Canada : Thursday 2nd August 2007 - Vancouver

Everyone woke up fairly early, between 6am and 7am, not surprisingly, given the time difference we were adjusting to. At around 8:30 however, we left the hotel and went and had a very nice breakfast at a cafe overlooking False Creek, at the end of the English Bay, between Granville Bridge and Burrard St Bridge.

After breakfast, we caught a ferry across False Creek to downtown Vancouver. We walked along the waterfront past Sunset Beach and with English Bay to our left. When we got near to Stanley Park, we headed North up through the streets of Vancouver to an area we'd read had a number of bike rental shops. Sure enough, there were a handful all close together and we hired bikes from the first one we came to.

We cycled from the shop to Stanley Park, a short distance away. Stanley Park is the largest park in all of north america and is bounded by the sea on nearly all sides. We cycled around the sea path, in an anti-clockwise direction, with the city to our right initially. Our first stop was to look at some totem poles... .and buy souvenir magnetic totem poles (what else?!). From there we continued along the sea path until we could see North Vancouver across the water, with sea planes taking off over our heads. By popular agreement, we then headed to the Vancouver Aquarium, which is one of the park's big attractions (apart from the park itself) and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours there.

Finally, we cycled up to the beautiful, lily-covered Beaver Lake and north by bridle track across the centre of the park before looping back past beach 3 and onwards back to the bike shop, where we returned our bikes.

Everyone was pretty tired now, despite it only being about 3pm. So we walked back to the hotel (via another ferry crossing) and had a short rest there. Then, Martin, Marina and Bekky went to the reknowned Glanville Island local market and bought cherries, blueberries, pumpkin seed bread, cheese and... the most over-priced wine ever (but what the hell, we're on holiday!).

We spent the rest of the evening unwinding in our hotel room. Hopefully we'll be properly aclimatised by tomorrow. A pretty good first full day .

Here's a map of the area including the location of our hotel to the south:

Here's some photos from our first full day in Vancouver:

Looking down up Burrard Inlet towards the open sea and through Burrard St Bridge from where we had breakfast.

A closer look at the bridge.

Bekky on the walk towards Sunset Beach.

Jack in front of errrr.... a pile of rocks :-)

A Vancouver building that we liked.....

Cycling in Stanley Park.

Central Vancouver from Stanley Park.

And again.....

Totem poles remind us of the original people to live in this part of the world.

The city again, with "old" and new buildings.

Sea planes take off and land in the sea here frequently.

Bekky with Prospect Point and the Lion Gate bridge behind her.

At the aquarium : weird eel things!

A turtle!

A fishy!

A diver enters the tank for the takl about the Georgia Straits.

Star fish.

Jelly fishes are cool :-)

Dolphins did their usual stuff for a few free fish.

Beaver Lake.

Martin with Beach 2 and North Vancouver behind him.