Tuesday, July 8
Vancouver, BC
Today was a day of leisure in Vancouver
so we slept in before setting out to explore the City. Today was the first official day of the land
segment of our Holland America Land/Cruise Tour, but since most people on the tour were arriving in Vancouver today we were already here and had the day to spend on our own. The desk
person told us the Holland America representative was already here so before we
left the hotel we checked-in with her and got our instructions for
tomorrow. After that we got our car and
were off to see the sites of Vancouver.
The first thing we wanted to see was
Stanley Park so we drove across town through quite a bit of traffic, but without too much problem and got there around 10:00. It was
a beautiful, sunny day and there were many people out enjoying it. Our first stop was a display of totem poles from different tribes of the "First Nations" people. In Canada they call their indigenous people First Nations. After that we explored other points of interest around the park.
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| North Vancouver and the Lions Gate Bridge |
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| Brockton Point and Lighthouse. |
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| The Vancouver Skyline |
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| The Lions Gate Bridge |
After seeing everything we wanted to see we
left the Stanley Park and took the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver and the
Grouse Mountain Tram which takes you to the top of Grouse Mountain. The views of Vancouver and the Strait of
Georgia were beautiful and you could see a long way as it was pretty clear
although a little hazy. We had a good
lunch sitting outside with a wonderful view and then wandered around a bit
before taking the tram back down.
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| Crossing the Lions Gate Bridge. |
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| Our ride to the top arrives. |
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| Great views from the tram. |
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| Val enjoying lunch and the view |
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| It was a beautiful clear day. That's Mount Baker in Washington way in the background. |
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| If you were brave enough, you could paraglide down and enjoy the breathtaking views. |
Our
next and final stop was Granville Island and we had a terrible time getting to
it. Finding it wasn’t a problem as we
drove over it several times on the Granville Bridge , but it was just difficult
getting down underneath the bridge on the right street to get to it. Finally just as we were about to give up we
stumbled on the entrance and finally got on the island. Granville Island has interesting areas with
many restaurants, shops and other things to do.
We wanted to visit Granville Island Public Market which sells everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, meat to
jewelry and crafts. We wandered around
for quite a while and wished we hadn’t eaten such a big lunch as everything
looked really good. We bought some
fruits and bread for dinner and pastries for breakfast tomorrow and then called
it a day and headed back to the airport.
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| The Burrard Bridge from Granville Island. |
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| The Granville Bridge from Granville Island. |
The vendors take great pride in their products
and spend a lot of time perfecting their displays.
After making our usual wrong turn we got back to the airport and our hotel, and left
the car in long-term parking where it will sit until we return to Vancouver on
our cruise. It felt good to get back to the hotel and
relax, it had been a fun, but tiring day.
We were reminded of why we usually don’t travel in summer. There were
people everywhere, it was very crowded especially with families with kids. Everyone including us was enjoying
themselves, but it got pretty wearing fighting the crowds.
Tomorrow morning we catch our flight to
Whitehorse in the Yukon where our tour will really begin, we are really looking
forward to it!!
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