Vancouver

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Hi all,
Been avoiding writing about Vancouver because I feel so bad saying that we weren't blown away by the city at all! Don't get me wrong -the views of the landscapes surrounding the city were breathtaking - the mountains, the beaches, the sea etc but the city itself just felt like another city. We've been trying to think about why this was the case - was it because we were all so shell-shocked having left the wonderful wilderness and being in an urban jungle again? Was it because we were there for such a short amount of time? (1.5 days). Were we just in the wrong part of town?? Who knows!? Maybe it's just because we'd heard such a lot of hype that our expectations were too high...??? Either way, we both want to go back to give it another 'chance'.

Stanley Park, north west of the city is truly amazing and we really enjoyed walking along the seawall one evening together with the roller-bladers and cyclists/ We admired the ocean view and watched the sun set. That was beautfiful. The park itself is huge but we didn't have time to discover it fully. As you walk along the wall, you suddenly see rocks in the ocean with smaller rocks piled on top in all sorts of precarious styles -similar to the styles the Native Indians used as trail markers on long journeys. A fab surprise but hard to describe accurately in words (see the pic).
We also travelled across by ferry to North Vancouver and hiked around in the temperate rainforests there. Again - just beautiful and full of streams and waterfalls- just my thing! Plus huge trees- really old ones with really wide tree trunks.

On a completely different note, we also made it to the birth place of BRODIE BIKES. Christian was in heaven. We trekked out to some out of town industrial estate and were rewarded with a tour of the warehouse by the designer of the bikes! We are now the proud owners of a Brodie T-shirt. 😉 Christian didn't stop smiling all day 😊


Hallo Ihr alle,
Wir haben lange nichts von uns hoeren lassen, denn leider hat sich Vancouver nicht als so umwerfend herausgestellt. Die Stadt ist sehr huebsch, aber leider ein wenig steril. Es gibt viele coole Ecken mit Kneipen etc., aber die alten Teile der Stadt sind nur sehr sehr klein. Wahrscheinlich waren unsere Erwartungen zu hoch. Ausserdem ist es schwer, von einer Stadt fasziniert zu werden, wenn man grad ein paar Wochen in der Wildnis verbracht und so viele tolle Dinge gesehen hat.
Unglaublich schoen ist Stanley Park. Dort sind wir im Sonnenuntergang spaziert. Ganz ueberraschend war, dass im Wasser, nahe dem Strand, ein paar Steine aus dem Wasser herausragen, auf denen die alten mythischen Figuren der Indianer stehen. Sie stehen dort und werden eigenartigerweise nicht von den Wellen umgeworfen. Faszinierend.
Ausserdem sind wir durch den gemaessigten Regenwald gewandert. Er erstreckt sich entlang der Kueste - sehr huebsch und voller Wasserfaelle.

Besonders toll: Wir waren bei BRODIE BIKES, wo Christians Fahrrad entstanden ist. Dank Donika haben wir eine Fuehrung und zum Abschluss je ein BRODIE T-Shirt bekommen. Toll!!!

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Comments

[Ann Peters]

Great to hear your news!
It was so good to hear that you are both having such fantastic experiences. How beautiful it looks! Looking forward to the next blog! Annx

[Chrisu Don]

Hey, glad you've been able to access the blog. Been dying to write on here more often but internet connections are so slow (even in the US!) that we often just run out of time. Am glad the children enjoyed hearing the news. I miss them loads. Kep sending messages when you have imte. It's nice to know there are 'people' out there! Hope you are well, take care xxxx d