The Smirkonian Sightseer

On Tour - Jasper

Today we headed north to Japser, with a replacement tour guide for the reminder of the journey.

There were several photo stops to look at view points and occasionally the coach would stop by the road side for us to view wildlife, such as black bears and mountain goats.

One of the features for today was the Athabasca Glacier on the Icefields Parkway. I was all rugged up ready to freeze my … off, but it didn't seem that cold. So it looks like I wasted some money buying fleece gloves. At the glacier we boarded special snow buses that take us out onto the ice. The guides here are very informative and cheerful.

Next stop was the Athabasca Waterfall. A lovely spot with several viewpoints to see the glacial waters rush down a small ravine.

Then it was onto today's tour option; a raft ride down the Athabasca River. Tour rafting guide was Mike Gere, who was funny and told us everything we wanted to know about the region. I finally managed to get my Nikon AW100 wet (it's waterproof, or so the manual says).

Afterwards we were picked up by our tour bus and taken to the motel.

Tomorrow we leave the mountains behind and head west back to the coast with our next stop Prince George.

Here are a few of todays photos...

 

Panorama of the Columbia Icefield. The Athabasca Glacier is on the right.

The three of us on the Athabasca Glacier

Athabasca Waterfall

Video still capture of the raft ride on the Athabasca River

 

Still on tour in Banff

Just about every second person working in Banff is an Aussie. They are everywhere.

Another day touring around the town of Banff in the Rockies. This morning we had a bus tour starting with a drive by of Banff Springs Hotel, which I stayed at 26 years ago. Managed to pick out the corner room window that I stayed in.

A photo stop at Bow Falls was very picturesque. Typical postcard stuff. Another stop across the river for a frontal view of the Banff Springs Hotel then to the Hoodoos. They are natural spires of limestone shaped by wind and water. Our guide told of an Indian legend, but I can't find anything online about it to back it up. She talks a lot of dutch twiddle.

Next was Johnson Canyon which has some waterfalls, one accessed by a short tunnel to view the falls and get drenched with spray.

The bus then took us to Lake Louise (originally scheduled for tomorrow) where Tony, Margaret and I had lunch in the piss-elegant restaurant at the Chateau Lake Louise with the huge picture windows. All others on our tour only went to the cheap cafe. We ate some awesome food and enjoyed the view. We had a few minutes left to take a few pictures of the still partly frozen lake before we had to be back at the bus.

This afternoon we did our tour options for Banff. Tony chose a half hour helicopter flight around the Banff area. His pictures are fantastic… he also shot some video on his iPad3.

Margaret and I did the gondola ride up Sulphur Mountain. Wide sweeping views of the valleys and mountains surrounding the area.

Tomorrow we go north to Jasper with a white water rafting ride and the Athabasca Glacier on the intinerary.

Here's a few shots from today...

Bow Falls

Banff Springs Hotel

Bow Valley with the Hoodoos in the foreground

The Hoodoos

Johnson Canyon

Picture window at Chateau Lake Louise

Ice on Lake Louise

Sulphur Mountain

View of Banff from Sulphur Mountain

Sulphur Mountain

On Tour - Banff

We've arrived in chilly Banff. The good news is the hotel room is cosy.

The day started around 8am when the bus departed Vernon and travelled along the Okanagan Valley towards the Rocky Mountains. Our first stop was at Craigellachie to view a monument marking the spot where the last spike was driven into place in 1885 linking Canada by rail from coast to coast.

We stopped for a nice walk through a giant cedars forest and in the afternoon we crossed Rogers Pass and the narrow Kicking Horse Canyon. We saw several bears on our travels today too. Didn't get a very good picture of them though. However Tony managed to shoot some awesome video of a bear pooping. Proof a bear really does that in the woods.

Just before we arrived in Banff we were taken to Emerald Lake. It's a very beautiful and tranquil lake. I remember visiting here in 1986. It's still breathtaking. It hasn't changed a bit.

The town of Banff has grown from last time I was here. It's now a bustling alpine town. Luckily we're here between the end of the ski season and the start of the peak summer tourist season.

Here's a quick selection from todays photo opportunities...

Giant Cedars walk

Giant Cedars walk

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake

On Tour - Vernon

Today we left a rainy Vancouver and headed east to Vernon (half way to the Rockies). The early departure had us on the road at 8.15am and travelled through Greater Vancouver and onto the Trans Canada Highway. Our first stop was the small town of Hope where we grabbed some refreshment and continued on climbing into the mountains. Lunch stop was a Merritt. It looked a bit like cowboy country.

After lunch the bus took us to Kelowna for a brief stop then onto a lookout just outside Vernon for a photo opportunity before checking us into our hotel in Vernon.

