Post-trip Trans Canadian Highway Maps

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Maps

The Trans Canada Highway runs from St John, Newfoundland in the East to Victoria, British Columbia in the West.

End to End

Our Journey

We drove from Montreal (green marker) to Vancouver (red marker)

A few sections we departed from the TCH shown in magenta on the map below..

Google Map

Post-trip Final Statistics

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Vehicle

Volkswagon Tiguan      petrol

mid-size SUV rented from Thrifty via Holiday Autos

Distance Driven

3,656 miles  /  5,884 km 

Fuel

397 litres  /  87 imperial gallons
(342 added ; + ; ~ 60 tank full at pickup ; - ; ~5 estimated left in tank)

Countries

USA (JFK New York)
Canada

Provinces & Timezones

Quebec; Time Zone: UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Ontario; Time Zone: UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Manitoba; Time Zone: UTC-5 Central Daylight Time (CDT)
Saskatchewan; Time Zone: UTC-6 Central Standard Time (CST)
Alberta; Time Zone:  UTC-6 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)
British Columbia; Time Zone: UTC-6 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)

Travel Day (Day 19) - Stanley Park Biking and Home

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Leaving Canada

Our last day in Canada.

Tim Horton's

We finished packing and walked up Robson for Breakfast. Ever since Lynne was reading blogs as part of her research prior to the trip, Tim Horton's has become a running joke. It's a brand of coffee shop not present in the UK but which seemed to have a huge fan base for some unaccountable reason.
After pointing out every branch we have passed across Canada it would have always been a regret if we hadn't visited one so Tim Horton's was our breakfast destination.

An intriguing half way between a Starbucks and a Wimpy I would suggest. One type of Coffee and no Lattes and Flat Whites to be seen. This meant service was a lot faster and it was excellent coffee.
Breakfast buns were available but we settled for a croissant, a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a Boston Donut. All well baked but the Boston Donut was gorgeous, filled with a vanilla custard and topped with a chocolate glaze I think this is my new favourite donut.


Breakfast eaten we checked out of our room and left our luggage in hotel storage then walked up Robson toward Stanley Park.

Stanley Park 

Cycle Tour

Our final morning was to be spent cycling around Stanley Park, a large area, I think bigger than New York's Central Park, at the tip of Vancouver.

We picked up our bikes from Spokes who were near the Park so no cycling through the city to get there; also we got discount from our hotel. A short walk down the steep slope to the waterfront then off around the shoreline of Stanley Park.

We didn't stop for many photos but we recommend the trip to anyone visiting. The one way route separates pedestrians and cyclists but the cycle lane is fairly busy with a kerb drop at the side so frequent stopping is not easy, especially on unfamiliar bikes. That said, there are regular pull-offs at points on interest and views.

Totem Poles

Lions Gate Bridge, our arrival route into Vancouver 3 days ago.

Lions Gate Bridge

I have no idea as to why there is a statue of A Girl in a Wet-suit. We are in tidal waters here and at high tide the sea splashes around her feet.

Girl in a Wetsuit

When we chose our bikes we were only after the basic; the shoreline route is largely flat so we saw no need for gears. When asked did we want a 'hand brake' we were a little confused; being car drivers we were both thinking of some additional mechanism. Turns out they simply meant handle bar mounted brakes which we assumed were standard. Having said 'No' to handbrakes, we were introduced to our Cruiser bikes with Steer type handlebars and a rear wheel brake operated by back peddling.
They took a bit of getting used to but we both agreed that they had been a fun challenge and added to the enjoyment of the ride.

Cruiser Bikes

Walkway and Cycle-way

Third Beach

At 10km, the ride was just right. We had stopped a few times to take in views and for an enormous ice cream at Third Beach.
Having completed the Stanly Park circle we continued along by Coal Harbour for a while before returning the bikes and heading back to our hotel.

