Arrival at the west coast

On the road shortly before 8 am and a trouble free run to Terminal 3 at Toronto airport. A sad farewell to Ollie and Ang after our wonderful week with them. Thumbs up for West Jet and an arrival in Vancouver shortly after mid-day. We stopped for a bite to eat in the airport before buying or day passes for the Translink transport system for the three days of our stay in Vancouver and hopping on the Canada Line in the airport. Sixteen minutes later we emerged from the Waterfront station and a short walk to our hotel, The Victorian on Homer Street.

View from Canada Tower

We quickly unpacked, loaded our day bags and headed for the Harbour Tower just a couple of blocks away. From the observation platform we were able to identify the key sights with the help of information plaques and fully appreciate the wonder of the location that is Vancouver.

Lift outside Harbour Tower

The lift is on the exterior of the building, which is a little disconcerting if you're not very good with heights!

Off to catch the ferry (a super speedy catamaran) to the North Shore using our day passes. A quarter of an hour later we were on Lonsdale Quay. As it was a bank holiday Monday and by this time about 5.30 pm very few of the Mall shops were still open.

View from our table at Mario's

We took in the views of the city from the decking at the quayside and decided to have our evening meal overlooking the harbour at Marios (Italian Restaurant). We both decided to sample Sockeye Salmon and linguine. Someone was obviously slumming it in a little boat moored right next to the restaurant – how the other half live!
Back on the Catamaran to downtown and a wander round Canada Place Board Walk to take in a wonderful sunset and watch the float planes land.

Sunset over the Harbour

At this point it was around 9 pm (12 pm to our Ontario body clocks) so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Arrival at the west coast

Vancouver, Canada