Tour de Vancouver

Day 65 Sunday 5^th June 2011 

The weather forecast for Sunday was sunny and blue sky and sun it was that drew me and Gina back to downtown Vancouver. Not wanting to walk for miles we took the Skytrain to its ultimate stop at the Waterfront Terminus where all the cruise ships dock and found our way through the crowds to the hop on hop off bus tour. 

We stayed on the bus through the downtown area, some of which we had walked through before but after crossing the Lions Bridge we decided to get off at Granville Island and have a mooch around as the ticket sales guy at the Waterfront had given it his whole hearted recommendation. Judging by the queue of cars waiting to enter through the hallowed arch of Granville Island it was indeed a popular place to visit and once into its depths we found a myriad of little arts and crafts shops, restaurants, a marina, and a fascinating  indoor public market.  Another small alleyway led us through to a large play area for kids of all ages with such delights as water cannons and climbing frames. Immy (our granddaughter) would have loved it here but she probably would not have enjoyed the strange looking girl dressed as a chameleon but, more bizarrely, walking and acting in the same manner as one. Neither would she have taken to the scary hobbled old goblin complete with gnarled walking stick dressed in sackcloth who had attracted a small but terrified looking group of small kids around him regaling them with tales that looked like they might inflict nightmares on the poor sods for the rest of their lives.

Entrance to Granville Island under bridge crossing False Creek

View from Granville Island looking over False Creek towards Downtown Vancouver

Standing room only

 

We headed back towards the bus stop and managed to arrive just as the bus was leaving. With good grace the driver stopped and allowed us on and we carried on the tour out along English Beach towards and into Stanley Park and then back through Chinatown and on to Downtown, more specifically Gastown named after 'Gassy' Jack Deighton, the British seaman who opened the first saloon here, and where, after having a look at the famous steam clock, we decided that we had ticked all of the boxes that we wanted to and headed for the Skytrain which took us back to Richmond and, unlucky for me, a route that had us entering the Mall. 

After a little bit of window shopping we grabbed ourselves a sandwich at the Subs shop and found a short cut down a narrow alley to the park that sits behind our hotel and in the process cut off a large triangle of walking had we gone our normal route. Tired after our fun packed day we hit the booze and relaxed on the balcony indulging in our favourite pastime of people watching.