We stayed our first night in a rather strange hotel south of the main city and in the morning caught the metro to the Moda Hotel which is centrally located in Seymour Street.
We were too early to access our room but they were happy enough for us to leave our cases and even kindly offered us use of the facilities. We always make a bee line for the Tourist Information Office whenever we visit somewhere but bizzarely Vancouver doesn't appear to have one - everything is "temporarily closed" so we decided to take a Big Bus Tour to orientate ourselves and glean a bit of info about the place. A few pictures on our way round with detail if I know any.
Crossing Burrard Street Bridge, one of only two ways to cross False Creek.
False Creek is so named because the (Royal Navy) person mapping it in the mid 1800s thought it would lead somewhere - but it didn't as this pic I pinched off the internet clearly shows.
Head office of Hudson Bay Company which is only of interest to us really as in the 1980s we worked with someone heavily involved in furriers insurance and this company was once one of the largest fur trading companies in the world.
Commissioned by Gordon Diamond as a tribute to his favourite
prize bull “Royal Sweet Diamond” it was erected in early 2000s
This building which looks like Rome's Colosseum is Vancouver's Central Library.
This is a residential block known as The Arc.
A few more skyscrapers taken through the bus window as unlike other Big Bus tours we've done this one has the top deck enclosed.
Vancouver is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world with over 40% of its residents being foreign-born with large Chinese and South Asian communities and a majority speaking a language other than English in their home. This is the entrance to China Town.
A 2003 erected monument honouring both Chinese Canadian rail workers who built the Trans Canadian railway system and those who served in the Canadian Armed Forces during both World Wars.
This is the Sam
Kee Building, recognized by Guinness World Records as
the narrowest commercial building in the world and by Ripley's Believe It Or Not! as
the world's thinnest building. Constructed
as a ‘spite house’ in 1913 in defiance of the City Council's decision to expropriate a plot
belonging to a local businessman without compensation. Located at the corner of Carrall Street and
Pender Street, the depth of the original plot was reduced from roughly 30 feet
(9.1 m) to 6 feet (1.8 m) for the widening of the latter street. The plot’s owner bet a business associate that
he could construct a building on the land that remained and the Sam Kee
Building was completed a year later. It originally consisted of a ground floor housing
retail shops, an upper floor housing residential and organizational units, and
a basement containing public baths. In 1985 the
property was purchased by Jack Chow insurance who restored the building and now
operates its business from the ground floor.
One of the bus stops was close to the Gastown Steam Clock which is just what it sounds like, a clock powered by steam - except when we arrived it was being repaired!
This looks like a mini Empire State Building, dwarfed by modern glass.
We'd rather imagined Vancouver's Canada Wharf would be like the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town but it most certainly wasn't; it's just a cruise ship terminal and on a dull, grey day it just felt empty and unwelcoming.
Looking towards North Vancouver.
The container port.
Looking across Coal Harbour towards Stanley Park with float planes in the foreground.
We had originally thought of hiring bikes and riding around Stanley Park (it's huge) but the weather rather changed our plans and so we got off the bus at the only stop in the park and had a wander around.
Looking back to Downtown Vancouver.
Stanley Park Marina
Lions Gate Bridge connecting Stanley Park to North Vancouver.
We then set off to find the famous Totem Poles in Stanley Park and found this lovely planting of zinnia and canna lilies but unfortunately no seeds to be harvested.
There were a few explanation boards around and it turns out all the poles are modern.
Another view of Lions Gate Bridge towards North Vancouver.
“Girl in a Wetsuit” is a sculpture created in 1972 depicting a
women wearing a snorkel mask, fins, and a wetsuit, ready for the water. It is often mistaken for Copenhagen’s famous
Little Mermaid but was specifically designed with a wetsuit to avoid copyright
issues with the original.
A replica figurehead of the one from SS Empress of Japan, a Canadian Pacific Steamship ocean liner built in 1890 (with optional gull).
These bright yellow piles against the backdrop of the North Shore
mountains are a well-known local landmark, sometimes referred to as the
"North Vancouver sulphur works". The sulphur is a by-product of natural gas
and oil processing, transported to the port by rail from Alberta and stockpiled in large quantities (up to 160,000
tonnes) before being shipped to international markets, primarily for use in
manufacturing fertilizer.
Stanley Park is famous for its population of melanistic (black) Eastern Grey Squirrels (unfortunately out of focus).
Beautifully shaped tree.
We decided to take a short cut across the middle of the park and almost got ourselves hopelessly lost but eventually we found our way back to the bus stop and picked up the next Big Bus to take us back to the hotel to check in.
Just opposite our hotel is the 90 year old Orpheum theatre and music venue, the resident musicians there are currently on strike so there is constant chanting and cars hooting their support - hope it stops at bedtime.
We found a very nice Italian restaurant less that 10 mins walk away and both thoroughly enjoyed our pizzas.
