"VANCOUVER" Vancouver by a5floor

01 August 2005 :
I flew from Toronto to Vancouver. The flight took about 5 hours. There is a timezone of 3 hours back between Toronto and Vancouver. After I landed I had to wait some time at bagageclaim. When I had my suitcase, I took the bus from the Airport to the hotel. I was at the hotel around 5.30pm. I got room 10 which was close the reception at the ground floor. After dinner I didn't do much special. Just relaxing. :)

02 August 2005:
Because I broke one of my contact lens, I had to make an appointment for an optician. Had to figure out which optician was nearby. But at the end I found one and I made an appointment for Friday. After the opticians I started to explore Vancouver. I went to Gastown. Walked through Water St, which was nice. In this street there is the Gasclock. This clock runs on gas and makes every 15 minutes a little tune. When it is playing this tune, there is a lot of steam coming out of the clock. At the end of the street there is a statue of the founder of Gastown: 'Gassy" Jack Deighton. Nowadays Water St is a tourist street. I walked on to Chinatown. I saw a little part of this neighbourhood. I went to Dr Sun Yat-Sen Park. This is a little Chinese garden. It is a really nice park to walk around. After the park I went to Waterfront Station. Which is a massive building. Here you can take the Seabus to North Vancouver. Next to the Waterfront Station there is Canada Place. In the 80ties there used to be the World Exhibition in this building. When you walk around this building, you have a fantastic view over North Vancouver. There are mountains in the background. A really great place to hang out. After I sat here for a while, I went back to hotel. On the news there was a crash of an Air France plane (it took an extra 200 meters and went in the bush). All passengers were allright.

03 August 2005:
This morning I woke up at 7.30am. After breakfast I went walking to the Waterfront Station. I bought there a ticket for the Seabus. I walked on to the Seabus. When I arrived at the entrance, I didn't had to wait long. The Seabus came when I stood there for a second. The ride to North Vancouver took about 10 minutes. Not that long. In North Vancouver I bought a ticket for bus 236. The busride was about 20 minutes. The bus stopped for the Skyride. By the Skyride I had to buy a ticket to get up on Grouse Mountain. You have a beautifull view from the Skyride (also over Downtown Vancouver). The Skyride will take you to a level of 1100 meters about sealevel. When I arrived at Grouse Mountain, I first enjoyed the views. This is really spectacular!! After that I went walking around on Grouse Mountain. There was a Lumberjack show at 12noon. I took place at one of the seats. The show was really fun. First you had funny lumberjack who did funny things on 2 trees. Secondly there were 2 lumberjacks who where doing a 'match'. They showed all kind of things what lumberjacks are doing with the trees. One part of the audience had to support one lumberjack and the other part had to support the other. I was supporting the one that lost..... After the show I went walking around a bit. Somewhere in the afternoon I went back the main chalet to buy some souvenirs. When I was finished, I took the Skyride back. I wandered around at the promenade. Looked at the shops and so on. After a while I took the Seabus back to Downtown Vancouver.

North Vancouver

04 August 2005:
After breakfast I went to Water St. Up there I bought a ticket for the Trolleybus. This Trolleybus goes along the touristic places in Vancouver. I went out by the Vancouver Aquarium. The Vancouver Aquarium shows a lot of sea animals you would see at the coast of British Columbia. There is also a dolphine show. Two dolphines are showing some tricks to the audience. It is really nice to walk around this Aquarium. There are also groups of kids going to this Aquarium. I spent most of the day at the Aquarium. After that I took the Trolleybus and continued the track along touristic places. I went out in Yaletown. This suburb in Vancouver has been renewed, but I had the feeling that there is no nice atmosphere. So, I went on the Trolleybus and finished the route at Water St.

05 August 2005:
This day was a shopping day. And I also went to the opticians for a temporary set of contact lenses.

06 August 2006:
I woke up at 7.45am. After breakfast I went walking to the shop where you could rent bikes. At the shop I rented a bike for a day. I got a map of Vancouver with some biking routes. I cycled around Stanley Park. That was really great!! You will have different kind of views of Vancouver. Some parts were busy with cyclists, but in general it was ok to cycle around. I made a lot of pictures during the cycle trip. When I was at the end of Stanley Park, I went on cycling. Into hte harbour of Vancouver. Which was fun to do. You can cross one or two bridges. I did one. At a certain point it was really hard to go up the bridge. So I walked with my bike. I also got lost of the cycle track. But I did manage to go back to the track (with the help of pedestrians passing by). I don't know how much kilometers I cycled, but it was quite a lot!! At the end of the day I went back to the store that rented the bikes. It was fun to cycle around. :)

07 August 2005:
The only interesting thing I did this day, was going to the Lookout. This is a tall building where you have good views over Vancouver.

08 August 2005:
After breakfast I went walking to the Hall of Fame. When I arrived there, it wasn't open yet. So, I walked a bit around it. Once it was open, I bought a ticket. The Hall of Fame is a place full of memorabilia of Canadian athletes. Especially athletes from British Columbia. They show stuff from the 1920's till today. In the afternoon I wen to the Storyeum. This is a show underground about how Vancouver was founded. Really interesting!

09 August 2005:
After breakfast I put my stuff together and I checked out of the hotel. I went straight to the airport to pick up the rented car. It went allright and I went straight to BC Ferrie to get the boat from 12.45pm to Vancouver Island.

To read more about my trip, see my page of Waubaushene for the first few days and Vancouver Island for the last couple of days.

Looking over Downtown Vancouver

Many thanks to member Ann75 (Ann75?s homepage) for answering my questions about Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

• Pros:A really nice city with a lot of opportunities to see something of the city.
• Cons:The baggers/vagabonds.
• In a nutshell:Go there!!