Monday May 8th: Lonsdale Markets
It was a beautiful sunny morning making ideal conditions for Mark’s early morning bike ride and my harbour front walk. It was also great weather for our trip to Lonsdale Quayside and markets. I found a great post about things to do when visiting Lonsdale Markets and have linked it here so make sure you check it out if you ever plan to visit the area.
There were a few different options for getting to the markets but we chose the 20’ walk up to the Waterfront terminal followed by the 12 minute Seabus ride. The Seabus is a bit like a flat-bottom Manly Ferry.
The first location you stumble upon on exiting the seabus is the Quayside markets but these were rather diminished as the center was undergoing construction. Beside this fact, they pale in comparison to Granville markets so it was all a bit underwhelming. One lucky strike we made with travel on this particular day was that it was the last day of the four day Naval dockside exhibition and we were able to take a tour of the HMCS Ottawa. In fact, we were one of the last ones ushered on for the day so we felt rather fortunate. Naval officers no longer have to keep their hair short so one guy in naval attire, that I initially thought was a ring-in due to his long locks, turned out to be a legitimate member of the Ottawa crew! The Ottawa was a very impressive structure that was jam packed with machinery, electronics and equipment and I don’t know that I would ever have the time to learn how to use half the stuff!
It was beer o’clock by the time we left the Ottawa so headed to Tap and Barrel as this had come recommended. It was another impressive structure being a huge bar and restaurant located in the old 1906 Wallace Shipyard building. The venue has since been wonderfully repurposed to house the Tap and Barrel. It is well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area. I was especially taken by the huge painting of Ruth Bader Ginsburg hanging with prominence over the stairwell.
It was then time to catch the seabus back to Vancouver and head home with a stop off for dinner supplies for our last roof top BBQ.
Tuesday May 9th: Our last day
The sun was trying to break through for our last day in Vancouver so Mark set off for a ride to Grouse Mountain and I had a walk before we both met up for coffee at Analog.
There was not a lot more that we wanted to do or see in Vancouver so we decided to use a phone app to take two self-guided walking tours of Chinatown and Gastown. It started off reasonably well at Millenium Gate and the Sam Kee building, the narrowest, or as they say ‘skinniest’, building in the world. The story goes that the wealthy landowner was incrementally squeezed out of rights to his property and was left with just a narrow slice of property so he gave them all the thumbs up by building said property.
After that though, things went rather poorly as the area around Chinatown, and much of eastern Gastown, are filled with large numbers of homeless and drug addled people. It all became a bit too confronting and overwhelming for us both and so we headed back to our apartment. We could now understand why one of our tour guides suggested only a short visit to Chinatown, and, only during the day. He advised against going to the area at night. The apartment I had initially reserved for our stay in Vancouver was right in this area and so I am eternally grateful for the advice to change accommodation as I don’t think it would have been safe for us there at all.
Much of the afternoon was spent packing up and it was 5 pm before we headed back out again. First off to have a final drink at Yaletown Brewing and then on to The Greek for dinner. The Greek offered the most delicious home-style cooking Greek meal we’d ever tasted and we wished there was an endeavor like this back home in Bondi. The food and local wine was incredibly satisfying and such a lovely way to celebrate the end of our stay in Vancouver. We have loved our time here and would heartily recommend you all visit if possible; you won’t be disappointed.
We have an early departure tomorrow at 5 am for Seattle. We had tried to pre-book a taxi but were told the bike-bag be a problem. Fingers crossed we make it to the train station in time for our train to Seattle.
