What, no bears? - Canadian Rockies Road Trip Aug/Sept 2019 - Day 3

[pinkrose]

Index is here

Day 3 – Tuesday 27 August 2019.

Vancouver – Stanley Park

Today we planned to visit Stanley Park. Having read Jocat’s trip report and done some research on the park we decided we would hire bikes. This was something I had not organised before we left the UK. However, having thumbed through a visitor’s guide that was in our hotel suite, I found a 20% off coupon for Cycle City. I had researched bike hire shops at home so knew of them and knew they had e-bikes which I wanted as I have trouble with both knees but DH also fancied one. They had a shop on Hornby Street two streets down from our hotel and one on Burrard Street near the park. We decided we would go to Hornby Street as we would be nearer to our hotel on the return and might be feeling the effects of not having ridden a bike for several years.

On our way to the Cycle shop we also decided to call in Avis as this was on Hornby Street. This, again, was due to Jocat’s experience last year with this particular rental location. We called in on the pretext of checking that our booking had been updated to include the additional day which it had and was told we just needed to stand by the desk the next day rather than in the normal queue as we were Avis preferred members (more on that later).

The e-bikes were $50 CAD each for five hours hire and included helmet and cycle lock. With our 20% coupon the total came to $84 CAD including tax (a saving of $20 CAD).

After a quick lesson on how to use the controls we pushed the bikes outside onto the street where there is a very clearly signed cycle lane separated from the traffic lanes by kerbing. It was a straight road down Hornby Street to Canada Place and then we followed the track around the Convention Centre and Coal Harbour till it meets the sea wall that goes around Stanley Park. We stopped briefly to take photos of the city from the park and then were whizzing round the wall at quite a pace.

We stopped at Brockton Point to take photos of the lighthouse

and then at Prospect Point to take photos of Lion’s Gate Bridge.

Before we knew it we had reached Second Beach so decided to stop for a lemonade and a rest. We then realised we had missed the Totem poles and were trying to find them on the map we had printed off the internet when a couple of park volunteers came and asked us if we needed help. We told them we had missed the Totem poles so they gave us a better map and showed us how to cut back across the park via North Lagoon Drive as they were on the other side where we had first started our journey. So round we went again and this time we managed to spot the sign.

After a brief stop at the Totem poles we carried on round the seawall and came to the Girl in a wetsuit statue followed by the SS Empress of Japan figurehead something else we had missed first time round.

At this point we decided to come off the seawall and follow Stanley Park Drive instead. The road started to get quite steep and my knees were struggling to keep pedalling even with the assistance of the battery so we pulled off the road onto a dirt track which DH thought would take us back down to the seawall. How wrong he was! The track went down initially but then turned and started to climb again. In the end we were both having to push the bikes up the track and it seemed to take ages to get to the top but, eventually, we came out at the top of Prospect Point by the Trading Post. We were both quite hot and bothered by this point so bought a bottle of water to cool down with. Then we followed Park Drive back down towards Second Beach in search of the hollow tree.

It was all downhill then to Second Beach and the speedo on my bike was showing 30km/h as I was now having to break to keep within the speed limit.

We stopped at the food stand for lunch before following the seawall towards English Bay and the Inukshuk. Inukshuk were traditionally cronstructed by the Inuit as a navigational aid.

We passed near to Burrard Street Bridge and then turned to go back up Hornby Street to the cycle shop. Hornby Street was steep initially so I did have to get off and push the bike a little way but then it began to flatten out as you reached the top before it went downhill all the way back to the shop.

We had been out just under the five hours and I was now feeling a little saddle sore to say the least but we’d had a great time nonetheless and had probably seen far more than if we had been walking. For example we probably wouldn’t have gone back to look for the Totem poles if we were walking so I was glad we had decided to hire the bikes.

We called in McDonald’s for a large coke and then started walking back to the hotel. As we walked towards the Vancouver Art Gallery we noticed some well-dressed people getting onto a bus and wondered if it was a wedding party but then, as we got nearer, we realised it was a film crew and they were the extras. We found out they were filming DC’s Legends of Tomorrow but it looked like they had stopped for lunch as a number of the extras/stars were sitting eating.

Since nothing much was happening we carried on back to the hotel for a shower and a well-earned rest.

It was still early in the evening so we decided to head back to Gastown to pick up souvenirs from the shops we had visited on our first day. By now I had decided I wanted an Inukshuk.

After we picked up our souvenirs we wandered along Water Street and came across a restaurant called The Old Spaghetti Factory. There were lots of people eating there which is usually a good indication that the food is ok and then DH noticed that on the menu outside it said “It’s all included” which meant for the price of your entrée you got a small Italian sourdough bread with plain and garlic butter to share, either minestrone soup or a green salad to start, Spumoni ice cream for dessert and tea or coffee. We were going to eat in Original Joe’s again but instead decided to try the food here. I chose the green salad and DH chose the minestrone soup but, once again, we both ordered the Manicotti (which was similar to Cannelloni) and a refillable coke each. The food was lovely and the bill came to $42.42 CAD.

We wandered further along Water Street and came upon Gassy Jack’s statue.

Jack Deighton was the notorious saloon keeper after whom Gastown is named. Funnily enough he was born in Hull but was best known for his “gassy” monologues in his saloon.

We then walked back up towards our hotel via the Queen Elizabeth theatre where we found our second film set of the day. We were beginning to see why Vancouver is considered the Hollywood of Canada. This time they were filming a Christmas movie for the Hallmark Channel but once again everyone had stopped for food.

We did get some entertainment though. The yellow cab’s wheels were stuck in a pile of snow and several crew members with shovels as well as a man in a Bobcat were trying to dig it out. They were making quite a meal of it and it took several attempts to free the cab at which point we gave them a round of applause before heading back to the hotel.

[jocat]

You definitely did the right thing in hiring bikes to explore Stanley Park - I wish we had.

And I really hope you have a better experience than we had with that particular Avis branch.🤞🏻

And how exciting to see two films being made.

[smedley]

What a fun day. We loved the old spaghetti factory in Banff when we visited. Will look out for this one too