Holiday Diary, Day 2
We slept. I was a little worried about this, to be honest but we all slept pretty soundly, thanks to having been kept awake by a tyrannical father until at least 8pm. So we were awake a little early, although that wasn't a problem for the boys, who had Canadian cartoons to watch. One of the things we had all been looking forward to was our Canadian breakfast, and it didn't disappoint - stacks of pancakes and general Canadian goodness. I was a little discomfited by the reliance on eggs, but somehow I managed to negotiate an egg-free breakfast, and we all ate like it was going out of style. Since we were now filled to bursting, a walk was clearly in order.
We were early, but the city was up and about. We strolled down to the water's edge, and headed for the advertised ferries to Granville Island. Now these ferries are a little smaller than you might expect, being only slightly larger than the hot tub we had soaked in the evening before. However, it proved to be remarkably stable (the calm water no doubt helped) and we were whisked rapidly over to the island.
Which was, generally speaking, not yet open. It was only just 9 am, and as befits such a bohemian place, things were only just stirring into life. We wandered for a while, saying hello to cats and peering into intriguing looking wndows until we came upon an open shop. Let it be recorded that the first thing we did upon arriving in Canada was march into a bookshop. Those who know us will find this a little less than surprising, I guess. One reviving drink (and colossal slice of cake) later, we headed for the famous 'Kids' Market'.
The Kids' Market has many wonderful things in it, including child-sized doors, which provoked much amusement. It also contains an indoor play area of the kind which is found in places like Berkhampsted and Watford, and was therefore less than enthralling to the adults in the party. The boys, however, had to be restrained from gazing wistfully at it, and in the end had to be distracted with souvenirs. We even bought presents for the cats in a converted railway carriage. Like you do.
After that excitement, we strolled around the perimeter of the island, past marinas and through boatyards, to the next ferry terminal where we caught an only slightly larger ferry to the other end of False Creek, and Science World. This ferry trip allowed us a better orientation on the city, and I began to identify landmarks and try to align my mental map of the city with the reality I saw all around me. Suddenly my reverie was interrupted by much shouting and drumming; almost as if some sporting event was taking place all around us.
We were merrily sailing through the middle of a dragon boat race. Large crews were frantically rowing towards us in brightly-painted and hugely decorated boats, while a sizeable crowd on the bank of the creek yelled their support. This wasn't the annual dragon boat festival; perhaps it was simply practice, or a minor league race-off. Whatever it was, it was a spectacular sight; the kind of thing which makes you wonder if you've properly woken up yet. But I have photographs; we did see it.
Science World is housed in a giant geodesic dome (as Science Worlds properly ought to be), a relic of the Expo from some years before. It's a terrific place for children of all ages, as you might expect, and a great deal of fun was had by all - yours truly particularly enjoyed the 'Harry Worth' mirrors. (Only readers of a certain age are likely to get this reference, which is just the way I like it.) For the boys, however, I suspect that the highlight of the day was the SpongeBob Popsicles, although they looked thoroughly revolting to me. The word Popsicle is so familiar to us, it comes as something of a shock to realise that it is a brand name, not just what North Americans call ice lollies.
From Science World, we headed for the SkyTrain, pausing only to admire the teriffic kinetic sound sculpture at the entrance. I'm sure that the boys in the party could have happily watched it all day. The SkyTrain has an indisputable air of cool about it, even though it's just an underground train on stilts - not even a proper monorail. It is, as we were rapidly coming to expect, clean, tidy and efficient, and whisked us downtown in no time. The plan at this point was to scour the shops for a decent roadmap of BC, since I was about to set off to drive through large chunks of it. I didn't seriously expect to get lost, given that there are relatively few roads, and essentially only two which went where we were going, but a map is an indispensable part of any car journey, I always feel, so I was going to find myself one.
We were disgorged from the SkyTrain into what was advertised as 'Granville Mall', but which turned out to be a street. This, together with incipient jet lag, and a general sense of dislocation, served to disorient me thoroughly, and my normally reliable sense of direction deserted me. I had to rely on native cunning (and streetsigns) to get us headed back in the right direction towards our hotel. Unfortunately, this seemed simply to take us away from any shops which might sell roadmaps, and instead headed us through a slightly less salubrious part of Vancouver.
Now, these things are relative - it was insalubrious only by comparison to the other parts of Vancouver we had seen, and at no time did we feel uncomfortable or out of place as we marched past the Orpheum (home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and, I discovered later, a 'Walk of Stars' - I can't have been looking down at that point) and back up the hill to where we had started the day. Eventually, we came upon the hotel, and across the road from it a 7-11 store. We went in for supplies to find that they stocked a wide selection of roadmaps to suit all tastes. We stocked up on snackfoods likely to keep us going through the rest of the afternoon (there was a real danger of us all falling asleep before dinner, given how much walking we'd done, and I knew that way lay disaster), and a handy roadmap of bC, which was going to keep me occupied for the rest of the day.