Today was mostly a transit day, on our way to the Rockies. Nodding off on the bus was something easily accomplished.

There wasn't much in the way of good photos today, but tomorrow's locations promise something better, however the weather forecast is for rain.

Park land in Kelowna

Panorama from a lookout near Vernon

Vancouver - On Tour

Talk about double dutch. Today we joined our "Rockie Roundup" tour with a bus load of dutch and a few people from the UK. Most of the guides commentary was dutch because she kept forgetting to translate into english and usually ended up repeating what she just said again in dutch. 

As I said, we have two weeks of this.

Today was a highlights tour around Vancouver starting with the Stanley Park Totem Poles, Capilano Suspension Bridge and Granville Island where we stopped for lunch. There are two Israeli's on the bus, who don't speak english or dutch and botched the instructions to be back at the bus by a certain time. Hence, we left without them. Shalom!

We finished of the bus tour of the city with a drive through Yaletown, Chinatown and Gastown.

Tomorrow we leave early for rural British Columbia and head east to Vernon, BC.

Here's a batch of pictures from today...

Stanley Park Totem Poles

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Capilano River

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Panorama or Suspension Bridge and Cliff Walk suspended walkway

Cliff Walk

Lions Gate Bridge traffic

Vancouver - Moving Day

Today we moved out of room 623 at The Landis and taxied our way over to the Empire Landmark. We stay here as part of a tour for the next two nights.

Not that much to report today. We did some washing at a coin laundromat nearby and Tony bought a data sim for our connectivity for the remainder of the trip. 

The free wifi we had at the Landis would download SX News (we watch this each morning - breakfast television!) and it took about 25mins to come in. The data card bought today downloads it in about 60 seconds.

Late this arvo we had a wonder around the redeveloped Coal Harbour area of Vancouver.

Tomorrow we're taken on an orientation tour of the city. The guide and most of the other guests are Dutch so we are expecting a lot of goglygoop in the translations for the next two weeks.

Here's a couple of pictures taken this afternoon around Coal Harbour and Canada Place….

 

This is really grouse...

Today we bought a day pass on the public transport system. This allowed us to take the SkyTrain to Waterfront Station and catch the SeaBus across Burrard Inlet to Lonesdale Quay on the North shore. From here we got on a bus to take us up to Grouse Mountain.

View of Downtown Vancouver and the Canada Place Cruiseship Terminal seen from the Seabus to North Vancouver

The Skyride to Grouse Mountain

We purchased the 'Ultimate Experience' tickets so that we could see as much as we could (with a pensioner in tow!). We saw the two grizzly bears, Grinder and Coola at the wildlife refuge. We just happen to be passing when the ranger talk started.

Grizzly bears Grinder and Coola

Then onto The Peak Chairlift taking us to the apex of the mountain, 4,100 feet above sea level. From there it was a short walk to The Eye Of The Wind. This is a massive wind turbine the has a 360 degree glass observation pod. The turbine powers the mountain. Stunning views all round.

The chairlift to the summit

Eye Of The Wind turbine

Inside the Eye Of The Wind observation pod

Back down on the chairlift we had some lunch, checked out a souvenir shop and watched a short film in The Theatre In The Sky about the two grizzly bears in the nearby habitat.

Riding the chairlift back down

After this I got to try something I'd been looking forward to - Beaver Tails. This is a Canadian franchise that has a unique line of fried pastries called Beavertails and they are topped with various dessert choices. I tried the cinnamon and apple. So yummy! I'll get the chance to try another when I get to Banff.

BeaverTails stand on Grouse Mountain

Caught the Birds In Motion show before heading back to Vancouver.

Eagle in flight at the Birds In Motion show

This has been such a great day. The weather was clear, cool and sunny. A perfect day out to view such stunningly beautiful scenery.

Tomorrow we have to change hotels as we join the guided two week tour.

Walking The Seawall

The rain cleared today and we were able to get some nice pictures of Stanley Park. Spent the best park of the day here stopping at various features along the seawall surrounding the park.

We had lunch at the Prospect Point restaurant. There's also a great lookout here that has sweeping views of North Vancouver and English Bay.

The seawall is about 9km but we chose to leave the last 4km until another day and when we'll see some of the park interior including the Aquarium.

Tomorrow should be sunny and we plan to go to Grouse Mountain.

Here are some pictures from today's Stanley Park Seawall walk...

Panorama of English Bay looking south

Seawall walk at Third Beach

Siwash Rock

Lions Gate Bridge

Panorama of West Vancouver on the North Shore.

Royal Vancouver Yacht Club at Coal Harbour

Vancouver Ying and Yang

Not the best of weather today. Still cloudy with some rain patches. 