Coal Harbour

Our Final Drive

You may have forgotten by now, or might not have read the post from our arrival in Vancouver, but we have no functioning fuel gauge and have done quite a few miles since last adding what we thought was enough to complete the drive. When I calculated that we had enough, the car was reporting about 8 litres per 100 km but now, with city driving, it is up to 23l /100km leaving me worried. Though logically still sure we had enough, the drive to the airport in heavy traffic and stopping at every set of lights imaginable was stomach turning.
The journey was to be 35min but felt a lot longer especially when we missed the turn to Rental Returns and had to negotiate our way back to the correct road.

We drove into Thrifty's return bay and switched off the Tiguan's engine for the last time with a massive wave of relief. Other than the fuel gauge the car has been perfect for the journey and we feel obliged to have a last photo with it; an Alberta plated vehicle, the wrong side of a continent.

A bit of tired confusion showed when the guy checking us in told us we had driven nearly 6000 km.  I said it couldn't be, it's not long since we passed 3500 and should be less than 4000. It was only after we left, with him no doubt thinking I was an idiot, that I realised I was talking Miles and he Kilometres!

Still, whatever the units, our journey was done and it was time to go home.

Flights

Vancouver airport is spacious and airy and unusually actually a pleasant place to be.
We were very early as the car had to be out of the hotel car park by 3pm but our flight was not due to go until 20:55.
Departures had seating areas and shops so wasn't too bad to wait in until check-in opened at 5:30 though by then they had announced a delay to 22:45 so we were bound for another long wait air-side.
The airport continued to impress with very efficient and pleasant Security processing.

Vancouver to London Heathrow

A 2 hour delay to our British Airways flight meant we weren't leaving until almost 11pm.
Our plane was an Airbus 380, a double decker aircraft and massive. We took our seats downstairs and to be honest the only thing that gave the two deck design away was that the wall was curving in only and floor level and not at ceiling.
In flight food plan had to be carried out so we ate chicken korma midnight. Two small bottles of Chardonnay were hopefully going to assist in sleep and the lights went out followed by trying to get comfortable and doze for about 4 hrs with some sleep.
The crew caught up a little time but we landed after a little over 9 hours to find a that parking guidance system had not switched on for our gate which apparently is essential for an aircraft this big. Then it turns out one of the jetties is blocking the gate and they are  having difficulty moving it.
By the time they sorted it all out, the recovered time was lost and more.

London Heathrow to Manchester

Our connection to Manchester was from a different terminal but as we had a stop over of 4 hours we had expected a casual transfer and get something to eat.
Best laid plans and all that; we now had less than an hour and a half to complete the transfer so we shot off  at a good pace to T3 via queues and buses in the hope that our luggage was doing likewise.
We arrived at the nominated gate to find we had to board another bus out to our plane. Fortunately, everyone made it, boarding was completed quickly and we were away on time. Lynne's window seat was sadly of little use as we ascended through cloud and didn't see the ground until a couple of hundred feet up on final approach into Manchester.

Home

We waited a while for our baggage carousel to start but not only had our cases made it through Heathrow but both bags came within the first few on the belt.

We were aware from the news that our part of the UK had been hit badly with heavy rains over the previous 48 hours and indeed the airfield was drenched. We grabbed a taxi to be advised that several routes back to our house were under water but somehow, after the last 3 weeks, a roundabout journey home didn't seem to matter.

HOME! and the end.

Today's Statistics

Statistics: Miles today: 9 ; Miles so far: 3739 ; Fuel added so far: 341.8 litres, 75.2 imp gals; Provinces: British Columbia; Time Zone: UTC-7 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Two Days in Vancouver - Monday Whale Watching (Day 18)

Monday

Today's activity was booked months ago and started early with a pickup outside our hotel at 07:45.

Whale Watching Excursion

Our small bus pickup was on time and over the next few stops we were joined by people from Guernsey, Ireland, Whitchurch (one of whom was Welsh), a German family living in Boston USA.
and a honeymoon couple from south of Barcelona, Spain.

