First day in #Vancouver visit to #StanleyPark

We managed to disembark the cruise ship fairly quickly as we now choose to take our own cases. The idea was to get a taxi but the queue was too long and we decided to walk to the hotel. This had been a fairly easy walk to the harbour as it was  downhill and the cases wheeled themselves. This was not the case going uphill. I'm sure my arms were inches longer by the time we arrived.

​After booking in we had to decide what to do next. Eventually we just decided to wander around the area. The first area we found had a superb farmer's market. We were sorely tempted by the fruit but couldn't have eaten the amount they had to be purchased in. 

Next we found the city art gallery and this proved to be a gem of a find; you can read details about this in my next blog.

As it was such a nice day we decided to get the bus to Stanley park and boarded the first one we could find. When we asked if the bus went to the park the driver said we would be better off walking as the traffic was so bad,so off we set. And she was right!

 After having a drink and something to eat by the Aquarium, we followed a couple of the footpaths to explore the area. The first one led us to the lily covered pond, which was slowly being taken over by the vegetation. The most impressive sights were the large trees on the sides of the path particularly the stumps that were often highly coloured. These were slowly rotting or other plants were growing out of them.

After walking for a couple of hours we made our way towards the exit. Being the weekend, the park was very busy and it was nice to see how many people were enjoying the area; you just had to watch out when crossing the bike lanes.

On the way out it was nice to see local artists displaying their work. Although the man in the middle picture became quite aggressive when I took the photograph. I'm not sure if he thought I was going to copy his paintings or if he was just having a bad day.

 A really nice park and well worth a visit or two. With more time and if it hadn't have been so hot we may have seen more of it but it was interesting to just have a glimpse of what it offered.  A walk back  along the marina and Coal Harbour, passing designer yachts and condominiums took us back to our hotel. A lovely and successful first day!