Blogs from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 8

Well it has been almost 2 years since our last big trip, so we started planning this trip at Christmas and our objective was to maximise what we could accomplish whilst Elise was having her mid-year University break. For those who have been following our previous road trips we are trying to see all 50 states of the USA so we mapped out a road trip, and decided to try something different this time by using a travel agent. The rationale was that we were getting a little bored going via LAX again for a one-night stop over which we like to do to overcome the big haul journey. Hence we used Flight Centre who suggested going via Vancouver on Air Canada. I was not a fan of this suggestion at first because I am set ... read more

First on our agenda today (after another lovely breakfast downstairs), was the laundry! Walked to the coin laundry recommended by the hotel, and realised that just one block from where we are staying on Robson St, one of the main shopping streets in Vancouver, was a quiet, residential neighbourhood, with trees, apartment buildings, and even some houses. Managed to fumble our way through the washing machine and dryer nightmare, and were back at the hotel (with clean clothes) by early afternoon. Our plan then was to go to Flyover Canada, and then (hoping the clouds lifted a little bit) up the Vancouver Lookout Tower. Walked down to Canada Place (the tourist zone on the waterfront), saw 2 cruise ships in port, and bought our tickets for Flyover Canada. I thought this was a movie about Canada ... read more

We are lucky to live in Australia, but why does it have to be so far from the rest of the world??? Our direct flight from Sydney to Vancouver (14 1/2 hrs) was 1 1/2 hrs late taking off because of the rain in Sydney, long queue of planes in front of us, so late into Vancouver. Not too cold, and a little bit sunny when we arrived, could see a little snow still on the mountains surrounding the city. Vancouver, the harbour city, has lots and lots of trees (on the streets and on the roofs of buildings, yep, lots of roof top gardens). Most of the high rise buildings that we have seen, seem to be apartments or hotels, rather than office blocks, quite different to other cities - maybe the office buildings are ... read more

Some random information and thoughts about Canada. High taxes here to support universal health care, but Canadians hate waiting for elective surgery. Voltaire called Canada a land inhabited by barbarians, bears and beavers. It will remain forever an unproductive wasteland. I guess he was wrong about many things! Lots of Aussies on tour here. Also, everybody is old on the train. Including me, though it appears they are about 10 to 15 years older. They are headed to Jasper National Park for a few days off of the train. Toronto has a Sake Institute and festival, with more than 150 varieties of sake from 50 breweries. Famous Canadian sports stars: Wayne Gretzky. George Chuvalo, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Crazy Ken Read, Lennox Lewis, Mike Weir, Ron Turcotte, Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Steve Nash, Ferguson Jenkins, Northern ... read more

So we made it to Canada ... I've wanted to come here for such a long time, but for some reason we've never quite made it. Our first stop is Vancouver, but we're only here for a night so don't have time to really see the city. I hadn't checked the details of mobile phone roaming for North America before we left and found my old "not-so" smart phone which I use for traveling does not find the GSM networks here. I knew that American phones used different frequencies but hadn't realised that GSM networks in Canada and North America run on a different frequency to the GSM networks in the rest of the world, so not all phones will work here. I go and buy an basic unlocked phone in a Vancouver store - it ... read more