Vancouver harbour from ferry, Vancouver
Girl in a wetsuit, Stanley Park
Panorama over Granville Island from bridge, Vancouver
Corinne & Tony bike riding, Stanley Park
This was to be a day of visiting central Vancouver. After breakfast at a local café we went into central Vancouver on the ferry and went to the visitors’ centre. As per yesterday, the sky was blue and it was already 20oC with many Vancouver locals in tee shirts and shorts. It was decided that a good way to see the city was to do the bicycle ride around Stanley Park so we hired bikes and headed off from Devonian Harbour Park. The cycle track took us around past Deadman’s Island where the naval base has been established and then onto the coast past Lighthouse Point. We passed the now famous bronze statues of the ‘girl in the wet-suit’. This beautiful bronze statue is reminiscent of Copenhagen’s mermaid and has a similar setting on a rock just off the shore of the main harbour. We rode our bikes under huge bridges, around a narrow coastline and eventually we re-encountered human existence when we reached the beach on the western side of Stanley Park. The crowds of cyclists, pedestrians plus their dogs on the cycle track made progress pretty slow but we soldiered on and went past Granville St. bridge and right around the harbour until we reached the Burrarb St. bridge crossing. This brought us back to the centre of the city where we returned our bikes and headed back to North Vancouver on the ferry. The weather had been perfect today with barely a cloud in the sky and balmy conditions. It’s hard to reconcile with the fact that two days ago we were battling with roads that were snow covered and potentially unpassable. Vancouver has put on its best for us today and our cycle travels of about 20 km around the city’s perimeter has given us a snapshot of a glorious city set in an unbelievably beautiful setting. Tomorrow we plan to explore other parts of this famous city and may venture up to Grouse Mountain.