General Motors Place

After a very long day yesterday - everyone slept well and but still we started the day slowly. The plan was to visit Stanley Park and the Granville markets. The best way was to join the hop on hop off bus. The nearest stop for us was China Town. Now this is not like any China Town I have seen. They have run down shops, homeless people on the street, and every where there are people high on drugs and very unwell. While it was very upsetting, and the girls are worried, no one approached us or ask for money. A very sad situation.

We asked for directions and and decided to change our plans to go to Gastown and catch the bus from there. Gastown looks great, pity we didn't have much time to stop and enjoy.

Problem 1: the tour bus guide said we should get off at the next stop to make our bookings for the coach to Whistler. That advice would have been correct if we were catching the Stanley Park bus - but we were on the city tour! We had started going around and around in circles when, surprise, surprise another Tasmanian - the only person I know in Canada tapped me on the shoulder and said "fancy meeting you here". It was Peter Fox - we used to attend marketing functions in Hobart back in the day. Bloody amazing! He said we needed to go down to the Convention Centre area and he was correct.

Problem 2: While we were lost, I thought it would be a good time to get a local SIM card for Mary's phone. We tried Bell, but the cost was too high, especially for voice calls. Funny, I thought the Australian mobiles were expensive. So we tried Virgin Mobile - their plan was better. I left Mary to tell Andrea and Roger what we doing and poor Mary was left to argue with the guy when the SIM card didn't work because her phone was locked. he wouldn't refund her money. I would have given him my "pigs a ..." if I had the chance ..

We took a walk down to the waterside - Vancouver is a beautiful city. Local laws require high rise buildings to be built back from the footpath with room for gardens and water features out front - noice. We found the tourist centre and made our bookings for Whistler. Now back on the bus to go to Stanley Park.

Pity the day was a bit wet - just light rain. Stanley park would be great on a fine day - heaps of gardens, roses, walking paths etc etc. We stopped at the Totem Poles - they were terrific. Our bus pass included a ferry ride to False Creek and the Granville markets. Good place for lunch, Mary and I tried the local fish, Cod & Haddock - not as good as in England, but fine just the same. The huge gulls were attacking people for food - so you had to be careful. After lunch, Roger and I went to "The Keg" for a few ales while the girls went shopping. We caught the second last bus home and got off in China Town again for another careful walk through the homeless and drug areas. Easily the worst I have seen anywhere in the world.

At the bottle shop the Australian and NZ wines were about the same price as at home - the local wines a little dearer. We tried a couple of Canadian wines and they were first class. Mary bought a pair of socks to make a bandage protector for my arm - good idea and it works well.

So it was back to our apartment with take-away and some wine and an early night ready for the bus to Whistler tomorrow.

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