Vancouver and Whistler

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To break the long journey home from Fiji we decided to spend a few days in Vancouver. We had heard that its a great city to visit and we were keen to see it for ourselves.

The city is situated by a large natural harbour and to the north it has a backdrop of snow-covered mountains. Within one hour you could be skiing or snowboarding down one of the peaks. It has some great restaurants and some peaceful leafy suburban streets.

A pleasant city set amongst beautiful scenery

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The greatest asset that the city has is undoubtedly Stanley Park, it is one of the largest public parks in North America. It stands on the end of a peninsula that dominates the harbour and contains some spectacular woodland, tranquil lakes and inviting stretches of grass. We spent a few hours in the park, doing the horsedrawn tram tour and having a quick round of the putting green. The park was still pretty damaged as a result of a massive storm in December 2006. The wardens estimated that up to 10,000 trees in the park were uprooted and its going to take months for them to sort it out.

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The next day we decided to head up the coast to Whistler, which is an unmissable thing to do if you're coming to Vancouver. We took the train up to Whistler and got the coach back into town. That way we had two different views of the spectacular journey.

The train took us through the exclusive suburbs of West Vancouver, round the edge of Howe Sound through a canyon and then up into the mountains. You couldn't fail to be impressed by the scenery - the views of the snow-capped mountains, the breathtaking canyons and the dramatic beauty of Howe Sound. Once we arrived in Whistler we headed up the Blackcomb Cable Car and chairlift to get a panoramic view of the mountains. We sat out and eat our lunch in t-shirts while skiers and snowboarders zoomed down the mountain. The journey back took us to a couple of picturesque waterfalls and gave us some more spectacular views of Howe Sound. It was a great day-trip.

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The other excursion that we did was to head up Grouse Mountain to get a view of Vancouver city below. Although the view of the city was a little disappointing, there was lots to do on the mountain itself. We watched a lumberjack show and then went to look in the Grizzly Bear enclosure. As we admired the captive Grizzly, Catherine looked up the ski run and saw a wild black bear. we got pretty close to it before it scampered off into the trees. We walked around for a bit and saw some nice views of the surrounding mountains.

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So this was to be the final day of our round-the world trip. We will have fond memories of Vancouver. Its a lovely city to visit and the surrounding countryside is stunning. This has definitely given us the appetite to come back to Canada some day.