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