Our well travelled, entertaining and informative driver, Trevor, drove us South to Steveston Harbour, 27 km / 17 miles 45min, where the excursion was based.
Steveston Harbour evolved around a massive cannery employing hundreds. Salmon arrived to be canned and exported all over the world. Ironically, transportation was one of the things which killed the industry. When CN set about building competing rail routes to Trans Canadian, they often followed the far side of a valley from the existing line and were having to make use of second best passes; the landslides created by the construction blocked the salmons' path up the rivers to spawn with a resulting catastrophic collapse in salmon populations.
Since then, fish ladders have been installed in many rivers at human caused restrictions and the population has recovered very well.  (Information courtesy of Trevor)

Boat Trip

We were glad it was early and an overcast slightly cooler day as we donned our water and windproof over trousers and jackets supplied by the company and walked down to our boat. Ours is the rear one in the photo, the Explorathor II.

44 passengers on board and we headed out to sea. Once clear of the harbour, the water jets were throttled up and we streaked out across the sea at 40 kph.

Jet boat

Yellow People - Lynne foreground

View from observation deck

We traveled out from Vancouver in a large curve which, at first we thought was to avoid US waters but when examining the Chart we realised there was a massive sand bank under the water.

Our first wildlife siting was of some 'wild sheep' on the shoreline; not quite what we had in mind.

Orcas - Killer Whales

We crossed the sea toward Vancouver Island and then steered our way through the archipelago of islands on it's East coast swerving and passing through narrow channels; the sky had cleared and it was an enjoyable ride regardless of its purpose.

Off the southern tip of Stuart Island, we slowed and our guide was shouting can you see the fins and the blows? Well at first I couldn't then I finally spotted them. The fins of a family of Orcas.
At best I counted about 5 animals as they rolled over the surface and dived again. Occasional blows sent spray into the air above their bodies.

Two Killer Whales blowing

Tail up dive

Killer Whales are not in fact whales but members of the Dolphin family. They have teeth and use them to catch and eat their prey. There are two distinct types in the area:
Resident, who remain in the same area and only eat salmon. Residents are on the decline.
Transient who pass through the area and eat anything they can hunt from fish, including salmon, to seals and sea lions.
The group we saw would most likely be a mother and her sons. A matriarchal society, the breeding line is followed through the female line as it is the young females who leave to form a new family while the young males stay with their mother into adulthood.

Other whale watches

Other boats are also circling, they are not allowed within 200 metres of the animals so keep trying to reposition in the direction they think the orcas are moving.

Our Sister Boat - Explorathor Express

Return Trip

We have now been at sea for around 2 hours and are at the Southern extent of today's excursion so begin our journey back North through the islands a little further West.

We stop briefly to look over a 'pile' of Harbour Seals lazing on rocks and slow to admire a Bald Eagle pearched in a tree which then gave us a good flying view before landing again.

Harbour Seals

Bald Eagle

Island Houses

Many of the islands have summer residences on the shores. Some beautiful locations but everything has to come in by boat.

Hump Backed Whales

Halfway across the open sea channel back to the mainland, our sister boat slowed to a halt and radiod our boat. A Humpbacked Whale had been spotted and whilst the spots so far had all seemed fairly predicted by the crew, this was clearly a surprise to them.

The massive bulk of the back rolled over as it surfaced and dived. This dived a lot longer and its resurfacing position was less predictable. I saw a black shadow under the water not far from our boat and then two backs surfaced as there was a pair. We watched for a while seeing the humps disappear behind us and receding plumes as they blew.

Humpback Whale

Pair of Humbacks

Blow

Unlike the Orcas, the Humpback is a true Whale with baleen rather than teeth to filter krill, plankton and small fish.

Whale Watchers

Throughout the trip I was only impressed with Vancouver Whale Watch so I'll give them a plug with a link.

Arriving back to Steveston Harbour 

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

After returning to our hotel early afternoon we had a deserved lazy few hours reading and writing. After being so windblown we were quite dozy.

