Day 6 - vancouver day 4: farewell Canada

Today was our last day in Canada and we are now back in Seattle. It was a great final day. we had breakfast at tim horton's, bagel and coffee for me, donut and milk for k and then we said fairwell to downtown and headed to the train station.

But only to use the lockers for our bags! Woo, more vancouver time.

We then hopped on a bus up main st a bit before starting a wee (massive) walk up and back down the street. Over the next 4 hours we went in to many awesome shops, a couple of coffee shops and had a fantastic early dinner/late lunch before heading for the train.

K bought a lot, as usual, but it was mostly nice for a change - except some 'I'll use it for craft' junk that we agreed to disagree on. It was raining today for the first time since we arrived but stopped in time for the walk back.

We had our meal at Lucy's eastside diner, it was super! K had a burger and I had a (no surprises here) pulled pork sandwich. If you are in vancouver check it out!

After that we walked back to the station and passed a car repair place called kirmac, k got very excited!

Then we got the train back to seattle, the view was again beautiful, we watched the sunset over the pacific!

Back at the hotel and they upgraded us to a massive room - score! We are both wearing our hotel housecoats currently.

Day 5 - vancouver day 3

It is Sunday which, as everyone knows, is brunch day. So we did some research and decided to go to a diner called templeton near the hotel. We had a bit of a wait but were soon seated at the counter. The place was more of a trendy diner than a a rough around the edges one, it was lovely and the waitresses were really nice. K got eggs benny which came with delicious home roasts and I got blueberry and banana pancake, very yum!

After we had stuffed ourselves we headed to the skytrain to take us to east van. Our destination was commercial drive known locally as 'the drive'. It is a long street with independent shops, cafes, restraunts and bar. We worked our way up one side then back down the other stopping for a few coffees and a lot of shops. Once we reached the bottom we went to st Augustine's, a brewpub, to sample their home brewed beer. I also had a guy explain the differences between Canadian and American football to me but I'm still no clearer!

By then it was dinner time so we went to a really good ethiopian rest for an amazing meal. We shared injera with a spicy lentil stew and a green bean stew.

After stuffing ourselves we went to the cinema to see the social network which I highly recommend. The cinema was like one from an American film with a ticket booth out front in the middle. We got popcorn with real butter to share and also put some ranch seasoning on it - good god it was good! The theatre itself was really comfy and you could put the arms of the seats up, at one point k was practically lying down!

After the film we just came back to the hotel, we have a busy last day in vancouver to have tomorrow!

Day 4 - vancouver day 2

We started the day by waking up too early as usual but genius 80s film the wizard was on so we watched it whilst still in our beds.

Once we got up we walked over the granville bridge to granville island where there are a couple of markets and a lot of shops. We browsed about and bought some stuff, including some winter Olympics memorabilia and a present for gem.

There were A LOT of lunch options but k settled on perogi and I had a slice of pizza. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed the view and the food. Then we did some more browsing.

Next we hopped on and off the bus tour a few times, at the library and gastown. At gastown we browsed about for a few hours, bought some stuff, drank some coffee and saw the famous steam clock go off.

Later on we went to Canada place and there was a nba event going on with players signing autographs and various basketball related competitions - one guy won two flights anywhere with American airlines by shooting a basket from the halfway line!

We the walked about some more then saw the Olympic flame holder thing.

By now it was pretty late so we went back to gastown for dinner. We went to the old spagetti factory which was touristy but really nice. They had an actual old streetcar in the middle of the room with tables in it! I got pesto linguine and k had chicken parmigano, delicious! But way too much as usual, what a waste. Every main meal comes with a salad and bread and ice cream! The ice cream was delicious but I couldn't eat it (k somehow managed hers though!).

Now we're back at the hotel dropping off our stuff and deciding what to do - k has of course taken this opportunity to nap!

Day 4 - Vancouver day 2 photos

Granville island - pierogi - giant basketball - winter Olympic torch

Day 3 - vancouver photos

Now we're back at the hotel and k is sleeping as usual!

Day 3 - journey to vancouver

Well we have arrived in Vancouver, we're not staying where we thought we were but this hotel is ace.

The day started very early after being woken up be Expedia so I am still tired but never mind.

We arrived at the train station bright and early to catch our train, we were assigned seats then we boarded. Almost straight away the view was amazing, we hugged the coast most of the way up with views of mountains and the water to our left. Even though the journey was 4 hours it flew in cos we were enjoying the view so much.

We arrived in vancouver and had to go through customs, we found ourselves waiting about a bit but it wasn't too bad. We exchanged some currency then hopped onto the sky train to downtown.

The first thing you notice about Vancouver is how new and tall everything is. A lot of people live in the downtown area so it is a bit different from other major cities.

We walked down one of the main streets til we found our newly assigned hotel. The new hotel is In a pretty decent area and the room is nice so we didn't mind the change too much.

After check-in we went for some classic Canadian lunch, poutine. Basically this is chips, gravy and cheese curds, it is amazing!

After we were fueled up we went to find the bus tour. We got a two day pass and decided to do a full loop today to get our bearings then tomorrow we will do it again and hop off to visit some of the places.

Did I mention vancouver is beautiful? Cos it truly is, mountains and water on all sides and some great architecture.

The bus tour was great, we really got to grips with the geography of the place.

We went back to the hotel for a little down time then went to blenz, which is a local coffee shop chain, for some coffee and people watching pre dinner.

We then walked down davie st which is next to the hotel and is the gay area with a lot of restraunts, shops, coffee shops and bars. We walked about, went into a few shops and then decided on Greek food. We both had lamb which was delicious, the restraunt had won a few awards and it seems they were deserved.

After dinner we went to a 24 hour tim horton's for coffee and a donut with a side portion of people watching

Day 2 - pm

Yesterday afternoon was spent in pike place market, it was an amazing maze of shops, restraunts and farmer's market.

We had a light lunch at place in the market with views of the water and mountains, it was beautiful! The food was uneventful, I had split pea soup and k had kids pasta. But with that view we weren't really paying attention to the food.

We both got a seattle tshirt (different designs) and we stopped in to the hard rock cafe to get a shot glass for k's broth john. Other than that we just browsed about for hours.

We went to the first ever starbucks which was pretty exciting. And we also had a stop off at seattle's best coffee where I got a delicious hot spiced apple drink.

One great thing about the market was the buskers, there were many and they were all great.

After the market we browsed belltown, there were lots of nice wee shops and yes there was a coffee break!

We had an early and light dinner at mama's Mexican. We sat outside and as a result one of my arms is now red. We both just had a starter of taquitos, they were delicious. K had a virgin colada and I went wild had a strawberry margerita! The waitress was lovely and we chatted to her for a while.

After that we just walked about some more. It is a really interesting city, the architecture is really varied which is cool.

When we got back to the hotel we watched some tv, a new big bang theory and the new sitcom shit my dad says which wasn't very good.

This morning Expedia phoned at 445am to say our vancouver hotel overbooked so we have a different hotel. They emailed the details and I can't get into my details, we'll see how that pans out.

We have the 740 train to vancouver to catch soon!