More Adventures in Vancouver

Tuesday 15 April

Both Ian and Karen have the day off today so we started off with breakfast at Joe's which is not far away from where Ian and Karen live.  As mentioned earlier there are lot of places to eat around Vancouver.  There was such a lot to pick from.  Karen had eggs benny (Eggs Benedict), Deb had The Brits breakfast (baken, beans etc, however Deb didn't have the eggs) and Ian and I had a waffle sandwich (eggs, bacon and cheese between two waffles).  To me this was an unusul combiination that seemed to work.

Got Ian to show me how to do the tipping when you pay your bill.  The servers (waiters) aren't paid all that much and rely on tips for their income.  Evidently the minimum tip is 18% but the normal tip is 20%.  When using a credit card there is an additional step where you enter the percentage of the tip you are going to give the server which is then calculated and then added on to the transaction. 

After breakfast we walked downtowntown and purchased a SIM card for my phone so that we can keep in contact with the kids without them or us incurring interntional phone charges.  We went to a store called Future Store, it is a large chain of stores similar to Harvey Norman.  Once the SIM was purchased we went back to Karen and Ian's apartment where we activated it over the Internet.

Something that is hard to get accustomed to is when purchasing most things, the price on the ticket is not what you have to pay.  Canada has a GST which is not added to the price on the pricetag.  For example the SIM card was $10 but I ended up paying $11.20.  The GST rate seems to vary as well, I haven't quite figured it out but it seems to vary from 5% to about 12.5%. You just have to be  aware that there will be a difference.

After organising the activation of the SIM card we got in their car and headed for Grouse Mountain which is about 20 minutes by road from Vancouver.  When we got to the car park I was wondering what the hype was all about because it wasn't very high.  I found out soon enough as we headed over to a cable car which was to take us up to the top of the mountain.  The  distance from the bottom to the top (or other way) is approx 1.6 km and it takes about 8 minutes to complete the journey.  A much nicer way to get there as opposed to a 5 km walk uphill.

When we arrived at the car park it was just starting to rain  As the cable car started to ascend it got a bit heavier and this turned to snow as we approached to top of the cable car run.  Picture perfect.  We stepped off the cable car into falling snow.

The outlook over Vancouver is exceptional.   While we were there the overcast sky and snow started to clear and we got some really good views of the city.

After our time on the mountain Karen and Ian took us for a drive through West Vancouver a more afluent part of town where most people live in houses with a little bit of land around it.  Most of the houses are huge and something that I found interesting was the material used to cover the roofs was not iron or tiles but timber.  The timber is in the form of shingles.  Hopefully during the course of our visit here in Canada I will be able to get some photographs of the roof cladding.

Vancouver itself seems very built up.  In Sydney and Brisbane all the high rise buildings are occupied by businesses and very little residential, where here it seems to me that most of the high rise buildings are used for residences.

We ended the day back at our unit with Ian and Karen and we had crumbed chicken and vegetables for dinner.

Wednesday 16 April

Jet lag caught up with us this morning.  Neither of us woke up until 9.00 am even though it was quitelight so  we didn't get out and about until about 10.30 am.  

Raining today so out with the rain jackets.

I lost my fitovers (sunglasses) on Monday so the first order of the day was to find some replacements.  We walked downtown to an optometrist where we thought we might get some.  Unfortunately it was not the case.  Fitovers don't seem to be as readilly available here as in Australia so we will have to continue searching. Fitovers here are called cocoons.

Second order of the day was to get Dab a waterproof jacket.  The jacket she has is only shower proof as long as the shower is very light.  Close to where the optometrist was there was a camping store and they had a pretty good selection and we were able to get a really nice blue one.

The rest of the day was trying out new experiences.  One of the places we enquired about fitovers said they might be at a store called London Drugs.  What a place.  They seem to have everything from small electrical appliances to drugs.  They have a post office agency there where we got some stamps to send some post cards, some lipstick that Pat cannot get in Australia, some soap and an umbrella.  It was over 2 floors.

We are having an interesting time with ordering coffee.  There are some places that have lattes and capucinno, however there are not many.  We ordered black coffees and were asked if we wanted some room left for cream.  We are getting there though.

Karen and Ian came around for dinner and Deb made teriyaki chicken and rice.  It was really nice.  We were looking for some sauces we were familiar with but were unable to find any so we settled for teriaki.  It is really nice having them over for dinner. 

I'll catch up with the rest tomorrow.

The Start of Our Odyssey

We departed Gunnedah on the Explorer Train on the morning of saturday 12 April.  As a form of transport I would recommend the train as it is a most relaxing way of travelling.  We departed on time and were only a couple of minutes late arriving at the Sydney Terminal.  

On arrival in Sydney we were able to get a taxi without much trouble. We had to que up for about 10 minutes but it was all very orderly and the driver took us straight to the hotel.  We stayed at the budget Ibis adjacent to the airport. It was only a 10 minute ride in their shuttle bus to get us to the International Terminal.  It was raining when we arrived but didn't cause any inconvenience.  I took a picture of the imposing view from our window.

The hotel was budget type and didn't have a restaurant but just down the road there were a couple of fast food restaurants where we were able to get a feed.  

Sunday 13 April (Most Sundays are 24 Hours, our Sunday was 31 hours)

Our flight was to depart at 0950 and as it was an international flight we were required to be there 2    hours before departure.  We decided that it would be prudent to be there a little earlier so we arrived just before 7.00 am.  We made our way to the departures desk where a really nice lady asked us for our documentation for visiting the Unites States.  Even though we were just transiting we had to go through their customs and had to have documentation to allow us into the US of A.  