As it got later, we decided we should have a last walk around Vancouver and ambled down to Coal Harbour again. We again watch the boat planes and took in the seafront toward Canada Place before strolling back a different route.
We had intended going back to change and coming out again for our evening meal but we passed the Italian restaurant we intended eating at and decided to just settle in as we were.
A lovely meal with a litre bottle of wine put away we explored some of the residential streets the other side of Robson before retiring to our beloved balcony evening view for the last time.

Today's Statistics

Bus       29 miles / 47 km

Boat     84 miles / 135 km

Walk     2 miles / 3 km

Drive     ZERO

Two Days in Vancouver - Sunday Walking Tour (Day 17)

Sunday in Vancouver

We had wondered about using the Hop on Hop off bus services to tour the city but after studying the routes and size of Vancouver City we decided to make up our own tour on foot; after all, we have been sat in a car for 16 days so it will do us good

The West End

Our hotel, the Blue Horizon, is fairly central to the West End positioned on Robson Street which is a main thoroughfare leading from Stanley Park to Downtown Vancouver.
We set off North to the sea heading fairly steeply downhill and thinking, we've got to walk back up this.

Coal Harbour

The sea front along Coal Harbour has been well developed with attractive walkways and cycle ways, parkland and modern buildings.We hit the shoreline at a large marina full of a huge variety of boats from accessible to seriously expensive.

We are transfixed by the boat planes landing and flitting about over the water banking after take off in all directions.

The Convention Centre, Canada Place is a large area with outdoor staging set up and outside bars around the Convention Centre itself built with a huge ship and sails in the mind of the architect. 

Waterfront Station was built in 1914 as the passenger terminus for the Trans Canadian Railway. It's grand entrance hall has been tastefully restored and I was taken by thoughts of the nervous and excited passenger back then travelling huge distances over unknown lands.

Gas Town

Continuing East took into an are known as Gas Town. Now I assumed this name traced back to an industrial area and gas works but I was wrong. The are is named from a steamboat captain who set up one of the first bars in the evolving town who was known as 'Gassy Jack' for the tales he regaled customers with. There is a statue to him but it's been regaled in pride flags and just looks a mess so no photo.

A novelty is the Steam Clock, an intriguing engineering device installed in 1977, the steam drive lift steel balls and drops them onto a regulated chain which descends under the weight of the balls to drive the clock mechanism. 

On the hour the four steam whistles 'strike' the hour. We were approaching when noon struck so heard the 12 traction engine type whistles and could see a plume of steam. 

We waited for the quarter hour which was advertised at the Westminster Chimes and at 13 min past, 3 brief notes and the steam in the photo below. We waited until quarter past but that was it.

Gas Town is to the North Eastern edge of Downtown and we were at the narrow section of the isthmus on which Vancouver city is sited.
We walked South to the opposite shoreline along Carrall Street and past the China Town entrance. This was the only area of Vancouver we had been at all uncomfortable in. Cannabis is legally available in Canada but I don't think that was the only substance that a lot of people had been ingesting.

Yale Town

Passing on, we reached the waterfront at False Creek on the Southern shoreline. Again, walk and cycle-ways everywhere along coast.

The channel, False Creek, was incredibly busy with every kind of boat but the noticeable ones were the little water buses flitting back and forth and weaving through other water traffic. Each boat takes up to 10 passengers and the pilot sits on a high seat in the centre in with  their head in a sort of turret. They are built on twin cylindrical floats with a large outboard motor and are very fast and maneuverable.

Granville Island

Taken by the boats we boarded on at a jetty by David Lam Park and crossed to Granville Island which from an industrial past now has a large market area still including an active colourful food market but with added bars and eateries.
The whole island is gradually becoming a tourist haven with craft and specialty shops.

Market Hall

An industrial element which is still active is a massive concrete works where the 5 massive silos have been turned into artworks with 3D  looking characters painted the full height of each. A very effective solution to reducing the visual impact and instead creating something that people actually seek out and look at.
At the far side of Granville Street Bridge, a crazy building, Vancouver House, which we heard refrered to as The Curve, is still incomplete apparently due to repeated redesigns due to structural issues.

