July 30, 2014 - Vancouver, BC - Vancouver, I Hardly Knew You, Eh?

About 19 years ago I came to Vancouver on a business trip. I spent three long days in a conference room and didn't get to see anything of this magnificent city. Today we had a chance to spend some quality time in Vancouver. Our ship arrived at 7:00 am and didn't leave until 4:30 pm. For 99% of the passengers! Vancouver was the end of their cruise. For us, and for two other couples we know of, it is simply the beginning of our next cruise.

As "in transit" passengers, we still had to go through customs, etc. when we got off the ship, but it is SO much easier when you don't have luggage. So we got off, put on our sunglasses, and began our walk in shorts and t-shirts. What a difference two days makes!

We started our volkswalk at the cruise ship dock and soon we found ourselves in Gastown. This is the oldest part of Vancouver. A lot of effort has been put into restoration, with good results. One of the first things we noticed was how polite Canadians are. They stop so you can cross the street, and they even wait in line at the bus stop.

One of the special attractions in Gastown is a "steam clock." It was built in 1977, but it looks much older. It is powered by steam and it emits a little cloud of steam from time to time. Every 15 minutes it makes a tooting noise.

After Gastown comes Chinatown. Vancouver has the third largest Chinese community in North America (after NY and SF). It reminded me of Chinatown in Honolulu, with lots of small grocery stores selling unidentifiable (to me) items.

 

We bought some almond cookies at a Chinese bakery, and soon came to the "skid row" area, which reminded of us of Portland, Oregon, though not nearly as dilapidated or depressing. After a bit we arrived at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens. This was a peaceful, beautiful retreat in the middle of the city. Mext to the garden was a monument to the Chinese railroad workers and dock workers who played an important role in the early history of Vancouver.

The next "town" was Yaletown. This was where the railway workers lived. It is now a residential, shopping, and cafe area, probably very expensive to live in, but fun to walk through. There was a row of beautifully restored houses that the workers once lived in.

Next we walked through a vibrant section of Downtown. There were small parks, food trucks, public art, concert halls, museums, and office buildings. The main libraby was in a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie.

Part of one street was blocked off and there were some sculptural benches made of slices of wood. People were sitting on them, enjoying the sunshine.

One interesting thing we noticed about Vancouver is that there are lots of residential buildings in every section of the city, even downtown. Many of them are high-rises, but there are a lot of smaller buildings, too. We walked just one block away from one of the main downtown streets and found ourselves in a pleasant residential neighborhood with lots of trees and very little traffic. For a big city, Vancouver seemed very livable.

Back in the business district once again, we passed lots of coffee shops (think Seattle), and modern glass and steel office towers, fountains and mini-parks. People dressed in business attire were sitting in these parks and we didn't see any homeless people here.

Heading downhill towards the water, we finally arrived back at the cruise terminal and completed our 10k walk. We reboarded the ship without much difficulty considering this was a turnaround day, found our new cabin, and found all of our stuff had been moved to the new cabin in our absence. We enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful views of Vancouver's scenic harbor from our balcony. As the ship sailed away we watched floatplanes land on the water, we saw dolphins leaping, and as we sailed under the Lion's Gate Bridge, people on the bridge and in Stanley Park waved at us.