After a lazy morning we headed off for an audio tour of Granville Island, exploring and lunching at the very fun GV Public Market. Then took one of a cute little Aquabus up False Creek. Took the excellent metro back to the hotel and had happy hour/dinner at the Club Room before packing for early (7:00 am) start on our train adventure!
Details
Last night we slept well. We’re up in time to see one of Disney’s cruise ships come in. Probably from Alaska but maybe on a stop from further south (maybe Mexico, Southern California or Seattle). We see it glide silently under the Lion’s Gate Bridge and pull up alongside our hotel to dock for the day. Two young ladies, in princess gowns, twirl with each other alone on the top deck. Truly enjoying life.
We have breakfast on our floor, in the club room. It’s a healthy breakfast buffet. Post breakfast Karen stays behind in the room to exercise while I head out into the cool of the day, to a nearby hotel to pick up our Rocky Mountaineer welcome pack and instructions about where we should be, and when, and what to do about our luggage.
I head back and pick up Karen at our hotel. A bus transports us to Granville Island, a local tourist Mecca. Off the bus we start an audio guided walking tour. It’s quite interesting. Granville is the original name of Vancouver. And Granville Island is really just a peninsula, not an island. And it’s surrounded on a few sides by False Creek, which was originally thought to be a creek but later was determined to be just an inlet. The name stuck.
Until recently it was just a huge industrial area but the city fathers (and mothers) read the writing on the wall. Industry was moving off shore so they designed this place for a market, shops, restaurants, and entertainment. If you build it they will come. And looking around, come these tourists have.
After sending off a post card and enjoying a beer (OK a flight of beers) we catch one of the boats (Aquabus) for a ride up the False Creek. We’re visited by a pair of seals and we see where some of the World Cup soccer games were played. We catch the metro back to our hotel. They’ve made getting on a breeze (for the metro as well as all other public transport). You simply tap your phone on the way in and you’re set. For the metro you have to also tap to get out (so they know where you got on and off, both. Couldn’t be easier. It’s quick, clean, and convenient.
Back at the hotel we take advantage of the free food at the hotel happy hour for our dinner, followed by a walk up and down the walk along the water. We see the cruise ship, the Ovation of the Seas, sail into port. It’s massive, holding 4,180 passengers (double occupancy) or as many as 4,905 maximum occupancy. Standing next to it we’re truly dwarfed.
Finally off to bed. Tomorrow we head out on our Rocky Mountain odessey.
Photos
Like living in an M. C. Escher etchings, I was confused for a bit as to how the bathroom doors work. It turns out they didn’t want the doors constantly crashing into each other or into people. To solve this they added a single door that can close off the bathroom or the water closet (toilet) but not both. Ingenious!Looking out our window we see a Disney Cruise ship and OK weather, with a sky that can’t decide between blue and clouds.At the big, old Fairmont hotel a few blocks away, I pick up our Welcome Package for our Rocky Mountaineer rail journey. On the wall is a big map showing the different places their trains go. We’re going on one (or more) of those.Next to the hotel is a big open square where I can see a reflection of the Fairmont and another classic old building. It’s a reflection on the glass of a very new style building sandwiched between the Apple Store and the Microsoft Store. Talk about a collision of old and new.Also visible from the square is a statue of a nurse from a war past. It’s a tribute, I’m sure but couldn’t find any writeup about it. I was intrigued at how the designer gave her places to rest her elbows and chiseled her skirt to match the corner of the building.A sign on some business I passed testifies to the fact that the city isn’t hung up on foods only being traditional. Here they’re bastardizing the classic croissant by slicing it open and adding a log of banana, topped with sugary glaze and chocolate. Further investigation may (or may not) be needed.The iconic sign above the entrance to Granville Island. Our self-guided audio walking tour started here and we hear about how Granville Island isn’t actually an island at all, but rather a peninsula.The once industrial area of Granville Island is now a Mecca for tourists with all kinds of facilities for artists and attractions for adults and also for children. These include a big, free, open-air waterpark. Due to the severe ongoing drought most of it is dry but they did have water in this elaborate waterslide and the kids seem to think it is top notch!Not sure if it’s for kids or adults or both, but this part of the old industrial area, the cement factory, is still in operation and the city commissioned some artist to transform the six huge silos into people in different outfits. The Granville Market is a huge indoor space with screen doors allowing the breezes to flow through in the good weather. Stalls offer all kinds of fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, olives, and prepared foods.Additionally, a big part of the Granville Market is restaurants. One of them offered different flavors of pot pies with the trade mark crust tops. We opted for a mix of Chinese food and a bratwurst and sauerkraut (without any crust top).Ready for a break, we stop and get some beer. I amuse myself thinking about the animalistic “Fight or flight” response to being put in a dangerous situation. Maybe my ‘dangerous situation’ was dehydration but I obviously chose ‘flight’. Groan here.There are multiple parts of Vancouver and many are split by a long waterway called False Creek. It’s so named because it’s not a creek even though they originally thought it was. To get across the water there is a network of small and also very small ferries connecting the different stops. I’m always intrigued by the extra small sized ferries which look like toys to me, ready to capsize at any moment.We opt for a ferry ride ourselves. $6 per person for a long ride up to the science center/soccer stadium. Along the way we’ve visited by a pair of inquisitive seals. Off the boat we stumble into a huge outdoor farmer’s market. Apparently this venue had already been discovered by a bunch of extremely large birds, looking around for equally large scraps of food to snatch. up. In the distance we can see the soccer/sportsball stadium which we hear is really more for musical events, including Tay-Tay (Taylor Swift). It recently housed a number of the games for the North American World Cup, as evidenced by the big soccer ball on display. Upon returning to our hotel we find that the Disney Cruise ship (The Magic) is just heading out. Suspended precariously from the aft is Goofy, adding the finishing touches to the sign on the back of the boat. I’m tickled by how he’s deftly holding the two buckets of paint and brushes.
