Moosing down to Vancouver, we can bearly believe it.

Moving south from Alaska the weather was starting to warm up. As we sailed into Vancouver we were greeted with blue skies as the sun came up from behind the mountains.  It’s always exciting sailing under a bridge; today it was the Lions Gate Bridge, and even though you know we will not hit it, you can’t help holding your breath and ducking just a little to help the ship make it under.

Like deja vu in Seward, we followed the Celebrity Millennium into Canada Place where their passengers would be busying themselves to debark, where for us, it was another day in port.

What a beautiful city -  you could call it “Sydney Lite”, similar, but with a calmness that makes you smile with that warm fuzzy feeling.

More pangs of nostalgia as we walked through the terminal directed by staff wearing their Intercruises yellow vests and scarfs - they look just like us! ….

Our tour today took us to the city highlights, and over to the North Shore so we could walk the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Driving through the city we were given a narration on some of the buildings, old and new.  Travelling the scenic route, we ended up in Stanley Park. 

Stanley is a 1000-acre rainforest doubling as a park right in the middle of town.  Entering the park, you are met with a majestic display of totem poles paying tribute to the indigenous people that lived on this land.  Beautifully carved and painted, a photographers dream to walk around.

From Stanley Park you can look back to the ship

Didn't we see one of these in Copenhagen

The Seawall around the park is 22 km in length making it one of the longest in the world. Along the wall sits a cannon and there is a funny story that goes along with it….  Now I am writing this a couple of weeks after visiting so I am taking a little poetic licence whilst I try to remember the story.

Each night this cannon is fired at 9 pm sharp, and has been for over 100 years…why... sorry can’t remember, and as internet minutes are precious on board I will leave it to you to ask Mr Google.  Anyway, one night some larrikins decided to load the canon with rocks.  So at 9pm that night BOOM! out went the high-speed projectiles causing damage.  Now in the harbour, you will find floating Service stations for marine traffic. Story has it that one of the rocks blew a hole right through the “O” in the Esso sign.  Taking this as a warning the service station barge was subsequently moved, the cannon was plugged and enclosed. Now safe, the firing still continues each night.

Example of a petrol station in the middle of the harbour for the float planes

The park also houses swimming pools, an aquarium, bike tracks and hiking trails, a true recreational area for all visitors and locals.

In 2006, a major windstorm ravaged the park leaving a large part damaged with an estimated 10,000 trees downed. Restoration work estimated to cost $9 million was carried out to bring the park back to its beautiful lush self.

Only travelling through half of the park, we exited and crossed the Lions Gate Bridge. Privately built, thanks to an enterprising businessman who wanted to increase the value of his land on the other side.   No bank in Canada would lend him the money, so having to secure the funds abroad he was able to convince the Guinness Family (of beer fame) to finance the bridge.  At a cost of around $5 million Canadian dollars, the bridge was completed and opened to traffic in 1938.  To help recoup their money the Guinness’s installed toll booths which remained until 1963 when the family sold the bridge to the government for the same cost that it was built for.

Ok so over the bridge we go heading toward Capilano Bridge, but first stopping at the Capilano Fish Hatchery, where once again we learnt about the circle of salmon life.

Vancouver’s oldest tourist attraction is this swinging suspension bridge. It is not for the faint hearted, being 450 feet long and 230 feet high. They say the views are spectacular, but unfortunately, my focus was on staying upright, as with every step the bridge shook, rattled and rolled.  The look on everyone’s faces told it all, and you couldn’t help but giggle at the young children inching their way across hanging on for dear life with both hands until they reached the other side. You could walk the tree tops, hike the cliff walk or just stroll the boardwalk around the river. With so much going on you could certainly spend the whole day here… but we had more to explore.

Lots of Totem poles in Canada

The queue seemed long when we first arrived but it moved quickly

Walking the tree tops 

Walking the Lake

Driving back over Lions Gate we re-entered Stanley park to complete the second half. We stopped for a great view of the bridge and photo opportunity.

During our drive we passed Canada’s largest Chinatown, once known as Shanghai Alley.  With its impressive architecture it is definitely worth a return visit on foot which will have to wait till next time.  Vancouver had a large population of Chinese as the majority worked as cheap labour.

One place we did return to was Gastown.  Named after “Gassy Jack” Deighton, who opened the first saloon in the area. Soon other shops opened making it Canada’s third largest city at that time.  Now Mr “Gassy” always had a lot to say and was known for standing on his soap box.  Immortalised in bronze you can still find him preaching as you enter the precinct. Because of his verbose manner it is believed that this is where the term “you’re full of gas” originates from.

Now a hive of activity with lots of quaint shops and restaurants, another Gastown attraction is the Steam Clock.  Completely run on steam it chimes on every ¼ hour and on the hour it “toot’s” the complete chime tune.

And of course Garry just had to buy a hat from this guy!

Our final stop was Granville Island, Vancouver’s equivalent to Darling Harbour meets the Rocks.  Home to the performing arts, shops with their handmade crafts, a bustling fresh food market and street entertainment makes this a very popular and busy attraction. 

Sail away was not till 11pm, so after dropping our touring stuff back in the cabin, grabbing the laptop (in case of free internet for a quick repair), we headed back out.  Back in Gastown, we lingered a little too long at Starbucks, the cost of two coffees and a yummy scone was worth it for the use of wifi, and fixing the problems with my laptop and generally catching up with everything.

Gastown has a lovely old English feel to it..

We wanted to head back over towards the convention centre, as today was the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.  Just next to the convention centre the Olympic Cauldron from the 2010 Winter Olympics takes pride of place.  In commemoration of this event, the cauldron was lit and was to burn for a couple of hours.  Apparently, if you have your own event that you would like to commemorate, you can arrange for a burning….  The Catch, it will set you back $8000 per hour!!

Vancouver is also known as the City of Glass, and as the sun started to set, the buildings transformed into mirrors with the most amazing reflections.  To obtain government approval for all new buildings, plans must incorporate glass as a feature in order to keep with the theme..                                   

Another name Vancouver can claim is the City of Conventions, as there always seems to be one… Todays was Anime Revolution 2016, and with everyone dressed up, it was like walking around in a scene of a cartoon.

Another bit of trivia is that the second convention centre built has a very earthy feel.  With a roof covered in grass and predominately made from timber that was all sourced from the thousands of trees felled in the Stanley Park devastation of 2016.  Recycling and commemorating all in one go!

The best part of late sail away is that you can soak up a bit of local atmosphere at a more relaxed rate, and there was no better way of doing this than by sitting with good friends in a bar drinking a cocktail or three, and watching all the people walk by!!

And so it is “Sea La Vie” from the beautiful Sun Princess.