Ireland day 0339. Friday 02 September 2022- Canada2204

Today’s summary	Had breakfast on Granville Street then walked down to the harbourfront for a walk around Stanley Park. Then back up to Broadway for sushi and finally walk back up through Kitsilano to our accommodation. Another amazing day in Vancouver.
Today’s weather	Warm, dry and sunny. Light westerly breeze. About 26C

Today’s overview location (The yellow mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The red line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Vancouver waterfront and Stanley Park

Commentary

There’s a lot to see in Vancouver so when you are visiting on a tight schedule, it’s a bit difficult to know how to prioritise your day’s activities to make best use of the time. But yesterday we had enjoyed exploring the downtown Vancouver area so much, we decided to do a bit more of the same today. Our primary objective was to see Stanley Park – an “iconic” Vancouver destination.

But before we set off like Livingstone in search of a Stanley, we stopped off in Granville Street for breakfast in a suitably hipster-style West Coast café just opposite the Le Creuset shop. Which tells you quite a lot about the nature of the neighbourhood and the likely number of zeroes in the restaurant bill.

After breakfast, we resumed our journey north towards Stanley Park, but first stopped off on Broadway before making our way on foot down to Granville Island. We followed pretty much the same route as we had used yesterday, actually. Then to get off Granville Island and over to Stanley Park, we took one of the micro ferries that run every five minutes back and forth across the entrance to False Creek. Once safely on dry land, we followed the waterfront path clockwise right round the perimeter of the park, past Siwash Rock and under the Lions Gate suspension bridge (featured in the banner image at the top). We eventually ended up in Coal Harbour – one of the most desirable addresses on the Vancouver waterfront.

By this stage, we were definitely feeling in need of refreshment so called in at the Cactus bar for refreshing Aperol Spritz with a couple of bowls of fries (aka chips) to keep us going. Then from there it was just a short walk through downtown Vancouver back to the ferry and over to Granville Island again. Then we got walking again and headed up to Broadway where we enjoyed sushi – which was predictably excellent in a serene Japanese restaurant.

And finally, as if we hadn’t walked far enough today, we fitted in another hour of mostly uphill hike through the suburbs, largely on the Arbutus Greenway, up to our accommodation.

So now we are back at last, reflecting on another truly excellent day. One to be salted away in the memory banks to relive in our imaginations on a cold windy day in February.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


OK part of the route we cheated and took the micro-ferry across from Granville Island to Stanley Park. Curious little boats, but quite charming. they are symmetrical and can run backwards or forwards. They cross every 5 minutes	Checking out the Siwash Rock, off the coast of Stanley Park. The seawall walkway, which we were on, is the longest uninterrupted waterfront path in the world, at 28km. But I suspect that when the various bits of the greenway from Dublin to Donabate are completed, that might actually be longer. Nevertheless, it’s a very pleasant walk and I like the fact that there are separate lanes for cyclists and walkers

Unusual house on stilts on the waterfront. I imagine it must have been a storehouse, and the stilts kept rats (and bears!) out	Well earned Aperol Spritz on the harbourfront at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre. I.e. the floatplane airport

Downtown Vancouver towards the end of the first stage of our walk.	After a sushi dinner on Broadway, we followed the Arbutus Greenway down into the suburbs of Vancouver and our AirBnB. Like many such greenways in Ireland, it’s built on the trackbed of a disused railway. There are separate lanes for bikes and people, like on the seawall walkway

A quintessential Vancouver scene. A floatplane soars over the harbour with the three yellow mountains of sulphur below. The sulphur is extracted from natural gas as part of the “sweetening” process. Most of it is exported and over half of it is used in fertilizer manufacture