Denver to Vancouver Summer 2019

15th August 2019

We woke to the most glorious blue skies over Vancouver. A lazy morning just mooching around was in order.

We are in the West End of Vancouver. Vancouver is broken down into neighbourhoods. The main ones for tourism and business are -

Downtown Vancouver - the main or central business district of Vancouver
West End is a mixed commercial and residential area. Housing is a mix of apartments and condos. It is home to the city's gay community, the Davie Village.
Yaletown is the heritage area of the city. Formerly home to the city's warehouses, which have been redeveloped and are now classy homes for the middle class. The area is located along the seawall.
Coal Harbour is the city's former port area. Like Yaletown, the area has been redeveloped for residences and some businesses.
Gastown is another heritage area of the city. Some streets are still cobbled. Tourist shops are found near the Gastown Steam Clock. The area is mixed with low and middle class residents living in apartments, condos and lofts.
Chinatown is where many Chinese immigrants established their homes and businesses when they first moved to Vancouver. Residential areas are home to low income residents in apartments.
Downtown Eastside is a rundown area of the city. It is a rather undesirable area populated by the homeless and drug addicted

Last night we explored Gastown, so today we decided to walk around the West End to see what it has to offer. It is mainly shops - a lot of them are Japanese or Korean food and drink places. There were lots of souvenir shops, so we did some last minute shopping and posted the last of the postcards.

Yesterday I got a message from my mother-in-law with some information to share, as follows:

Captain George Vancouver was born on 22nd June 1757 in King’s Lynn, where she lives in Norfolk. Vancouver takes its name from the Captain, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792 and gave various places British names.

There is a statue of Captain Vancouver near the Custom House in King’s Lynn (a place we’ve walked past many times). When she worked for Hoechst UK, she took a group of visiting Canadian farmers and their wives to King’s Lynn library where there was a display of George Vancouver’s papers and documents!

How great is that?

We went for a light lunch at Tim Hortons - mainly so that Oli could try their Jolly Rancher flavoured slushie (rather sweet, but tasty apparently), and then we went back to the hotel to collect our bags and take the short taxi ride to the airport. We passed lots of VERY big houses, and had a chat with the taxi driver (who is from India and came to Vancouver 7 years ago) about the fact that Uber is not yet in Vancouver, but is coming next month and will kill the taxi industry for them. Such a shame, but that’s competition I guess.

We have really enjoyed our short time in Vancouver. It is almost like a newly designed place - like those CGIs you see when town planners are regenerating areas and want you to envisage how it will look. We have seen a few people struggling with their mental health and life, and it’s always sad to me.

So now we are at Vancouver airport - a very large, very nice airport with lots of shops.

It has been the most wonderful trip. Oli has, as ever, been patient with parents that want to walk and get public transport, or go to yet another museum or gallery. Andrew was the best driver ever, and only went on the wrong side of the road once. Denver seems like a lifetime ago.

We have seen some awful places and living conditions and we have seen the other end of the scale. We have seen the most beautiful scenery and nature and the dirtiest of streets. We’ve eaten terrible food and amazing food. It’s all about the contrasts!!

Check back tomorrow for a sum up of the trip and our highlights.

Thanks to all of those who have hung on in there over these last 17 days of ramblings. Some nights it has been tough to write (only ever due to tiredness), but when we look back over the days, we have already forgotten things, so it is a permanent reminder for us of all the little details.

Bye bye for now - we will settle onto our flight (9h 45 minutes) and think happy thoughts of all we have seen, of time together and of seeing our family again (as well as those fluffy faced moggies). Also quite looking forward to not using the free shampoo in the hotels and having my grey roots made brown again.

xxxx