Cyclin’ in the Rain – 2 October 2023

October 04, 2023

The weather forecast had predicted rain for Monday so we weren’t surprised to find that it was raining when we awoke. This was going to be the second city tour we had done in the rain, the last being in Portland.

It was a bit of a rush to get out the door to get to the Seabus for our short journey across the harbour. A very helpful volunteer at the station directed us to the right street and from there we walked to the meeting place at the cycle shop. It rains for about 250 days of the year in Vancouver, so rain was not going to stop the tour going ahead. We just had time to go around the corner from the shop for a quick coffee and some breakfast. The coffee was not too bad and they even did a decaf which is what I drink these days.

There were six of us on the tour with us probably more than twice the age of the other four people who were English. Vancouver City has an amazing cycle network with protected lanes throughout. (Wellington could learn something from Vancouver). The guide informed us that at times they can get quite congested. We were guided expertly through the streets quite quickly with our first stop on the north side of Stanley Park. The park and its forest is not a landscaped

Starting instructions

park like Central Park in New York or Hyde Park. It is second growth forest that grew back after the original forest was cut for lumber. Like most of the land in Canada it was taken by the crown with no consultation with the local First Nations people who lived there for many years until forced to go. It was created by the city and named in honour of Lord Stanley who had been recently appointed as Governor General. There are a few remnants of the original forest which was made up of long established Western Red cedar. The route took us around the sea wall. We stopped by a sculpture called Woman in a Wetsuit who sits on a rock 20 metres out in the harbour. We called in at a place where the indigenous people used to live. There were a number of totem poles there and the guide’s explanation about what they represented was so very similar to Māori depictions in their carvings on the marae. The original totems were not painted in colours and there was one that was just a carving. Colour is now used to preserve the totems.

Totem poles

After that we were taken into the forest ending up beside a wetland that had at one stage been a lake but subsequently a beaver took up residence and created a dam that blocked the flow of water so that the nutrients built up and created the wetland. We continued through the forest coming out on the western side and stopping for a moment at the end of Davie Street by English Bay beach.

Wetland wth beaver lodge in the centre

There was an interesting sculpture there (comprising 16 sculptures) called “A-Maze-Ing Laughter Sculpture” that was created for the winter Olympics which was a representation of the many ways that the Japanese sculptor laughed. It cost $6 million and was donated by a number of benefactors (including Lululemon) after the city decided it was too expensive to purchase. The ride then took us through the West End to another sculpture called the Spinning Chandelier. Apparently, it too is quite spectacular at night. Three hours later we arrived back from where we started, reasonably dry helped no doubt by the very good ponchos supplied by the tour company.

Bev trying to emulate sculpture

It was time for me to get my Sim and I had found a place where I could get a cheap prepaid plan. It turned out that it was going to cost me a fortune and it would not have that good a coverage. On top of that the salesperson should not have been in the job and was quite dismissive saying that was the best I could get. So, I ended up getting the same as Bev who has refused to let me live it down. Prepaid mobile plans are very expensive in Canada and they don’t really have plans for shorter periods like in New Zealand.

We wandered slowly back to the Seabus arriving back at the hotel a little damp and rather cool. As we wandered through the Lonsdale Quay Market I spied a shop selling British Colombian wines. Curious to see what they had I wandered in and found that they had a good range of wines. After talking to the salesperson it turned out that the same company owned all the wineries. He is one BC’s wealthiest men and has a passion for supporting the wine industry. Apparently, he has only bought wineries that make very good wine and the couple that we tasted certainly were very good. In my opinion they have improved significantly since I last tried them fifteen years ago.

Bev found a very nice seafood restaurant where we had a couple of well-priced fish meals. I had gourmet fish and chips, the fish being halibut and Bev had salmon en croute. It too was delicious. It was quite a large meal as we both had a clam chowder to start.