As my hosts had to work today, I decided to go on a self guided walking tour of Vancouver city centre. Moreno was kind enough to give me a lift and save me from having to figure out the public transport system, dropping me off in the middle of Chinatown before heading to work.
After wandering around for a bit, past numerous shops selling all sorts of weird sh*t most of which I didn’t recognise, I headed towards what might be considered the more ‘touristy’ side of Vancouver – Gastown.
Its a cool ‘district’ which I really liked just wandering around ; lots of boutique shops selling native American arts and crafts, clothes shops, coffee shops including the ubiquitous Starbucks (good for free wifi if nothing else), and restaurants. Lots of restaurants.
As with any city there are positives and negatives and with Vancouver there seems to be a visibly large population of homeless people – one street in particular (the name of which escapes me but I think it has a ‘drop in’ centre) had loads of people set up to sleep outside. There seems to be a permanent police presence there but at no point did I feel unsafe walking past them – they [the homeless] were just minding their own business and didn’t give a monkeys about a tourist walking past. At times it was a bit stereotypical – a guy walking along the street talking to himself, pushing a shopping trolley with his worldly possessions in it, wearing a plastic ‘viking’ helmet. Quite sad really.
One of the more popular tourist attractions in Gastown is the Steam Clock, which seemed to be permanently surrounded by Asian tourists so I didn’t get round to taking any photos of it. Instead I went up to the Vancouver Lookout, a 360 panoramic viewing platform atop the Harbour Centre. Which is a natural lead into some photos, I think…
Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary
Presumably this building belongs to the news organisation of the same name
Possibly the MNP Tower on the left?
Under construction
Vancouver Block Clock Tower on Granville
BC Place – multi purpose stadium
Ummm… 322 Water Street apparently!
Another of Vancouver’s new outlets
Not quite sure which building this is – next to Canada Place
Seeing as it was now about time to grab something to eat, I touched base with Moreno and arranged to meet him at the Peckingpah, a ‘Carolina BBQ’ restaurant which served up some pretty nice food and local ‘craft’ beers. Well worth a visit if you’re in the neighbourhood!
Moreno then dropped me off at Stanley Park, to the north-western edge of the peninsula that makes up ‘downtown’ Vancouver. The park is home to, amongst other attractions, the Vancouver Aquarium, which was to be my ‘home’ for the next few hours.
Grebbit
Beluga whale ‘show’
Sea otter – very cute 🙂
Its a small red bird
Having ‘done’ the Aquarium I decided to wander around a bit of Stanley Park for a bit, taking in the views over Vancouver and the nearby mountains which should, apparently, be covered in snow at this time of year but clearly aren’t…
Totem pole (obviously)
Brockton Point Lighthouse, Stanley Park
Vancouverites out enjoying the end of their day
From Stanley Park I walked back into the city centre to find a train station to get me back towards Moreno and Kats…
Walking back from Stanley Park
A different sort of crane to many recent photos 🙂
The ‘staggered’ topped building [top right] is Harbour Centre from where the earlier cityscapes were shot
Who needs a runway?
Canada Place (white ‘sail’ topped buildings)
That evening I went out with Moreno to a bar in Vancouver to sample the local beers and watch hockey on TV, which is apparently the thing to do in Canada 🙂 That, and grow beards. The men, that is. They’re quite big on their facial growth over here. Guess it helps keep them warm during the winter or something 🙂
An excellent day, all in all. I like Vancouver!
Around the World in a Campervan 