Day 32 Vancouver, Canada

It's been a huge day.  We had breakfast at our hotel (I ordered the salmon bagels and check out the photo.  It's huge!) around 9am and then headed to the concierge to purchase tickets for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus that fortuitously had a stop right outside our hotel.  There was around fifteen minutes to wait for a bus so that wasn't too bad.

For those that don't know how a Hop-On Hop-Off bus operates, you purchase a ticket that gives you 24 hrs to get on and off the bus.  In Vancouver there are 13 stops at points of interest.  You disembark the bus at the places you want to visit and then when you are ready to continue your journey you wait at the bus stop for the next bus.  There are four buses that run the route and you have around 15 minutes between buses.  It works well.  We boarded at stop 11 and alighted at stop 12 that was Chinatown.  I really wanted to visit the Chinese Gardens and also to find the Millennium Gate.  

Instead of boarding the bus at Stop 12 we decided to walk to the next stop.  I really wish we hadn't.  We were told that there was a homeless problem as well as drug use and the route we had to walk took us right  past the very worst of it.  It is heartbreaking to see but we were also aware of how dangerous it can be.  We walked very fast.

Once we had walked a few blocks we were back in safer territory and it was a very enjoyable walk through the Gaston area, past some beautiful buildings.

 Back on the bus at Stop 13 and our next stop was Stop 6 that was close to a camera shop where I thought I might be able to purchase an eye cup for my camera that I lost somewhere in Japan.  Stop 6 is in the downtown area and our walk took us past a protest that the local indigenous women were holding regarding women's rights I think. 

We spent around an hour downtown before once again boarding the bus around 1pm.  We were both feeling a little hungry so we decided that when we reached Stop 1 at the waterfront we would have a bite of lunch.  There was some interesting architecture in the city centre and we passed the famous Japdog stand that I am dying to try.  A Japanese Hot Dog.  Sounds interesting and the people were lined up to buy one so they must be reasonably good.....

Our lunch stop was perfect, right on the waterfront.  By the time we reached here it was after 2 and "Happy Hour" was in place so that meant cheap drinks and food.  We each ordered a bowl of soup (it's still quite cool) and I ordered the Steak Sandwich and Fries and Philip the Steak with Peppercorn Sauce and Parmesan chips. They were unlike what we would get in Australia but still very delicious. My steak sandwich came with a bowl of gravy and horseradish on the side!

Lunch was delicious but we need to walk it off so we strolled around the harbour area.  It is quite lovely and we were lucky enough to stumble upon the place to purchase tickets for the "Sea Plane Mail Run" that was a recommendation from a friend.  We are booked on that for Thursday. 

By the time we boarded the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus again it was after 4pm and it took us more than an hour to follow the whole route back to our hotel.  It has been a very long day and we walked many, many kilometres but it was so worth it.  Tomorrow we have thoughts of doing the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The weather app shows that we might have a warmer day tomorrow so it should be a good option.

Downtown Vancouver