Vancouver Beaches

After walking around Granville Island and having lunch we took another water bus to Sunset Beach on the mainland and continued our walking tour up Sunset beach and on to English Bay Beach where the fireworks had been held the previous night.
Looking at the area, we concluded that we had made the right decision to watch from the hotel as it would have been swamped with people.

Sunset Beach

Being Sunday, lots of locals were out in the parks and on the beached

English Bay Beach

We walked along the beach shoreline until reaching the borders of Stanley Park and then headed inland again as we plan to check out Stanley Park on Monday before heading to the airport.

West End - Robson Street

Vancouver streets are in a grid system so we walked several blocks through trees at the edge of the Park until we reached Robson Street. 

The location of our hotel has been great and the height with an as yet unobstructed view is great for now; there is a lot of high rise being built and existing sites labelled from redevelopment so this may not remain the case in years to come.

Looking at the photo of the hotel, our 24th floor balcony is on the upper of the two solid concrete bands looking out to the right.

The Blue Horizon Hotel

Another lovely evening from our Balcony

Today's Statistics

Walking:  Approx 6.5 miles / 10 km

Journey Day 16 - Savona to Vancouver

Breakfast Conversations

After a better sleep we packed up ready as breakfast wasn't until 8:15; later than we had been running. We ambled around the house to the breakfast room looking over the garden. Everything is very green and last night Domm was watering with a hose which surprised us in a fairly arid area; apparently they will be moving to metered water so that may become more difficult.
We entered the breakfast room to be greeted by other guests and sat ready to be served breakfast rather than working a buffet. It was odd to have to decide what to have rather than just browsing and going back for something else. Fresh colourful fruit and real milk were the prime pleasures.

Railways

Conversation came and went including discussion of the massive freight trains passing the far side of the lake. Canada was built upon the railway; the Canadian Pacific Railway linked the two side of Canada together confirming it as a country. Another contender arrived in the shape of Canadian Northern to build a competing line.  Canadian Northern are now "CN" due to US interests, simlar to when British Telecom became "BT" when it moved into the global market; a national connection in a company name is not always seen as a good thing.
Most of the routes both companies operate are single track and intense competition has prevented the logical cooperation of sharing so that trains could run on go and return lines.
I have mentioned in a previous post the immense length of the trains made largely of tanks and flat beds carry  double level containers. I would say many trains are in the region of a quarter of a mile long and they are limited by the length of sidings required to pass. Keeping sufficient pressure to operate air breaks on the trucks also limits the length but they now insert another loco halfway along which is remote controlled from the lead loco enabling twice the length.
Railways CN and Canadian Pacific - no co-op

Little is manufactured in Canada and the rail freight reflect the country's economy of oil, grain, coal etc outward; global goods inward. Each container represents three trucks loads so it is no wonder that so little freight is on the roads.
I expressed a concern that as the 4 laning work on the Trans Canadian Highway proceeds, more will move to trucks and the road will become clogged. The local view was that that would never happen; I'm not so sure they are right.

Speed & Politics

The speeds have varied all across the Provinces. Here in BC it tends to be 100 kph on both single and dual carriageway, about 62 mph, which is perceived as fast. Different to the UK, it is taken as fact that their is a 10 kph leeway in which there would be no ticket. We heard the same from a taxi driver in New York.  Regardless of the speed limit, no-one is likely to be caught in BC now as the last government were elected on a promise to rid the province of speed cameras! The world over politics seems to be being run on populist ideas, the odd thing on this one is the politicians actually did what they were elected on an removed them all.
For non-UK readers our maximum out of town speeds are: Single carriageway 60mph/96kph and Dual Carriageway 70mph/113kph.

