Day 20: Full on tourist mode!

What3words: sleep.clauses.mulls

Our second last day and we channeled our inner tourist. We had to change hotels and return the car hire, but we managed a cheeky drive by at the new hotel and dropped our bags off for them to store until our room was ready, then dropped the car at the Avis office downtown.

From there we headed to Canada Place to pick up tickets for the 'Hop on hop off' bus (what3words:glares.bowhead.restriction). I love a bus tour, but if there is one thing this one taught me, it is that there is not much to see of note in Vancouver, especially as we already hit the main sights yesterday.

We completely timed it wrong, as two Cruise ships had docked at Canada Place, one Celebrity and one had 'we 'heart' Alaska' on it. Yesterday I saw one of the Princess ships was in also - but what it meant was that there was a bit of a wait for a seat on a tour bus. When we eventually got on, the driver was called Matt and was English - he gave the most amusing commentary as he drove - almost none of it was about the area, or what we could see, but it was all about how his Aunty came to Canada as a Nanny and then one by one all but one of his family followed, He asked everyone who boarded where they were from, and he knew someone from, or something about wherever they said they hailed from. If iis wasn't the life history of Wayne Gretzky (famous ice hockey player here) to his sister's second husband being the ex manager from Spurs, to his friend who was invited to the centenary celebrations when Canada was 150 in 2017, oh, and on the left is the Vancouver Public Library.....

We found him so funny that we stayed on for almost the whole tour. We got off at Gas Town for lunch and to see the famous clock, and when we were ready we thought we would hop back on as the tour had a stop right outside our hotel - only to find that Matt had been having his lunch break and was now going to drive our new bus!

Vancouver is a city of opposites. The whole country is only 155 years old, and the historical sights that we would have in UK cities just are not here in any great number, so the majority of the city is brand new and shiny, but where it is not shiny and new, it is derelict and dingy, with homelessness and the drug problems that beset any major city.

There are huge swaiths of greenery - Stanley Park is over 1,000 acres and the city is full of trees. It has a lovely fresh feeling, and although it is nearly all skyscrapers, it does not feel hemmed in.

Here are some pics from today:

This is one of the unusual condo blocks that are springing up everywhere - the open space in the foreground is currently a dog park, but will soon also be condos

There are not many older buildings in the city, but I found a couple

This block apparently was THE place to live in the 90's

I thought these things were only in movies - but they are a real thing!

We stopped off to listen to the famous steam clock in Gastown - it plays a tune on the hour, and every 45 minutes plays a shorter one (I don't understand the logic of it!).

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/ccc3e4_e710fbe184c04180ab67a88609850db3/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

We stopped for a late lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory (what3words: soap.starring.thinking) in Gastown

it has a whole car from a trolleybus inside

We have always been a fan of the little figures called innukshuks - they represent safety hope and friendship, but I have only seen a couple of them on this trip - this one was outside an hotel, so was quite apt.

The bus tour went through Stanley Park, but coverered different areas than we did yesterday - the Rose Gardens are particularly pretty - I did not get the greatest of pictures as I swear Matt hit every single curb and pothole in the city!

The park is very popular as a wedding location - there was one being conducted while we were there today and also when we were there yesterday.

We came back to the hotel to check in and rest our legs before going out to dinner. We went to Original Joe's (what3words: visions.aimless.flicked) which is quite apt - we went to another branch of thiers in Calgary at the start of our trip.

One more day of our trip left, tomorrow we are aiming for culture and have a couple of art galleries and museums on our list.