The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel
From Banff to Vancouver (w) - what a contrast! From a small, charming tourist village high in the mountains, to a big, bustling, modern port city.
From the Fairmont Banff Springs to the Fairmont Waterfront - again, what a contrast! No medieval castles here. A tall, modern chrome and glass skyscraper:
The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel
And instead of a view of the Rockies from our window:
Vancouver skyline
The hotel is actually part of a shopping/entertainment complex called the Waterfront Centre. It has a roof garden, which was also visible from our window:
Roof garden
...but because of the holidays, it was closed when we were there.
In the lobby, the hotel has a large framed reproduction of an old map of British Columbia:
Vintage map
We started the day by doing what we hadn't had an opportunity to do all vacation - we slept late! We finally dragged ourselves out of the hotel around 10:00 or so, got a quick bite to go from the restaurant, and went to take a trolley tour of Vancouver, courtesy of the Vancouver Trolley Company. This a two-hour tour of the city, mostly the downtown area, that lets passengers get on and off at any point. We opted to just stay on for the whole ride.
Here's Terry waiting at the trolley stop (right across the street from the hotel:
Trolley stop
And here's our trolley driver:
Trolley driver
Okay, I should have gotten him to turn around. Anyway, we drove around Vancouver, while the driver rattled off facts, figures, trivia, history, and bad jokes. Here are some pictures I took along the way (not necessarily in order):
The Vancouver Art Gallery
This next batch of pictures were all taken in Stanley Park (w) , a large park north of the downtown area:
Stanley Park
Salmon crossing
Totem poles
Terry and friend
Looking out to sea
An eagle's nest
Lion's Gate Bridge
Lion's Gate bridge, or as the driver called it, "Vancouver's answer to the Golden Gate Bridge," spans Burrard Inlet, and connects Vancouver with North Vancouver:
North Vancouver and Grouse Mountain
More scenes from the tour:
Molson Brewery
...which the driver told us has been bought out by Coors! Damn, us Americans are taking over everything!
Space Museum
That statue out in front is a crab, representing the constellation Cancer. Apparently, the museum opened in July. That's my sign, so I had to take the picture.
Chinatown
...featuring (in the second picture) the Chinese Cultural Center and Sun Yat-Sen Park. I confess I had to ask who Sun Yat-Sen (w) was. The driver was clueless, but a young man behind us - who appeared to be Chinese - set us straight.
Here's a map of the Vancouver area; the red rectangle shows the approximate area covered by the tour, and the red dot shows the approximate location of our hotel:
We bailed out of the tour a few blocks away from our hotel, and walked back. On the way we saw, of all things, a steam powered clock:
What will they think of next?
We then took a little drive around the city (we both enjoy driving around aimlessly), and then walked from our hotel to the Hotel Vancouver:
Hotel Vancouver
...yet another Fairmont hotel, just a few blocks from ours (it's the building with the green roof), where we had afternoon tea:
How elegant can you get?
...while being entertained by a harpist. As we left, I took a picture of Terry with another friend:
Terry and Pére Noel
We then walked across the street to:
Christ Church Cathedral
(w)
...a large Anglican church. I had been wanting to find a church, to go to a Christmas Eve service. As it happened, there was a service about to start as we walked by, so we went in. It was a carol service, featuring a Salvation Army Band, soloists, and lots of Christmas carols. Unfortunately, we got there late, and had to sit in the overflow room downstairs, and watch the service on a video screen. Also unfortunately, there were a lot of noisy children in the room. But Jesus said to "suffer the little children" ... so we suffered. Seriously, though, I was glad to get the opportunity to go to church, and of course I'm always glad for the opportunity to sing Christmas carols.
By now it was dark, so we got on a bus and rode back to Stanley Park, to see the "Bright Lights." To quote the website: "More than a million twinkling lights transform the forest, train and Children's Farmyard. Explore the woodland paths leading to enchanting, animated displays and holiday sounds. A Christmas family tradition for over 20 years..."
It was delightful. A fairyland of lights, with displays put up by local schools and community organizations. There was a petting zoo, and a miniature train ride, and a booth selling roast chestnuts. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:
Admission was free, but they did request donations. And I was confused by a sign saying the suggested donation was one "toonie" per person. Later, I found out what that meant. In 1987, Canada stopped issuing one dollar bills, and introduced a one-dollar coin. This coin has the image of a Canadian loon on one side, and is therefore commonly called a "loonie." So in 1996, when the two dollar coin was introduced.... do I have to spell it out?
We rode the bus back to town, and had dinner at another place the cab driver had recommended, called the White Spot. And then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.