Vancouver and On

Tuesday 22^nd August

We started the day taking an “interesting” route to try and find the much-lauded Vancouver Gastown Steam Clock. Once we were deep in the heart of Chinatown Pam did the sensible thing and asked if we were going the right way. “Oh no”, came the reply, “carry on down there and you’ll end up in ?? and you don’t want to do that!” With suitably clear instructions we made our way through some pretty seedy streets, came across one group that Pam assumed were lining up for a soup kitchen, and then a passerby asked them why they were queueing and a man told him he was lining up for his heroin!! From then on until we found said clock the air was ripe with the smell of cannabis smoke. The clock let off steam at 1 pm. The clock was built to cover a steam vent and is powered almost entirely by steam. Visitors wait for the sounding of the Westminster chimes and the accompanying rush of steam to get the perfect shot.

Our destination for the day was really Stanley Park, named best park in the world in a Trip Advisor survey 2014. We hopped aboard a local bus and indeed found the park to be very pleasant, with enough shady spots to keep the 28 degree heat bearable. We shared our lunch with the only wildlife we could find, a black squirrel, but signs around us warned not to feed the racoons, the geese and coyotes!! We wanted to see an installation of totem poles which were some distance away so with handy map in hand we followed minimal signage and an unhelpful gardener’s advice to eventually find them.

Our best pickup of the day was Emma, a Filipino pharmacist awaiting her papers to come through. She now lives in Ottawa and was in Vancouver on vacation, but had been scared witless by her friend about walking in the park alone after a recent attack on a lone woman jogger. She asked if she could join us. She was pleasant company and we felt we had done our good deed for the day. Plus she was happy to take some photos of us as well. We spent about 2½ hours walking round the park which we felt was enough to get us through the mainly sedentary train trip ahead of us.

Later – The Canadian travels 4,466 km from Vancouver to Toronto. We booked a sleeper plus cabin which has two chairs during the daytime. These are stowed away and two bunks are pulled down by an attendant. The cabin also contains a small washbasin, en suite toilet. Think miniature everything! Each carriage had one shower. We each got a shower pack bag with towels, soap, shampoo. After info and safety briefing from Serge, our attendant, we were invited to a bubbles and canape welcome in the lounge car. This train has twenty seven carriages including three panorama cars, activity carriages. There are a number of tour parties which are getting off at Jasper so it should be a little less busy from then on. Beds are firm but we slept reasonably well and we are getting used to the confinement of the living spaces.

Wednesday – Breakfast was really nice, we sampled the apple pancakes with maple syrup and bacon and will work our way through the rest of the selection over the next few days! All you ever imagined about the Canadian Rockies is true. Stunning vistas, the train winding through forested areas, rivers and a stunning waterfall. There is evidence of recent fires in some areas.

Pam and Barbara