The lady explained that if we went to the Flight Centre travel agents office there at the airport they would be able to arrange the correct document.  The documents were US $14 and A$20 to be printed. With documents in hand we headed back to the departure desk to see the lady who told us to come back and see her because we had asked to be put in the row where the exit doors were because they had more leg room. It was going to cost us an additional $180 each.

When we got back she was not there, however she had passed on the information and the gentleman at the counter fixed everything up and put us where we had more leg room and there was no charge.

The flight was very uneventful from Sydney to Los Angeles.  They tried to make our bodies feel like we were going through a day night transition by shutting the shades over the windows and putting the cabin lights on low. (Our departure time in Sydney was out 10.30 am on Sunday and our arrival time in Los Angeles was 6.30 am local time. The time in Sydney of our arrival was 11.30 pm).

The food that wad served was really nice.  Below is the menu handed out as we departed.  I think you would be hard pressed not to find something you wouldn't like.

On arrival in Los Angeles we had to go through their immigration area.  We were given a form to fill in prior to arrival in which the procedure was explained and it stated that the Customs and Immigration Officials would be extremely courteous and helpful. (They lied).  They were very officious and grumpy, not a smile to be seen.  I suppose you can't expect much else at 6.30 am.  We actually arrived on the ground at 6.20 am but weren't allowed off the aeroplane until 6.30 am because LA International (LAX) Airport doesn't open until then.

After queuing up for what seemed like forever we finally left the arrivals lounge with our suitcases in tow.   As we were about to leave a young man said for us to put our suitcases on a conveyor and they would get to the plane.  I'm glad he did because it was about a kilometer to Terminal 6 where we had to get our plane to Vancouver.  On arrival at Terminal 6, more queues There was a very nice man trying to keep things moving along. As he explained to everyone, there were about 1600 passengers expected at that time and there were 6 places that were checking security so if there were holdups it would be felt for the rest of the day.

We were in plenty of time but it felt like we were going to be late when we were doing all the lining up to go through customs, immigration and then security before we were able to even look like getting our seat allocation.

Alaskan Airlines are a budget carrier, similar to Jet Star where you have to purchase your meals, however, unlike Jet Star they do give you complimentary soft drinks and coffee (Starbucks) and a small packet of pretzel type things.  After getting off the Qantas plane and getting on the Alaska Airlines plane it was hard not to compare the flight crews.  The Alaskan Airlines obviously knew their jobs but didn't have the same professional look as the Qantas crew. 

On disembarking at Vancouver Airport there seemed to be very few passengers disembarking from other flights.  It wasn't until we got to the immigration area that things slowed down. It took us nearly an hour and a half to get through immigration.  After immigration we had to pick up our suitcases and head for customs. We were looking forward to another wait for this, however we were through in about 10 minutes.  Karen and Ian were waiting outside. It was so good to see their smiling faces.

We got the train from the airport. Interesting because there in no driver.  It is all automated.  There is an announcement well before each station and there is a sign between each carriage indicating where the train is headed and what the next station is.  Seemed to go really well from my perspective.  Got on where I was told, and got off where I was told. 

The station where we got off was about a 5 minute walk from the apartment that Deb had arranged through Air BnB.   It is a single bedroom with a nice little kitchen diner with lounge attached, nice bedroom with 2 way bathroom.  Bathroom has a shower over a good sized bath.  Really good place for a base while we are here.  The kitchen would have what I would call a commercial stove (5 big burners) and sink (as big as 2 ordinary sinks). It also has a dish washer drawer.  I'll devote part of a blog to the apartment sometime in the future and include photographs.

We had some lunch with Karen and Ian, got some necessities for the unit and then headed up to Ian and Karen's.  The time difference was starting to be felt as by this time it was about 8.00am Sydney time so we had been on the go for 28 hours.  After having a very nice meal with Karen and Ian we made our way back to our unit for a well earned rest.

Monday 14 April

Woke up to a beautiful Vancouver morning.  You've heard the saying the sun is shining and the birds are singing, in fact they weren't singing but honking.  There are quite a few geese around and you can hear them honking and it is quite loud.

Below are a couple of pictures of the geese on the roof of the building across the street.

We went for an explore down to the tourist information centre which is about 2 kilometers away.  The staff there, I think they are volunteers like most places in Australia, were really helpful.  We came away with a stack of brochures and two tickets for the hop on, hop off bus ride.  It was pretty good value.

When we stepped out of our building we weren't sure of the direction so I got my phone out to get our bearings. A lady walking along the street saw this and asked if she could help.  She said as long as we could see the mountains we would be travelling north.  You can see the mountains from most places.  

If you look closely at the mountains between the tall buildings on Burrard Street you will see snow on the top of the mountains which are north of the city

We had a coffee at a place called Tim Horton's.  There are a chain of these and Deb was told that they had a maple glazed donut and she should try them.  She did.  There are heaps of places to get coffee and a snack and also to have meals.  You could probably eat at a different place each night of the week and not repeat a place for at least a month or two.

After having a look around downtown Vancouver we headed to Granville Island by bus.  When we asked the driver if he was headed there he told us he wasn't but the bus behind was.  When we got to Granville Island, we weren't sure where we were and a lady sitting behind us said we had arrived.  So far I am really impressed with the Canadian people because they are very friendly.

This was once a highly industrialised area and has now been transformed to an area of markets and there is a theatre there as well.  We were looking for some vegetables for tea and also looking for lunch.  It is a very pleasant area and Deb and I are looking forward to exploring it further. 

On our way back to the bus there were a couple of geese having a browse through the grass under a tree on the footpath.

I will catch up with Tuesday and Wednesday tomorrow.