Going Home
Aug0
Breakfast was another late start affair we cooked ourselves – boiled eggs on toast. It was also refreshingly late, and we were ready to go about midday. Drop our bags at the hotel for safe keeping, check out and go wander around Vancouver. Our first port of call was a Starbucks for morning coffee (Or frappuccino, or smoothie) in the sunshine.
Other enjoyment in the morning involved us walking down to the seawall, sitting in the park by the water play area (A load of fountains) and watching the seaplanes take off for a while, before wandering back to pick up our cases stopping only to go “oooooh” at the expensive yachts in the marina. We got a taxi to the airport, and marvelled at the fact the Prius was spending most of its time consuming 0 litres per 100km (Nope, not a typo).
Vancouver Airport was pretty slick and efficent, with the departure lounges being comfortable and spacious. No shop selling electronics though, which disappointed me. In its defence, it did have a stream running down the middle and a fish tank.
Our plane was a Boeing 767, not the 777 we were promised, but it did still have a revamped interior with power sockets, personal in-flight entertainment, LED lighting to match the time of day and acceptable legroom (not as good as the Airbus or Embrair though, which surprised me). Takeoff was without hitch, and coming over the Rockies we had what I can only describe as a View, with a capital V. Nine hour flight and 8 hour time jump, here I come.
The in-flight meal was less than excellent, as expected. The chicken was possibly not chicken, the vegetables were soggy and the pudding was best described as a “chocolate splodge”. A while after the food, and after I had finished watching Batman Begins, the lighting in the cabin changed it’s colour to a cool blue to take us through the night. Very slick. The sunset is pretty good as well. A quick bit of maths and the on-board flight information display tells me that we are travelling a mile every 6.44 seconds (559mph), as well as enjoying an altitude of 33,000 ft.
Later still in this lengthy flight, about halfway in (2,300 miles or thereabouts) we pass some trippy scenery comprising of snow-capped mountains peeking over the clouds.
Arrival at Heathrow was interesting, with one missed approach due to an emergency helicopter in our path (Complete with the pilot fully opening up the engines to get us out of the way) and then a turbulent landing due to the weather. We then had to wander around Heathrow, transfer across terminals, clear security, have our faces scanned, get our boarding passes and reach our gate. Off to Manchester.
The Heathrow to Manchester flight was slightly delayed due to air traffic, but was otherwise uneventful and we were clear of baggage claim by 15.15, or 7.15 Vancouver time. On to the station now, where the nice people at TransPennine Express will whisk us to Leeds.
-
- Coffee at Starbucks
-
- Seaplanes!
-
- The fish tank at Vancouver
-
- My seatback console
Vancouver: Day Two
Aug0
So we begin our final full day in Canada by cooking our own breakfast in our suite, scrambled eggs with ham on toast. We leave the hotel at the amazingly late time of 12.00ish, to go backwards and forwards on the highly recommended SkyTrain. We spent a couple of hours going backwards and forwards (Including across the Fraser River on the bridge) on the SkyTrain before heading down Granville Street towards Granville Island, including a stop at Café Crêpe for lunch.
Granville Island itself is a curious place, hidden under the bridge and seemingly made of bars, first nations’ shops and trendy city-life type places frequented by artists sporting goatees and berets. It also has a market selling the usual market kind of stuff. However, this wasn’t our ultimate aim for Granville Island and we eventually made it to the Aquabus dock.
The Aquabus is a colourful little service which shuttles people and bicycles up and down False Creek on a variety of small boats. We catch one up to Science World from where we can catch the SlyTrain back to our hotel. This takes us past a collection of boats all decorated for the Gay Pride taking place that day.
At Science World we come across what we named the Hell-spawnéd Ball Machine, a contraption consisting of rails, bells, cymbals, things that go “clonk” and a load of balls. The entire thing serves no purpose other than to make a variety of noises, and every so often make a wobbly thing go wobble. We move off after a while and catch the SkyTrain.
For our final evening meal of the holiday we head to Rosie’s on Robson, which is attached to the hotel. This is a wannabe English pub and serves dishes such as roast beef in a Yorkshire pudding, liver and onions and fish and chips. The food was declared adequate, as were the cocktails, and we retired to our room to watch the back end of I Robot and to sleep. Tomorrow will bring us to the end of the holiday, and the end of my daily blog updates.
Vancouver: Day One
Aug0
We began the day with a late start (8.30) and complimentary ‘breakfast’ comprising of coffee and muffins, before heading out to the big wide world of Vancouver. Our plan included public transit, so we got a day pass for $9 which let us use busses, the SkyTrain and the SeaBus.