Our first stop today was to get a quick photo of the Vancouver Public Library. Really needed a wide angle lens for this but I only had the little Nikon AW100 with me. I wanted to get a photo of this building because of the striking roman colloseum style architecture.

Next we ventured into Chinatown to visit the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden. All the materials to build this impressive garden were imported from China. The guide was very informative and we finished off with a serving of jasmine tea.

With and Ying and Yang in-check we headed further into Chinatown and sought out some freshly made steamed buns for lunch.

Next stop Science World at False Creek. This is one of the few remaining buildings from the World Expo I attended in 1986. This geodesic dome houses science exhibits for kids as well as travelling exhibitions and an Omnimax theatre.

We watched the feature Omnimax film Rocky Mountain Express, about the building of the Canadian Transcontinental railway. Some truly breathtaking scenes...

Also at Science World was the DaVinci Exhibition that had displays of Leonardo da Vinci's life work as an inventor and painter.

Later we walked along False Creek to Granville Island.

Unfortunately by the time we reached Granville Island my camera battery was flat, so that was the end of todays pictures.

From here we crossed False Creek on a tiny water taxi and walked back to the suite. 

This evening we ate Indonesian at The Banana Leaf. All very yummy.

If the weather improves tomorrow, we plan to walk the seawall around Stanley Park.

Vancouver day one

Still battling jet-lag, this afternoon we walked to Vancouver Lookout. This starts with an exhilarating ride up in a glass elevator. 

The first time I visited in 1988, I remember I was so blown away by watching the city unfold before my eyes. This time I capture it on video (I'll post videos when I get home in about three weeks time).

The views of the harbour and mountains are spectacular, even on a cloudy day (see photos below). The city view however, is slightly less of a specticale because of the modern high-rises that now dwarf the Lookout and block the view over Stanley Park and English Bay.

The other attraction we ventured to was nearby Gastown with the famous old steam clock that whistles a tune every 15 minutes.

It started to rain after this, and still with the affects of a long-haul flight haunting us, we decided to go back to the apartment, several blocks away on the other side of the downtown area.

This evening we picked from a large selection of restaurants on Davie Street to eat at. We chose a North American cultural favourite, "Dennys". They served a fantastic slow-cooked pot roast and I enjoyed a locally brewed clear cider. All very nice.

The forecast for tomorrow is much the same as today, and we're not likely to go too far from the downtown area.

Here's some photos from this afternoon's walkabout...

Law Courts on Hornsby Street

Views from Vancouver Lookout

Gastown and Steam Clock

Vancouver Art Gallery and Robson Square

 

 

Vancouver - the arrival

We jumped on board Air Canada AC34 from Sydney going direct to Vancouver. It was a 13 and a half hour flight. 

Not much to report about the flight. I captured this amazing sunset on Tony's iPad taken above the clouds somewhere over the Pacific.

We arrived in Vancouver at 7.15am this morning - 3 hours before our departure time. That means I can scrub all memory of the flight and start the day over.

Caught the Skytrain into downtown Vancouver - although cheaper than a taxi, we had to endure the rush hour commuters on the same train.

We're all a bit jet lagged but I'm fairing the best. As I type this, both Tony and his Mum are in the land of nod, and it's only midday.

Sydney

Had a few hours to spend in Sydney before our flight to Vancouver tomorrow.

We took the opportunity to visit our good friend Graeme. I noticed that Graeme's Parkinsons Disease had advanced since last seeing him some years ago and now has a killer hand shake. ;-) He lives at McMahons Point in a small apartment with a spectacular view.

 
Twilight and sunset panorama from McMahons Point in Sydney.

Graeme served up arvo tea. I enjoyed the large chocolate cream filled eclair I nicknamed Buddy Franklin!

They say the enjoyment is in the journey, not the destination.  Seeing that tomorrow's flight is 15 hours long, I'd have to disagree this once.

 

The journey begins...

Today I begin my journey to one of the most livable cities in the world - Vancouver.

 

 

The plan is the post regular reports of my travels through Western Canada over the next three weeks. This all depends on the availability of Wi-Fi in the areas I'll be visiting. If that doesn't work out, I'll post a lengthy retrospective when I return.

 

I'm travelling with my long time friend, Tony and his Mum, Margaret.

 

Today we start the journey in Launceston and fly to Sydney. On Tuesday morning, we fly direct to Vancouver and spend about five or six days there. We then join a bus tour which loops through the British Columbia interior and up into the Rockies, arcing across to Prince Rupert back on the west coast. It's then a full day ferry ride to Vancouver Island and back to Vancouver for an extended stay before returning  to Australia.

 

I'm really excited to be travelling again.  So as they say, watch this space...

My personal info graphic...

Get yours at http://spotlight.abs.gov.au/

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