought I should at least take a look at it and take a photo of it so I could show you what I didn't walk across.

Well, before I knew what I was doing I was advancing onto the bridge. There were dozens of people on the bridge, many of whom were stopping for photos and holding things up... and prolonging my time on this damn whispy little bridge that seemed to be flapping in the breeze. Anyway, I couldn't turn round even if I had wanted to so I crossed over it. Turns out the best way to conquer a fear is to be irritated by people taking 10 almost identical photos of their grinning, idiot girlfriend.

Oh, and I never did get a good photo of the bridge, but I did cross it, honest!

More Trails

I walked a lot of the rather steep trails around the park though, to be honest, I got very little of the tranquillity that was mentioned in what I'd read on the web as it was very busy. No bother though, it was a lovely park and the narrow river was amazingly clear and glistened when the sun came out.

Tired from more walking than I anticipated I got back to the hotel and had a little snooze before dinner.

Dinner was a take-out Pizza as I got a bit bogged down in restaurant reviews and decided on the easy option.

Goodnight.

Stats - Day Forty-Five

Distance travelled - 0 miles - Stayed in Vancouver.

State count - 18 + DC + B.C.

Room numbers stayed in - 203, 1, 148, 212, 205, 210, 246, 118, 3, 145, 229, 111, 207, 206