SkyTrain is Vancouver’s rapid transit system, running on two very fast but quite limited lines. It is, however, fully automatic, quiet and efficient. This then took us to the WaterBus station, a ferry which formed an integrated part of the public transit network.
We took SkyTrain, then SeaBus then a bus up to Capilano Suspension Bridge, a most pretty place with a surplus of forest. The bridge was pretty good, as was the treetops walk on some suspended walkways. Following this, it’s off to the Bridge House Restaurant where we get some very nice food, drink and desserts.
Next we’re back on a bus and heading up to Grouse Mountain, where a cablecar hauls us up into some quite refreshing clouds. Up here is a lumberjack show and a couple of grizzly bears, along with some curiously low-lying clouds and a chairlift with an awesome view over Vancouver.
Back down on the public transit is flawless, and then we head to the beach at English Bay to watch the finale of the HSBC Celebration of Light, a huge fireworks display with teams from three countries competing to see which is the most awesome. The show was spectacular, with 30 minutes of fireworks in three sets (One from each country) including some absolutely stunning explosions and around 400,000 people along the shoreline. For reference, the Canadian team won. Another hour back to the hotel, and sleep. That’s it for today!
Rocky Mountaineer: Kamloops to Vancouver
Aug1
Another early start for a 7.20 coach pickup. The Rocky Mountaineer we were on yesterday has been joined with the consist which ran to Calgary yesterday, making a 24-unit consist of tourism awesomeness taking us all the way into Vancouver.
My new toy train.
Breakfast today was healthy but no less filling, comprising of cereal, fruit, raspberry scone and yoghurt. More coffee helps compensate for the 6.30 start. I also discovered that my parents have bought me a souvenir wooden train, which kept me happy for ages.
We leave Kamloops past Kamloops Lake, and head into some desert. Osprey and eagles abound, trees become scarce and the railroad becomes wobbly and allows some awesome shots along the length of the train. We can also see the Canadian Pacific Railroad (We’re on the Canadian National Railroad) on the other side of the rivers and lakes as we move along
At a place called Ashcroft – which incidentally averages 10″ of rain a year – we pull over and wait for yet another huge freight train to pass. Carrying on we cross the Thompson River several times, go past curious rock formations and have some more drinks and snacks. Eagles (Including a golden eagle) continue to abound. At Lytton, the Thompson River and Fraser River meet in a collision of green and icky brown and will take miles to fully mix.
A bit of history now: The Canadian Pacific Railroad was the first railroad across Canada, and chose the best side of the Fraser River Valley to put their track on. This changed with the creation of the Canadian National Railroad, which followed a similar route on the other side of the valley. Trouble was that the CPR crossed the valley at one point to make life easy, so CNR had to do the same to avoid building the track in the same place. This made the crossing of the two lines inevitable.
Where the CPR crosses the CNR is known as Cisco Crossings. The technically minded amongst you will enjoy learning that (As explained in the on-train route guide) Cisco, named after the Indian word “siska”, means unpredictable or unreliable. This crossing also includes two crossings of the Fraser River, one by each railroad, making for an exceptionally pretty bit of railway engineering which highlights how much rail companies used to compete.
We are now firmly back in the green bit of Canada, with a certain element of rainforest in the vistas. The next big point of interest is Skuzzy Creek, named after the S.S. Skuzzy which was used to transport materials for the construction of the CPR.
Shortly after Skuzzy Creek we come across Hell’s Gate (Not Little Hell’s Gate, which we saw yesterday). This is where 700,000 bathtubs per second of water come careering through the narrowest part of the Fraser Valley, and looks to me like it would be fun to kayak down.
My personal wildlife experience took a turn for the better a bit further down the track when I was one of the few on the carriage to see a black bear looking at the train in a puzzled fashion. At this point my battery gave out, meaning that from here on has no photos until I hook up my big camera, and all my notes are from memory.
Lunch was a choice of salmon or chicken with assorted salads and desserts (Fruit crumble and blueberry cheesecake respectively) and was declared excellent as well. After this the landscape became very green and flat, full of things such as farms and lumber yards, and we headed into Vancouver over the Fraser River Swingbridge which was open at the time we arrived, leading to a brief wait.
We pulled into the Rocky Mountaineer station in Vancouver on schedule. A short taxi ride, and we’re in the Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel, with our own two bedroomed suite with bathroom, kitchenette and lounge. Wandering out for food we found Moxie’s Bar & Grill, providing lots of awesome food including a beefburger I was incapable of finishing. Back to the hotel, and sleep time!
