Awake at about 5am, but feeling OK.
Walked to a nearby cafe for breakfast
Today we are supposed to be on a group tour in the morning which should help us orientate us in Vancouver. We are supposed to phone the tour company to confirm our attendance but our calls both last night and this morning simply go to voicemail. Does our tour operator still exist? Our hotel receptionist thinks they do, and sure enough we are picked up at the appointed time
As we drive around the various pick up points we pass a few preserved older clapperboard houses. These are quite charming, and of a human scale. But as the population of the city increased, these were mostly demolished and replaced by flats, which in turn get demolished and replaced by high rise towers. There are some historic old houses left, including the O Canada House, preserved as the site that the national anthem was translated from French into English. As an aside, a fact we learned from some Canadians we met on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, the Canadian flag was chosen in a national referendum in the early 1960s. The old flag was a horrible mess
The first scheduled stop on the tour is Stanley Park, with its collection of totem poles. The park was an area of forest clearcut in the mid nineteenth and subsequently allowed to regenerate. At over 1,000 acres and heavily forested it is a beautiful site and so close to the densely populated city
Our second stop is Granville Island, originally a tidal sandbar but built up with the spoil from building work it is now an eclectic mix of old industry, markets, small workshops, brewery, theatres, etc
We return to explore this area after the tour
The cement silos have been turned into these colourful characters, a work requiring more than 14,000 cans of spray paint.
Signs can be misleading. We thought this meant beware of pickpockets. It simply means pedestrian crossing. On which point it is very noticeable how readily motorists stop to let people cross the road, so different from the UK.
Due to being in Canada we have missed out on the Edinburgh Fringe this year. But a little bit of Edinburgh Street performance was happening in Granville Island, very entertaining
We catch the water bus to get back to the city centre, a very relaxing way to travel
These floating houses, which rise and fall with the tide, were most charming. If I had to live in Vancouver this is where I would choose
Some rain in the afternoon and more in the evening. We manage to avoid the worst of it
We go to explore Davie Street for our tea, choosing a small Greek taverna. A poor choice: the food was very mediocre
By this stage the change in time zones is catching up with me, and I am falling asleep. An early night at the end of our first day
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