Monday June 15th

9:00pm

This morning we went to the Lonsdale Quay and caught the Seabus over to Vancouver. We visited Gastown which we weren’t actually planning on doing, but since we had done Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge on the same day, we had an “extra day” so to speak, to explore new territory which we hadn’t originally planned.

The main street of interest was “Water Street” – the nicest street with the nicest shops...and today we spent our money!! I bought a copper bear brooch and a silver eagle pendant as well as some souvenirs. At this point I just had three more things to get before I had finished souvenir shopping. Gastown had a steam-powered clock which whistled every 5 minutes and on every hour. I wonder if it continues through the evening? I guess so. Wouldn’t that be irritating if you were living nearby?

We were buying quite a lot (well, I was!!) and we came across a shop which sold suitcases – we had forgotten about needing another case until now, so we got a small one. We paid for it, and left it at the shop to collect later on. We then realised it was lunchtime. Yet again we went into a Starbucks which sold NO sandwich sort of food (?!?!) and the staff looked flummoxed as we came in, and left abruptly, wondering what it was we had expected. We found a sandwich bar further down the road and ate there instead.

After lunch, we went straight to Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s Chinese Garden which was on our list of places to go. As time seemed to be flying by while we were shopping, we thought we would go there and finish shopping later. On the way to the Chinese Garden, the road we walked along was between Gastown and Chinatown. Neither of these places had a bad reputation, but the “Rough Guide” to Canada stated that the area in between the two is a mixture of a haven of second hand shops and “unpleasantly seedy, pocked with the dingiest of dingy bars and hotels, and inhabited by characters to match”. Well, all I have to say is that it was very true. Certainly about the “characters to match”. Honestly? Everyone on that street looked wither homeless or inbred....or both..! Many strange-looking people were here – it was very weird indeed!
Anyway, once at the Chinese Garden, it was all quiet and relaxing, despite being in the middle of this bustling city. We had complimentary tea and a guided tour to, which was quite interesting as we learned how the Chinese think or thought (in the Ming Dynasty) of gardens and meditation. Also, Dr. Sun Yet Sen’s Garden is made of Chinese materials whereas the public Chinese Garden next to it, is made of North American materials made to look Chinese. I thought it clever how they both shared a pond and looked like one Garden, and I particularly liked how we had to walk around it in order to see everything. It’s what made this kind of Garden really quite interesting. And we saw cute little turtles basking in the sun too! Yey!

After our visit to the Garden, we strolled back into Gastown (same route, same dodgy people, plus a guy dressed as a cowboy clutching a bunch of flowers like he’d just grabbed them from someone’s garden and a box of chocolates tucked under his arm.....), collected the suitcase, went home on the Seabus and back to the B&B.

We went to the “Tantra Grill” which was reasonably priced, AND had a view over the water of the Vancouver skyline. We had some VERY nice food plus “amazing” cheesecake. It was DAMN good cheesecake! Plus the Vancouver skyline – did I mention that? ;oD