I was really getting into this Pacific Northwest region - so after our time in Seattle and the San Juan islands was excited to see it from the Canadian side. The excellent Bolt Bus got us into Vancouver in four hours and apart from a pretty grim conversation with your classic miserable immigration official it was a great afternoon.
An hour later after a trip on a train and seabus we were in our hotel in Lonsdale Quay on the north of the city. We could already see how beautiful this place was - lovely natural harbour, snow capped mountains behind. It reminded me of Sydney but with added attraction of mountains - perhaps even prettier.
On our first night we took things easy - it was national burger day - and the perfect place to celebrate this was at Tap & Barrell - a pub with a gorgeous patio overlooking the city. There was also an outdoor spin class taking place across from the pub - so we had the added bonus of watching how the Vancouver locals get their adrenaline rush in the summer.
The next day we explored Lynn Canyon Park - a lovely park with a suspension bridge and walking trails. Definitely one to get the heart racing - but an enjoyable way to spend the morning. The afternoon we headed back on the seabus this time to explore Gastown and Chinatown. Gastown is filled with lovely boutiques, pavement cafe's and ice cream shops. On our way to Chinatown we somehow walked into Crack alley - an uncomfortable number of locals all off their heads - it didn't feel like a great place to be so Chinatown will have to wait until another time!
Next we were back on the buses to get to Kitsalano Beach - where our Air BnB was for the next 3 nights - we lucked out - although a bit far from the city - really cool little area.
Our first full day in Vancouver was epic - we headed into Stanley park to walk the city walls - what a park it is - bigger than NYC's central park - it takes up a full tip of central Vancouver - it has an outdoor swimming pool, a lake , you can walk / cycle the city walls for a glorious 8.8km - heaven. We recovered with wine and a salmon burger at a lovely spot just outside the park Cardero's Marine Pub and admired the yacht action. From there the excitement really kicked in - we kept seeing seaplane's taking off in the city. I presumed it would be ridiculously expensive so other than saying ' I'd really like to do that one day' thought nothing more of it. I think though the beauty of the park made us look into it - a phone call later and we were booked onto the 2pm 30 minute Classic Panorama trip with Harour Air. My god what a great decision. After ' checking in' and getting our boarding pass we were last to board our little seaplane - but ended up with window seats, a lovely captain and some blue skies to get into.
The next 30 minutes I did not stop grinning, the sensation of taking off and landing into water is something everyone should experience. Vancouver is also an incredible place to do this trip - after the joy of going over the harbour - we flew over some of the surrounding mountains - green lakes surrounded by snowcapped mountains all in a 5 minute flight of the city. What a place!
Sad for the journey to end we celebrated with a gelato from Vancouver's finest - Bella Gelateria - and took in the Olympic cauldron. The day was topped off with a picnic down at Jericho beach watching the sun go down.
On Sunday we headed to Granville Island - home to a food market and lots of little craft stores. a really nice place to spend a morning - lots going on. After purchasing our picnic we got one of the tiny little False Creek Ferries to the park next to the maritime museum. Amusingly there was a pink salmon celebration going on in the park - is this city for real? Picnic eaten with the added bonus on seals swimming in the harbour nearby it was time to walk onto Kitsalano beach and time for a swim. The pool at Kits beach is very special - saltwater, heated and 137 metres long. My swim there was glorious - admittedly you need to learn the lane etiquette pretty quickly but once I had - goggles on and in the zone I loved getting my lengths in.
Before our time was up - we had an evening at Fable in Kitsalano - and a friend of mine I'd met travelling in Africa came to join us. The perfect way to end what had been an incredible time in Vancouver.
It goes without saying that I will be returning.
