Vancouver is a wonderful city

Stephen Leacock the political scientist and humorist. said of Vancouver: 

Vancouver is a wonder city...It has the combined excellence of nature's gift and human's handiwork. 

After my visit I can't disagree with him. Vancouver is a great City, with an open and friendly attitude, it is a delight to visit. Today we spent the day in and around this lovely City.

Coming in to Vancouver on the Sea Bus

Breakfast

The day began for me at 4:00am when I woke and completed the content for my blog post about last Friday and the Icefields Parkway. A lengthy post, as there was so much to see and do there.

Drew didn't wake until 6:00am after his hard day of driving yesterday. So, I made coffee then and we gently got around to getting up, getting washed and dressed and getting out. 

We went down to breakfast at 8:00am which is late for us, and we found out why we like earlier times. It was very, very busy at this time. Still the food was plentiful. We both had Sausage patties and eggs and Drew had two Danish.  

Breakfast at the busy Comfort Inn and Suites, North Vancouver

Drew's second course for Breakfast

Into Vancouver via the Sea Bus

At 8:45a.m. we left the hotel and walked the 0.7 of a mile along  Marine Drive to a store called Save on Foods which sell the Day Passes for the Vancouver Transit system.  - buy two Day passes for Vancouver Translink.

We walk across the road and opposite the store we catch the 239 bus for 9 stops to the SeaBus Terminal and cross the sea to Vancouver by Seabus which is in fact a boat!

SeaBus Terminal, North Vancouver

We depart at 9:30am for the fifteen-minute journey. 

Haydn on the SeaBus

The 'bus' sits low in the water and is passenger only, but gives the opportunity for some lovely views across the bay.

View from the SeaBus

Waterfront and Gastown

The SeaBus brings us into Waterfront Station in Downtown Vancouver. The station is a Canadian Pacific Railway Station but has options for underground and bus travel as well as the Mainline Trains.  

Our preferred option is to walk. We come into Granville Square and on to Canada Place, this modern, port part of the City is thronged with people who have just come off a Cruise Ship which has docked in the Port early this morning. The crowds are think and we decide that Canada Place can do without us as we head to Gastown, what was once the poorest part of the City.

Canada Place

The centre of the now gentrified Gastown is the Steam Clock. There are only a few of these Victorian contraptions still working in the world. We found it fascinating to see the steam rising from the clock. We watched its mechanism as large ball-bearings moved up and down on a pulley system and at 10.15a.m. we were standing to close as it wetted us a little as the whistle went off for the quarter hour.

Steam from the top of the clock

Further along the street we came to the statue of Gassy Jack, for whom this part of Vancouver is named. 

Gassy Jack

Chinatown

From Gastown we walked towards Chinatown, through an area that could be called Irish town, with all its Irish Bars and Restaurants. 

The Irish Heather

The Blarney Stone

From here we passed our first, of many, Hash shops. We aren't partakers but were interested to note that 3 pre-rolled were available for $24!

We came to Chinatown, with its impressive Chinese Gate and raft of Chinese shops and restaurants, at 11:00am.

China Gate

Sun Tower and Victory Square

From Chinatown we come to an unusual building on the side of the hill. It is called Sun Tower, named for the Vancouver Sun paper that it once housed. It was built in 1910 and "at 17 storeys and 272 feet the World Building was the tallest in the British Empire . . . and would be for the next two years."  Much of the building materials for the building were brought to Canada from Tamworth (the one in England, not New South Wales!).

Sun Tower

A little further up the hill we arrived at Victory Square, where we sat for a while and took in the scene. Here is the Vancouver Cenotaph, a walk celebrating the Victoria Cross and odd light fittings that look like pith helmets.

Pith Helmet light fittings with Cenotaph behind

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary

Further up the hill and, at 11.30am, we come to Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral and Cathedral Square. 

We went into the prayerful church and looked at the stained glass, and had time to pray for all my family and friends wherever they may be.

Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral

We stopped for a Coffee in Tim Hortons just down from the Cathedral, before making our way to the bus stop for our next visit.

Granville Island Market

We checked the travel options on Google Maps while in the coffee shop. So we would catch bus 16 from Granville Street and Pender Street to Granville Street at West Cloverleaf, just the other side of Granville Island. This is a journey of close to two miles but only takes 20 minutes on the Bus. We arrived at 12:30pm.

