Spectacular Stanley

 

Saturday 24 May 2025

Yesterday we walked further downtown (via Sephora, one of my favourite girly make-up shops) and down to the waterfront, where we picked up the Sea Walk past the mahoosive cruise ships and the legends telling us all about the various prominent people who had helped shape the city of Vancouver - and the occasional sculpture. The one below is beautiful but has a rather unpleasant origin in that it's intended to commemorate the many victims of asbestosis, representing the way that the particles travel and affect the pulmonary system.

 

We passed the sea planes and ocean cruises and continued along the boardwalk to the beautiful Stanley Park, named after the former Governor General, which comprises 1000 acres and is bigger than Central Park. The aquarium is also housed there, along with many different sections that create a gorgeous outdoor space. Sadly we missed the totem poles!

After a short wander round we had worked up sufficient appetite for lunch and after a bit of headscratching we found Stanley' Bar & Grill. We had a great lunch on the verandah (I enjoyed a glass of rose and a bowl of seafood chowder), then wandered some more, lay on the grass after a while and then headed back into downtown (there was some very loud bass being tested on a PA somewhere which kind of drove us away) on a very crowded trolley bus which the kind Sikh driver let us on for free.

After a spell at the apartment and the market ravioli for supper, we headed out back to Canada Place to pick up the double-decker bus for a Sunset Trip Tour. Owen, the enthusiastic young guide gave us a lot of information about the city and its history as we passed by various landmarks ("we should go back there") - in fact far more than the previous night's tour!

Some interesting facts: Stanley Park's perimeter is on West Georgia Street which continues as a single highway down through to Tijuana, Mexico, and the city's changeable weather means the city is known as Raincouver; its position on the Ring of Fire means it's also at risk of earthquakes. (The reflective glass on so many of the skyscrapers is also intended to be earthquake-proof.) The second largest port in North America, Vancouver is also known as North Hollywood due to the number of films and TV shows filmed in the city - because it's cheap and because it's "bland" (Owen's words, not mine); so its lack of distinguising landmarks in the way of the camera (like London as an old city has St Paul's, Big Ben etc, or New York or Paris have similarly prominent and iconic locations), mean that it can represent any old big urban setting. The Great Fire of 1886 started due to delogging of the temperate rainforest area in Gastown, and Vancouver wasn't very old then, so there's a dearth of old buildings and hence its uber-modern appearance and skyline. 

The Lionsgate bridge across the sea cost the Guinness family $6m dollars back in the day. When it opened, once bridge crossers had paid tolls totalling that price, the canny family then sold the bridge back to the city council...here's Toni and I with the bridge in the background. 

We enjoyed seeing the huge laughing figures sculptures as the sun came down at English Bay, 

and after an Italian Custard gelato, further views of the glittering skyscrapers (the building below is known as "the butterfly", with its wings on either side, behind the Wesleyan church) and a satisfying 20,000+ steps, an early night was in order..