End of Vancouver

Had a lovely dinner on Thursday night with Pam and Margaret, my Canadian relations.  They came all the way from Seattle for the evening to treat Nick and I most kindly to a very excellent and yummy dinner at Raincity restaurant, near the waterfront.  We even managed to eat 3 courses, first time since we've been in BC.  The menu came with set wines per course that matched the food, all Canadian, which were superb.  It was really great to see Pam and Margaret again after the family reunion in the UK, and catch up.

On Friday we went ski boot and helmet shopping, and I ended up being totally kitted out with a sweet deal... unless it was only worth the lower price and the guy just made a show of slashing prices for me!  Probably the more likely, but my ski's are super shiny.  Poor Nick couldn't find a helmet due to his enormous brain :-)  The sales guy was really confident that we'd find one up in Banff though, so fingers crossed.  Before dinner we went back to Stanley Park to ride the Alice in Nightmareland ghost train, and to go to the ghost farm.  Both were for children but we still had fun, except for the farmyard where the pony looked like it was about to keel over, and the sheer number of smelly goats was intoxicating.

Finally we took the bus to a burger diner and had huge yummy burgers.  I had a chilli burger, and Nick had one with sprouts on it (not brussel sprouts as we first thought).

To end our last evening in Vancouver we packed, realising our baggage has now nearly doubled in size.  Good job we're taking the moose bus and not flying to Banff!

Stanley Park, the Art Gallery and the Canucks!

It rained all day Tuesday so we spent most of the day in the Vancouver Art gallery.  The exhibitions were really good, except a few which we decided we could have drawn better using our feet.  One artist literally drew a child's interpretation of a helicopter with faces spewing blood, it was rubbish!  The highlight of the gallery was Song Dong's exhibition of all the crap her mum had collected over a long period of time, and had it all neatly displayed on the floor.  From the gallery above Nick and I watched a woman try and walk among the display, kicking the hats all over the place.  The look of outrage on Nicks face was priceless, he even wanted to go and tell on her!

Tuesday night we joined some other HI hostellians and went to see a real live ice hockey game.  The Vancouver Canucks won 4-3 against Colorado, and we even got to see a fight 2 mins into the game.  According to our guide, fighting is the best way to regulate inappropriate behaviour on the ice.  The atmosphere was awesome, and we both really enjoyed the game, even if we didn't understand why play stopped a lot of the time.


Wednesday was a glorious day, so we hired some bikes a took a ride around Stanley Park and then onto Granville Island.  The park and the views seaward were gorgeous.  For lunch we sat by Beaver Lake in the sun.  We also found a children's park where we played for a few minutes.

Nick with the Bikes Barry and Penelope in front of the Totem Poles that were in the Park...

    

Finally we got to Granville Island were there is a massive market, and we bought real meatballs and homemade spaghetti for dinner.  After such a long day of cycling on the flat we decided we deserved a nice cup of tea/coffee and a cake... apple caramel cheesecake and pumpkin pie!  Finally we cycled back over Granville bridge where the views of the mountains covered in snow were spectacular.

Vancouver

Day 0 - Nick saw his first mounty :-)

Day 1 - after sleeping for 11 hours we ventured into the City taking a walk to Gastown and stumbling on the steam powered clock and then along the waterfront.  Saw a few water planes take off and land, and the Olympic flame which had been relit in memory of Jack Poole.. a great Canadian, a great westerner, a great man... who also happened to be a giant of a man!

Day 2 - again after another 11 hours of sleep in our quite comfortable bunk bed we walked around the city.  Saw some girls playing hockey (quite poorly in our expert opinion), went to the chinese gardens and then accidentally ended up on East Hastings Street while trying to find the police museum.  Very very scary!!  Nick was offered Ketamine and we saw a lot of crack zombies. Scary, but another thing ticked off the guidebook. Had to find a bar and have a cup of tea and a beer to relax.  Celine Dion gave birth to her twins, an event which triggered mass celebrations throughout this great nation.

Day 3 - found a really good pizza place for lunch... 2 slices for $6!  Booked to go on the moose bus on saturday to take us to Banff.