Last Long Drive

Before leaving we had another walk down to the lake to take in the gardens and the wide views 

Lakeside Inn - our room at right end of veranda

Jetty

Garden

A trip to the garage to add 21 litres of fuel as a rough estimate of what is needed to complete our journey and not donate much to the rental company then back on the highway.
The rolling fells are covered in sagebrush which grows a bit like a heather bush but smells strongly of the herb sage. It has a silvery colour which makes a scene look as if it has a morning frost.

A few flat areas are irrigated and the colour difference is striking.

A wide river carves its way through a flat bottomed valley. The fells continue to remind us of the Scottish Highlands but the pale brown colour is from arid ground rather than poor grass on peat.

Leaving Highway 1

Highway 1, Trans Canadian Highway heads South to make its way to Vancouver but we are not following it further and instead taking a slower more interesting alternate route West via Whistler.

HW97 Caribou Highway

At Cache Creek we branch off North briefly on HW97, the Caribou Highway and not too far on we stop at Hat Creek Ranch, a museum based around a large ranch which had interested Lynne for the history. We stopped to evaluate it but came to the conclusion it was a bit 'theme parky' in its approach with Stage Coach rides and Panning for Gold. With little time and a $13 entry fee we decided to give it a miss though we did enjoy looking over the small legitimate wagon at the gate.

Leaving the Ranch, I return to the road and continue up Highway 97, only to realise that I should have turned the other way from the ranch. Where we turned had some nice horses in a coral so at least we could pretend we had a reason.

HW99

Back to the ranch and take Highway 99 which will take us all the way to Vancouver, our ultimate destination.
We pass over a ridge and the view changes into a green valley bordered by forested fells with exposed rock. Occasional meadows spread out and we pass two attractive lakes. There are no stop points on this road as it winds through the valleys.
This is a stunningly beautiful road.

Ornate chuch in valley town

A steep descent brings us down from the alpine heights and a massive valley opens up ahead with canyons cutting through the land around.

Frazer River

The river cutting the canyon is the Frazer River surrounded by high mountain. We descend along the valley in a winding curve accompanied by an extraordinarily steep gradient railway line.

rail bridge across the canyon

Approaching the town of Lilloooet we pass first nation settlement on the far side of the river. It has been interesting to note the use of 'aboriginal' in Canada as I tend to think of that term as being appropriate to Australian populations.

The English Crown gave rights to the area to be opened up in 1670 (not that they owned it!)
The river is named for Simon Frazer who discovered the route though had thought he was following the Columbia River and was desperately disappointed after the incredible effort of following it including climbing along cliffs and returned to camp after 71 days a financial failure.
Later Lilloooet was actually the largest town outside San Francisco & Chicago at one stage after gold had been found.

More Mountains

I continue to be surprised at the continuation of mountains in this Western area which is an indictment of my lake of research. I had been guilty of seeing this as an easy run in on the last leg - very wrong and I'm using a lot more fuel than anticipated,.
After Lilloeet, we climb steeply again into high alpine mountain scenery with snow covered tops and steep wooded valleys

We drive on through miles of pretty alpine scenery with steep woodland, mountains and following a river.
We stop  at Lake Duffey to examine log jam  at the outlet of the lake. People are walking on it which looks a bad idea to me.

Lake Duffey

Log Jam

Before leaving Lake Duffy we have lunch comprising the mushroom quarter of last night's pizza which was too much for us. Sitting on the tailgate as usual with a lovely Glacier view

Afternoon

Moving on quickly as time is getting on and we have a way to go yet we make an ear-popping descent to the town of Pemberton and then it is no stopping for some time to cover some distance.

I did have to stop for this. I have been fascinated by the rail maintenance truck which have a set of rail wheels as well as road wheels and I had spotted a truck coming down the line.

Rail maintenance truck

Whistler to Squamish

As we entered the polished town of Whistler we passed a blue lake like the ones we had seen in the Rockies. The colour comes from rock flour which is washed in from glaciers; the flour absorbs other light in the spectrum reflecting only the blue.

