Back to Vancouver

A beautiful morning in a beautiful city. Threw open the curtains this morning to a bright sunny day, and a Chevy pickup parked outside our window. We aren't in Africa, Toto, and a car park full of grunt is very evocative of being in North America.

Went for an early morning stroll in the quiet before the weekend crush descended upon Chinatown, one block away, and found a Starbucks on our meander. A lazy, warm, sunny morning with a coffee in our hands - must be Mike's idea of heaven.

Noticed one bench seat in the hotel car park near our bedroom as we returned, and as it was too nice to eat inside, we passed our breakfast through the window, climbed out, and enjoyed the fresh air. We just hoped that the motel didn't think that I was trying to smuggle my evening guest away.

Checked out, cloaked our bags and went for a long walk around the harbour the other way this time, passing a few first nation totems and markers. Seems that they refer to their native population as 'aboriginal' too. Victoria was a really nice place to visit, and we could have easily spent a few more enjoyable days here, but eventually we had to head off back downtown to the bus depot, bags in tow, and be taken off to the ferry.

Being a busy summer's day on the weekend, the ferry was running late, and when we arrived in Vancouver city we had to walk some distance to our apartment, so we were a little later than we promised our host, but he was very gracious. We have a lovely room with our own balcony, and share the bathroom and kitchen area with our hosts. It's how they afford the lease on their apartment being quite young.

After sorting out ourselves, it was off to explore and find somewhere for dinner. Very like Melbourne - hundreds of options from all around the world - though they topped us with a Ukrainian restaurant. Japanese was Mandy's choice, which was lovely, and cheaper than at home, and on our way back we stopped at the big Safeway supermarket and did a shop for the week. You pay deposits on every kind of container, not only bottles, but also cans, cartons, bags and even some packets. Quite worth your while to scavenge and return things, and we saw a few people doing just that.

Canadians, like the US, also refer to their coins as nickels, dimes and quarters, and number their houses from the nearest cross road which is a brilliant system that we should copy.

Stayed with Joe and Sharlyn in their apartment on Cardero Street, and sat out on the balcony watching Vancouver walk and cycle past until it got dark about 9:30.