Ireland day 0964. Sunday 19 May 2024- Vancouver 5

Today’s summary	Got going early and went to the airport to pick up a hire car first thing. Once successfully collected and parked, we walked into the city to have a look at downtown Vancouver. After brief café lunch, walked anticlockwise round the Stanley Park seawall. Ended up on Granville Island for a look at the market and then aperol spritz in the Tap and Barrel. Ramen dinner then doughnuts on Kitsilano Beach.
Today’s weather	Dry bright and sunny. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 16c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Stanley circuit

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

First things first. We’re going to need a car for the next stages of our travels so today we got a lift from family down to the airport to collect our four wheeled transport from the Alamo car hire depot. All went straightforwardly once I had figured out how to start the engine. So we drove back down to our guesthouse and promptly abandoned our car in a suitable parking slot for the next 24 hours. (Yes – we had made the mistake of booking the car a day earlier than we actually needed it).

Once the car was all sorted out, we decided to walk back into the city to have better look round downtown Vancouver. It’s very much like many North American cities – skyscrapers and steel – but much cleaner than most. Very interesting.

We craned our necks skyward for a while longer then retired to a coffee shop for some light refreshment before setting out on an anticlockwise circuit of Stanley Park via the seawall. It was a thoroughly enjoyable hike, and the place was buzzing with people out and about, enjoying the spring sunshine.

Once we had got right round, we took one of the micro ferries across to Granville Island. We wanted to have a good look round the indoor market (fascinating but eye wateringly expensive) where we bought a couple of doughnuts for later, as well as (amazingly) some Empire biscuits – up to now never before seen outside Scotland. By this stage we were definitely in need of alcoholic rehabilitation so went back to the Tap and Barrel, first visited a couple of days ago, for Aperol Spritz.

We rounded off the evening with Ramen at Kokoro in Kitsilano, then enjoyed our doughnuts while watching the sun set from the beach.

We got a lift back to our accommodation courtesy of an Evo – a nice way to round off another superb day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Downtown Vancouver	Stern-wheeler in the harbour

Girl in a swimsuit (statue in bronze) and sulphur from gas sweetening	Iconic view from the far end of Stanley Park

Empire biscuits! A third of a world away from home	Well deserved!

Kitsilano sunset. Sublime.