Vancouver, BC: April 25

April 25

Vancouver

Today we resumed our trolley tour of the city. We decided to ride the circuit around again, as we knew we had missed some of what we wanted to see. Plus another tour guide would have different points of emphasis.

On the ride through Stanley Park, this time I managed to get a picture of the statue sitting on a rock just below Lionsgate Bridge. She is called “Girl in a Wetsuit” by Elek Imredy. The city of Vancouver wanted to put up a statue similar to Copenhagen’s “Little Mermaid” in the harbor, but when they asked permission of Copenhagen, it was denied. Vancouver decided to go more contemporary and have a statue of a woman in a wet suit instead. Imredy’s wife was his model for the project.

“Girl in a Wetsuit” sits on a large rock a low tide, but at high tide, the waves cover the rock and she appears to sit on the water, or just below the surface depending on how high the tide has come in.


Vancouver is making an effort to cover street graffiti with murals and street art. It is hoped that the graffiti artists will not deface this street art. One example is the figure we saw under an overpass:
There was a corresponding figure on the other side of the street that I think Tom got a picture of.

I couldn't get this next shot in time (the trolleys go a bit fast to get some of the pictures you would like) so the angle is bad, but it shows how an entire wall of graffiti can be covered up with street art--in this case, a First Nation design. The driver said when he drove by on Friday he noticed the wall had been covered with graffiti overnight. He drove by on Monday and found a beautiful mural. This was on Granville Island. The same type of design is found on street banners there.

We rode through the main parts of Vancouver, including Coal Harbor (where they never did mine any coal, but low grade coal is there), Yaletown, Granville Island, Chinatown, and Gastown, admiring the buildings and landscaping. Everywhere you look high condo towers are rising. Many of them are sold out before the ground is even broken to start building.

We decided to explore Gastown as it looked interesting. Gastown has tons of restaurants, souvenir shops, specialty stores, and about anything else you can think of. We found some really neat shops, especially Roger’s Chocolates, which is a Vancouver institution. They give out free samples, which is just enough to whet your appetite and trap you into buying, just one—or so. They do have ice wine truffles. The clerk asked us if we had tried their Victoria creams, then was horrified that we had never tasted them—another sample. The chocolate is unbelievably good, and rich.

Gastown is named for Gassy Jack, John Deighton. Gassy Jack’s statue stands prominently at the entrance to Gastown on Water Street. Jack supposedly arrived in Vancouver with a barrel of whisky and a desire to start the first saloon in town. His nickname came from the nonstop talking and storytelling for which he was infamous. His nickname became part of the history of
Vancouver when the area around his saloon became know as Gastown, and still is to this day.

Believe it or not--we had to stand in line to get a picture of Gassy Jack. I thought that was great!

Besides Jack's statue, another well know tourist attraction in Gastown is the steam clock. It is not an antique (though it looks like one), but was built in 1977 based on 1875 plans. Its claim to fame is that it is the world’s only steam clock powered by steam from an underground system of pipes that supply heat to many downtown businesses. It sounds the time each hour with a steam whistle and plays “Westminster Quarters” on the quarter hour.

You can see some of the steam coming off the top of the clock in the picture. It is quite impressive when it plays on the quarter hour and billows clouds of steam.

We found a place for lunch that served no seafood, which is always a victory. There did not appear to be many tourists there, except for us with our cameras and paraphernalia.

When we had exhausted all that Gastown had to offer, we trudged to a trolley stop, but the driver whizzed on by without stopping. We were not amused. We walked back to the stop before that one, just in case we did have the wrong place (we didn’t). We found a little shop to check out on the way, so it wasn't a loss. We found some benches where we sat and people watched until the next trolley came by—pretty much on time. The system is great when it works.

Vancouver is amazing in its diversity. There are so many different ethnic groups and people of different orientations wherever you go. If you stand in one spot, within minutes you will hear half a dozen languages spoken, and see people dressed in a dozen different styles from the ridiculous to high fashion, traditional cultural dress to cutting edge. It is vital, active—an exciting place.

There is a large Chinatown, with about 35,000 Chinese residents, but West End has even more ethnic Chinese living there than reside in Chinatown. Japantown has shrunk in size due to a devastating fire that burned the wooden buildings, but there is a large Japanese presence still in the city.

The Chinese and Japanese markets are amazing, with their wares displayed in boxes on the sidewalks. If you have a craving for dried lizard, they can fix you right up! No matter what ails you, you can find an herbal remedy.

We debated driving through Stanley Park in the car to stop at some spots the trolley skipped over, but decided to wait until morning. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, of course, just as we leave. We have only seen Vancouver on rainy or cloudy days. But we still think it is wonderful.