Blogs from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 7

Let the Northland Adventure begin! Tuesday, July 31, 2018, Day 1 of the YMT “Alaska Cruise & Canadian Rockies” Tour: “Day 1, Fly to Calgary AB – Today, your Alaskan adventure begins with your flight to Calgary. If you booked your flight with YMT, you will meet a YMT representative at the airport for your transfer to the hotel.” Not everybody needs to fly to Calgary – duhhh!!! Some travel enterprises count a travel day as a day in the tour package. It makes a 12-day tour appear to be a 13-day tour and, therefore, a more economical tour. How much fun can a person have on a red-eye between New York City and London? Tour day 1, give Uncle Larry a break! Deceptive at best, and it tells me something about the tour company. Our ... read more

It was walking over familiar ground today as we were back in the same block where we lived in ’86. We were picked up by Al and Robert from Broadway and Cambie sky train station and driven to Roberts condo on W 14th between Hemlock and Granville, where we are staying. In ’86 we lived in the condo below Al less than half a block away on W 15th. Not long after Rob drove Jane in his corvette to lunch. I had to settle for the Kia. However, on the return journey the roles were reversed. Jane locked Robert out of his condo, by locking the incorrect door lock from the inside, of which there is no key. While Robert tried to rectify the situation we were ‘sent’ on our way to walk the streets. A ... read more

Today truly epitomised exactly what travel is about … people, sights and food. Even though the sights were sensational and the food absolutely taste buds insane, it was the time we spent with people that had us on a high. Even trying to explain why or how we felt will do no credit to the individuals or the conversations we thoroughly enjoyed with them. The ‘them’ were Llorn Kylo, an ex-student from ’86 and his 2 very close friends Tom and Pete who joined us. Highly intelligent, well travelled, extremely successful in their careers but more importantly, extremely successful as ‘persons’. To sit at the same table and converse at an intellectual level as we did about many diverse subjects that were important to the 5 of us gave Jane and myself more than joy. To ... read more

As you are all no doubt well aware Canada is a whopping great country and one I had not been to other than flying over it, given it is on the flight path from London to California. I've seen thawing ice sheets in Hudson Bay cracked in hypnotic patterns and many thousands of miles of frozen tundra, without seeing any sign of human influence for hours of flying. This July however I got the chance to take closer look at the country for the first time, as Maria Chiara and I were invited to a wedding... in Saskatoon!!! Never heard of Saskatoon? We’ll get to that in due course... Given that the wedding would be in a fairly small and (don't shoot me Saskatoonians!) obscure town in the Great Plains, we were keen to extend our ... read more

We managed to get out at 5.00 onto the calmest stretch of water I have ever seen and wow what view - the stillness and the fog adding to an eerie feel. The fog steadily lifted and at last we had our bear in sight searching for food amongst the rocks on the beach. After 2 hours we returned to shore and headed off to the ferry at Nanaimo managing to stop and watch the World Cup semi final where England lost to Croatia.. hey ho that’s how it goes sometimes. Now a ferry ride later we are in Vancouver and staying at an Airbnb with lovely hosts Tony and Annette Vancouver we find is a marvellous city to wander around. Granville island andnit’s markets was a major plus but the highlight of the visit was ... read more