From the bus stop we walked back on to the island and into the amazing Granville Island Market. 

When this trip began, two of my friends, Malcolm and Kath had both said Granville Island Market was a must see. I hadn't realised but I had already booked Dinner on the Island for this evening. But it was well worth visiting by day. Malcolm and Kath now I am a foody and this was the ideal place for me. The amazing place has amazing food. We wondered about the stalls, tasting samples of all kind of products and generally enjoying the ambiance of the foody heaven.

Granville Island

Food in all colours and varieties

Stanley Park

We caught the bus 50 from Granville Island back to downtown and there stopped for another coffee and time to refresh ourselves as the heat and humidity is building up. Before catching the bus 19 the 2.1 miles (18 minutes on the bus) to Stanley Park for the last set of visits of our day.

We arrived at just before 3:00 pm and headed off towards the Totem Poles for which this region of Canada is famous. We walked an extra kilometre as we ended up in the woodland walk, rather than on the main path but this meant we saw a family of Racoons crossing the path on our return.

Racoons Crossing Ahead

The First Nation Totem Poles are very impressive. Some of them were carved as early as the 1880s but others are more recent. they evidence a richness of culture which is hard to express as an outsider.

We continued around the park with its seaside views and picturesque views of the boats and yachts in the bay. 

Views across the Bay from Stanley Park

We left the park at 4:15pm and caught the 246, which in the afternoon rush hour stops right outside our hotel, rather than further down the street. We arrived back at 5:10pm

Dinner

A brief wash and change and we were out of the hotel again by 6:00pm. We were now familiar with the bus and its routes, so caught the 240 to town then the 50 to Granville Island. We arrived at the island at 6.45pm only 45 minutes early for our dinner booking! 

We walked around the footpath around the island, the Market part being closed at this time of night and went to The Vancouver Fish Company Restaurant, right on the bay.

We went in at 7.15pm and chose to seat inside rather than on the dock we prefer air-conditioning!

Starters

I started with fresh mussels which were cooked with homemade chorizo, and leeks and were served with garlic toast. I love mussels, and the idea of cooking them with chorizo and leeks was inspired. The rich pepperiness of the chorizo gave a real lift to the freshness of the mussels.

Mussels with chorizo and leeks + Garlic Bread

Drew opted for Caesar Salad with romaine hearts, bacon, crispy croutons served with parmesan and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Drew is a fan of Caesar salad, and he says this is one of the best he has tasted.

Caesar Salad

Mains

I spent a long time choosing my main course, as there were so many nice things to try. But in the end I went back to one of my favorites, that I had back in Belfast early in the holiday - Lobster. Here the 1.5 lb live lobster was poached in sea-salted water and served with drawn butter. They provided me with tools for eating the lobster, but the most difficult parts of the creature had already been broken making my job easier (and less messy). Under the lobster was a lovely selection of vegetables - Green and yellow courgette, broccoli and lightly roasted new potatoes - which had picked up some of the lovely juice from the lobster. The photo shows the rich redness of a fresh lobster and it tasted every bit as good as it looked.

The Lobster in all his glory

Drew, perhaps in preparation for our next holiday, opted for a Hawaiian style dish of Lobster Poke Bowl - this was lobster, poached baby prawns, steamed sushi rice, corn, mango, green onion, pickled ginger, crispy nori, wasabi mayo,
seaweed salad and soy sauce all served together. Drew says this was like a cross between a salad and a stir-fry, the rice and fish were cooked, but the salad was covered in a light vinaigrette and soy. It was a delightful mix of flavours, once you got over the surprise of the textures of cooked and raw ingredients. 

Lobster Poke Bowl

We both finished our meals with very little left on the plates.

Clean Plates

Dessert

Dessert for Drew was a New York Style Blueberry Cheesecake, he would recommend the chef on the quality of the biscuit base and the sharpness of the blueberries which offset the sweetness of the cheesecake. Excellent. 

Blueberry Cheesecake with Strawberry coulis

We travelled back on the buses in the opposite direction to which we came and got back to the hotel at 9.30pm and to bed soon after.

A short diversion on Bus tickets

You will see from the above that we had travelled on 8 separate journeys (i.e. 90 minutes periods between them) today which is 8 times the single fare of $2.95, i.e. $23.60 The DayPass cost $10.25, a saving of $13.35. It was clearly worth the short walk to the shop this morning to buy the daypass.