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| My hotel |
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I settled in at the hotel last night with no problems. The room's a little small, but I can probably have it for another night if I decide to skip Victoria (which looks like the best plan), and Juan at the front desk has been helpful. The train-trip is done, and thanks to an early morning call to Charlene at AAA in Minneapolis, I've got an idea of my alternatives. She can't book anything for me, but I got some information, which is a welcome change.
Collected my email at an internet café near the hotel last night. CAD2 / hour for access. It turns out the hotel has a high-speed connection too, but for CAD 5 / day. I'll probably use that at some point, but for just collecting the mail and sending two or three urgent messages, I only needed an hour. Plus I got Dave's Picks done using links I'd had saved up.
The continental breakfast at the hotel this morning was a bust. They usually are, plus the breakfast lounge here is so small that it wsa completely packed with people when I walked in to grab a croissant. No worries, there's a McDonald's less than a block away, and CAD 3.50 gets me the Sausage McMuffin with Egg Value Meal with a milk. The down to the waterfront station where I spend just as much for a chai at the Starbucks to get myself caffeinated and jot down these notes. Oh well.
It's a brisk morning at 8:30. Shorts and a t-shirt may not be quite enough clothing, but as long as I'm walking the only real problem seems to be my toes, which get cold in the sandals. Oh well, it'll warm up.
I'm feeling a bit adrift in time. I haven't had a regular check on what day of the week it is. That usually happens in the morning while I'm surfing the web for my morning news, but I've been online for less than an hour total since I started travelling, so I haven't had that regular reminder of when I am.
I also still don't know what's up with my TCF card. It wouldn't work at two different machines in Winnipeg on Wednesday, and I haven't been able to get through to customer service during business hours. Oh well, I think I've got enough cash to get me through Vancouver, so I can sort it out on Monday from Seattle.
I find my heaviest usage of the GPS was on the train. We weren't getting told where we were, and the GPS helped me figure out both where we were and guesstimate when we'd be getting to the next point of interest. Our peak speed on the train (while I had the GPS on) was 82.9 mph, but our average was closer to 40. I can probably figure out the average more accurately using a calendar and a map.
Done with the chai at Starbucks and it's time to move on. Strange, there aren't any trash-cans for the empty anywhere obvious. Oh well, I can drop the cup in one of the containers outside the station.
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| Al's two minute portrait of me |
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I walk through Gastown, and "Al, the Annoying Gastown Artist" wants to draw a sketch of me. Hey, you look like a guru!
and as he's sketching we decide that like it or not, I'll give him a couple bucks for the effort. Hey, this is coming out almost verbatim.
The completed sketch gets him a "donation" of CAD 9 from me. Not a bad rate for the two or three minutes he spent on it.
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| Downtown Vancouver |
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| Coal Harbour |
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There's construction at Granville and Cordova which is a real pain. It makes it hard getting around on the waterfront. I eventually get down to Canada Place and try a couple panoramas using that feature of the camera. The first shows CN rail eating the waterfront (and part of downtown). The second shows Coal Harbor and Stanley Park across the water.
I stop at the Tourist Info Centre. They're very helpful in pointing out all my alternative ways to get to Seattle, and I decide that taking the motor coach is probably best. It's not much more expensive than Greyhound, and will pick me up right at my hotel, which saves a couple bucks on getting to the Greyhound station. I think it was a good thing that there are three cruise-ships in town, since I didn't expect the tourist centre to be fully staffed at 9am on a Saturday morning.
Back to the hotel to drop of Al's drawing of me, plus the tourist info I don't need. I also talk to Carlos at the front desk and get the coach booked. But first a swing into 7-11 for some more caffeine. I grab a bottle of Citrus Climax Jolt and it isn't until I'm back in the hotel room that I look more closely at it. It tastes kinda funny, and seems to be missing the caffeine flavor (Jolt's about the only drink with enough that it becomes a flavoring). Turns out this is Guarana Jolt and has no caffeine at all. It's got a different buzz, too.
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| Mt. Baker in the Distance |
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| Cruise Ships in the Harbour |
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I go up to Lookout! at the Harbor Centre to get the bird's eye view of the city. I've noticed that when I'm walking around, I usually walk decisively enough that other tourists will assume I'm a local and ask me directions. Even if I don't know where I'm going for sure, I'm getting there soon. Happens here again, and I do my best to point them to someone who can answer their questions. Anyway, I was up here last time I was in Vancouver, but going up in something tall makes it a little easier to get my bearings and match up my mental map of the city with the reality.
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| The SeaBus |
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The Seabus is pretty handy. CAD 2 gets you to Lonsdale Quay, plus you get a view of the harbor and downtown. And Lonsdale Quay seems like a good place to grab some lunch. Just don't expect the Seabus to be especially clean or quiet or have any tourist commentary. It's a bus, and it's an integral part of the transit system of the city.
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| Downtown, from Lonsdale Quay |
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At Lonsdale Quay I snack my way through lunch, picking up a little bit here, a little bit there. There's not a great selection of snacks, since most of the places seem to be trying to sell you a full meal, but I get by. There's nobody tending the bar there when I stick my nose in, so I guess I won't be grabbing a beer to wash down lunch. The farmer's market portion only has seven stalls set up. I guess it's late enough in the season that the turnout's down. Plus it's a Saturday. Maybe that has something to do with it.
I find myself thinking that SeaBus and SkyTrain are much more attractive names than what we use in Minneapolis. Here it's SkyTrain (light rail)
whereas in Minneapolis it's going to be LRT
. After getting to the Main St. station on SkyTrain and walking past Science World BC, I'm planning to take one of the False Creek Ferries up to Granville Island, but the signage sucks, and they don't seem to be running very often so I walk it. It's a nice day, and I try another panorama of downtown across False Creek along the way.
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| Downtown, from across False Creek |
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The Seawall Promenade here is nice. There's a bike / walking path that goes around much of Vancouver, and if there's something industrial along the waterfront blocking the path, you either detour around it, or get a fenced-in path through it. It's a nice way to get the job done. You don't always walk right next to the water, but there are a lot of sections where you do, and there's at least a clear path through the industry, rather than a gap in the path. Minneapolis could learn something from this as they try to connect up the paths on the east side of the river.
Granville Island has another indoor public market (with some more snacking), plus a number of artist studios and boating-related shops. It's pretty busy, since the weather is nice, and parking here is a complete clusterfuck. I'm really glad I walked. But there's isn't any good signage for finding a bus outta here.
I end up taking the AquaBus back to Yaletown. They're pretty small ferries, and I rock the boat pretty good getting in and out. The walk back to the hotel is okay, but I do Davie to Seymour and it doesn't take long walking along Seymour to decide that I want to move over a block to Granville. It's interesting how much of a difference there is in a single block. I've probably walked five miles today, and my feet are starting to feel it, so I'm heading back to the hotel to rest up a bit before going out to dinner with Béla.
I'm back from a tasty Hungarian (which turns out to be pretty similar to Austrian) dinner with Béla, a SmartFriend who lives in Vancouver. We also grabbed a couple beers in a pub and he showed me a few spots with good views of the city from over by UBC. It's nice to have a local to point out a few things like that. Thanks Béla! We ended up talking long enough that I decided not to go back up to Lookout! tonight, but it's not that big of a loss. I got to spend the time geeking out, and that was fun.
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