So we whiled away the rest of the day watching cartoons, munching on snacks, reading, and generally just enjoying being in Vancouver. Tomorrow, we hit the road...
We were early, but the city was up and about. We strolled down to the water's edge, and headed for the advertised ferries to Granville Island. Now these ferries are a little smaller than you might expect, being only slightly larger than the hot tub we had soaked in the evening before. However, it proved to be remarkably stable (the calm water no doubt helped) and we were whisked rapidly over to the island.
Which was, generally speaking, not yet open. It was only just 9 am, and as befits such a bohemian place, things were only just stirring into life. We wandered for a while, saying hello to cats and peering into intriguing looking wndows until we came upon an open shop. Let it be recorded that the first thing we did upon arriving in Canada was march into a bookshop. Those who know us will find this a little less than surprising, I guess. One reviving drink (and colossal slice of cake) later, we headed for the famous 'Kids' Market'.
The Kids' Market has many wonderful things in it, including child-sized doors, which provoked much amusement. It also contains an indoor play area of the kind which is found in places like Berkhampsted and Watford, and was therefore less than enthralling to the adults in the party. The boys, however, had to be restrained from gazing wistfully at it, and in the end had to be distracted with souvenirs. We even bought presents for the cats in a converted railway carriage. Like you do.
After that excitement, we strolled around the perimeter of the island, past marinas and through boatyards, to the next ferry terminal where we caught an only slightly larger ferry to the other end of False Creek, and Science World. This ferry trip allowed us a better orientation on the city, and I began to identify landmarks and try to align my mental map of the city with the reality I saw all around me. Suddenly my reverie was interrupted by much shouting and drumming; almost as if some sporting event was taking place all around us.
We were merrily sailing through the middle of a dragon boat race. Large crews were frantically rowing towards us in brightly-painted and hugely decorated boats, while a sizeable crowd on the bank of the creek yelled their support. This wasn't the annual dragon boat festival; perhaps it was simply practice, or a minor league race-off. Whatever it was, it was a spectacular sight; the kind of thing which makes you wonder if you've properly woken up yet. But I have photographs; we did see it.
Science World is housed in a giant geodesic dome (as Science Worlds properly ought to be), a relic of the Expo from some years before. It's a terrific place for children of all ages, as you might expect, and a great deal of fun was had by all - yours truly particularly enjoyed the 'Harry Worth' mirrors. (Only readers of a certain age are likely to get this reference, which is just the way I like it.) For the boys, however, I suspect that the highlight of the day was the SpongeBob Popsicles, although they looked thoroughly revolting to me. The word Popsicle is so familiar to us, it comes as something of a shock to realise that it is a brand name, not just what North Americans call ice lollies.
From Science World, we headed for the SkyTrain, pausing only to admire the teriffic kinetic sound sculpture at the entrance. I'm sure that the boys in the party could have happily watched it all day. The SkyTrain has an indisputable air of cool about it, even though it's just an underground train on stilts - not even a proper monorail. It is, as we were rapidly coming to expect, clean, tidy and efficient, and whisked us downtown in no time. The plan at this point was to scour the shops for a decent roadmap of BC, since I was about to set off to drive through large chunks of it. I didn't seriously expect to get lost, given that there are relatively few roads, and essentially only two which went where we were going, but a map is an indispensable part of any car journey, I always feel, so I was going to find myself one.
We were disgorged from the SkyTrain into what was advertised as 'Granville Mall', but which turned out to be a street. This, together with incipient jet lag, and a general sense of dislocation, served to disorient me thoroughly, and my normally reliable sense of direction deserted me. I had to rely on native cunning (and streetsigns) to get us headed back in the right direction towards our hotel. Unfortunately, this seemed simply to take us away from any shops which might sell roadmaps, and instead headed us through a slightly less salubrious part of Vancouver.
Now, these things are relative - it was insalubrious only by comparison to the other parts of Vancouver we had seen, and at no time did we feel uncomfortable or out of place as we marched past the Orpheum (home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and, I discovered later, a 'Walk of Stars' - I can't have been looking down at that point) and back up the hill to where we had started the day. Eventually, we came upon the hotel, and across the road from it a 7-11 store. We went in for supplies to find that they stocked a wide selection of roadmaps to suit all tastes. We stocked up on snackfoods likely to keep us going through the rest of the afternoon (there was a real danger of us all falling asleep before dinner, given how much walking we'd done, and I knew that way lay disaster), and a handy roadmap of bC, which was going to keep me occupied for the rest of the day.
So we whiled away the rest of the day watching cartoons, munching on snacks, reading, and generally just enjoying being in Vancouver. Tomorrow, we hit the road...
posted by Richard at 4:26 pm
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