Fuel Problems

Now clear that more fuel will be required and I miss the garage at Whistler. We stop and check distances and judge that we are ok to continue to Squamish.

Turn out lookout to glaciers

We arrive at Squamish and locate the garage. Not wanting much more fuel I add $8 worth of fuel but when I switch on the ignition the display still shows 40km remaining, the same as before I topped up. Puzzled and annoyed we discuss with the attendant and the manager convinced that the pump must not have delivered fuel.
Clearly nothing we can do on the forecourt, we pull over the road and add a further $10 of fuel; both listening to fuel being delivered. Back in the car and still 40km!!!!!
Clearly, the fuel gauge gauge system is no longer recording added fuel.

So, with approximately 65km to go to Vancouver and a further 16km to the airport we drive on with 40km of fuel reported and it is not a good feeling.

We have a break shortly after Squamish to visit Shannon Falls which is very busy with families outfrom the city for the afternoon.

Driving on toward Vancouver I dread what happens when the fuel display reaches zero, worried that the system may be intelligent and bring us to a halt. We drive on and pass through zero and continue on; not until we've passed another 16km and clearly passed any reserve do I get a little more confident but I am driving through hills that are using fuel much faster than I anticipated.  The air-con is switched off and I'm driving more carefully even than normal.

Pacific Ocean

Finally we round a hillside and we are running along the sea and the Pacific Ocean; we have crossed the continent!

Selfie with Pacific

Vancouver tall buildings appear in the distance but we're not their yet.

Arriving in Vancouver

Still on Highway 99 we find we are also on Highway 1 - Trans Canadian Highway (East). The 'East' feels odd as we have always been travelling West but it is somehow a nice completion to enter Vancouver on the TCH whatever direction.

We crawl through traffic and meet horrendous delays before getting onto Lions Gate Bridge to cross to Vancouver. Five lanes have to merge before we are on the one open lane crossing the bridge. Throughout all this stop-start crawl my stomach is churning not knowing how much fuel I have. With having the second fill due to not thinking the first had delivered logic says we have enough but logic isn't working in my current mental state.

Lions Gate Bridge

Finally over the bridge, the city is a grid layout but we manage to pass the hotel and struggle against  one way street issues getting back to the hotel.

Finally I breath as I pull into in the loading bay and go to check in. 

The booking is all good but when I come to pay, I have insufficient funds on my travel credit card. I log onto my bank to top up the card and every time I go to complete the transaction it logs me out. I even download my banks App onto my phone and try that way to be faces with the unhelpful, "Oops, something went wrong" at the same point in the transaction. Fortunately, I could fall back to my credit card which I have been avoiding due to foreign currency transaction charges.

The 24th Floor

Parked for the next 2 days and Checked in we ascend the lift to the 24th floor and locate our room with a balcony and a sea view. It's amazing! Suddenly, the world seems a better place.

CityView

Sea View

Fireworks

An international fireworks competition opens tonight and hotel reception and our server where we ate both recommended watching from our hotel balcony. We were pretty exhausted and we could tell by the full buses and car parks that it was going to be very crowded.

A bottle of rose purchased from the liquor store around the corner was purchased and we settled in to watch events.
A single small plane gave an aerobatic display before sunset which developed stunning colours out over the sea.

aerobatic display

Sunset

Robson Street as sun sets

Fireworks

It turned out that our balcony view was in a great direction and though some distance away we enjoyed the fireworks which launched from a massive barge moored in Enlish Bay.

The display finished 10:30 and through until midnight people drifted along Robson and adjacent roads. The police had the road closed so the revelers enjoyed walking down the centre of this main road and taking photos sitting on the centre line.
It was a beautiful warm evening and we felt very privileged that Vancouver had put on such a welcomne for us.

Today's Statistics

3739 miles

Statistics: Miles today: 244; Miles so far: 3730 ; Fuel added so far: 341.8 litres, 75.2 imp gals; Provinces: British Columbia; Time Zone: UTC-7 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)