3-May
The WestJet flight landed in Vancouver at 2:30 pm and this was a short flight from Calgary.
I had booked in Coast Tswassen Inn for our 4 night stay but I had done the booking in a rush and didn't realize that this was really far. we relied on Uber to get us to the hotel and the nicest part was that the taxi was a Tesla Model-3 and that was real fun.
It's a disorienting feeling to see no speedo/tacho/fuel gauge console and everything in a large console, the drive mode P/N/R change where the wiper control is and so on. However, the gen-Z driver seemed to be perfectly fine with all these and he also displayed the pull that EV motor provides by stepping on the accelerator pedal. Times-are-a-changing !
we reached our hotel Coast Tswassen Inn and this is a really nice hotel. It's also situated in the Delta area which appeared to have quite posh locality residences.
4-May
Decent breakfast at the hotel
After this, we planned to see the Capilano Suspension bridge and park.
This is very famous suspension bridge built over the Capilano river in North Vancouver. That's the main attraction and they have also built a treetop canopy which connects multiple trees in an extended area.
The capilano river rushes through a deep gorge with great force and the suspension bridge sways quite a bit when we walk the length of it and with so many people on the bridge at the same time, I must say it's a bit scary.
However, the bridge has been reinforced with good steel structures, so it should hold up. The bridge remains the chief attraction of this place.
The treetops adventure is a tall bridge platform built to connect one tall tree to another.
Now, apart from all this , Niranjan enjoyed the part where there was a knowledge-game for kids. There are several points at which there are enthusiastic park personnel explaining some cool bio concept to kids and once kids mark out all that in a form, they get a cool prize.
Overall, I don't rate the Capilano as good value for money. I think they have tried to build a park around just one main attraction and charging way too high for that.
After this, we took another Uber to go to our next stop - the Stanley Park. On route, we pass by the huge Lions Gate bridge over the Burrard inlet which connects the city of Vancouver to North Vancouver.
Stanley Park is a huge 1000 acre public park in British Columbia. It was designated as the top park in the entire world. The park also features forest trails for hiking, beaches, lakes, children play areas, an aquarium, horse driven cart rides and many more.
we first reached the Rose garden in Stanley park and took some nice pics of the flowers. The restaurant near Rose garden didn't have any vegetarian option and we had to make do with some biscuits.
we then headed towards the information booth ( near the start of the Horse drawn tours ) where we can get the bicycle rentals.
The main attraction in Stanley Park is the cycling along the seawall.
Nachiket could get the bike rental at the information booth using the Mobi by Shaw App and we started pedalling.
Anupama near the Prospect Point lighthouse overlooking the Lions Gate bridge.
Cyclists overtaking us kept warning us by saying "Coming to your left or coming to your right" and you have to give them way.
I had fun by saying the same in American English accent and overtaking Niranjan but then he gave me one back by overtaking me later in the trail using same method.
I was growing a little anxious because Nachiket wasn't feeling well and the bike drop points were few and spread quite a distance apart .
we finally dropped the rental bikes near the "third beach parking lot". we thought we could get something to eat , but the only eating joint just closed their doors.
Overall , I was very impressed by how they have divided the Stanley park areas next to the sea - first the pedestrian walk or jog paths, next to that is the cycling path for leisure cyclists ( which is one direction only ) , next to that is the car roads and also another path which is used by the fast cyclists. So well planned.
we decided to head back to the hotel by another Uber and cancelled other prior planned visits in the main Vancouver city area. View of the busy Vancouver metro area on the way back.
5-May
This was the day when we had to visit the Victoria but because Nachiket was not well, we cancelled the visit.
I took Niranjan to the Tswassen Mall for an hour and we had a brief but good time there.
6-May
Nachiket fully recovered within a day and we decided to go to Butchart gardens and Victoria.
The plan was to experience the sea-plane ride on the forward journey and the ferry on the return journey.
The Harbour air Sea-plane ride was A-W-E-S-O-M-E.
It was just a 12 seater airplane
Can see the Pilot with all the airplane controls !
The airplane crosses the ocean to reach the Vancouver Island and the views are breathtaking indeed
Alighted safely at the Victoria Harbour.
After this, we ordered a taxi from the desk of the Harbour air and requested the driver to do some pit stops at important landmarks. Note that there is no Uber available in Victoria.
First was the Fairmont Empress commonly referred to as Empress , is Victoria's most iconic hotel and faces the city's inner harbour. This is Chateau styled building the likes of which we saw in Quebec city.
Next up was the stop at the Parliament building , the legislative assembly of BC , is diagonally across the Empress hotel and also faces the inner harbour.
we got down from the taxi at the Butchart gardens.
Butchart gardens houses a large group of flower displays over 55 acres and is designated a National historic site of Canada. This garden was developed by Jennie Butchart and the ownership is still private, with the Butchart family.
At the entrance, a water wheel
The current map and the various garden groups that make up the whole area is shown below
Tulips are the flowers in the largest type and numbers.
The Sunken garden is probably is the most picturesque in the entire gardens :
More tulips
A dancing fountain within the gardens
Butchart cove which is the other end before we return back
The garden was kind of OK-ish , but I had expected a lot more variety and was really disappointed. I am not sure whether we were in the right season or not. I didn't see much roses at all in the rose garden.
- I wish there was some board with information next to the flower displays, they just handed over a booklet with all flowers and I didn't see anyone using that to figure out flower names
- If mostly they have tulips and not other flowers, then they should reduce the ticket price. I genuinely felt it's overpriced
- They should have some area where they explain how they tend and grow flowers, I didn't see any personnel who explains anything about the place
we took at taxi and went to the Indian hotel "Fresh Tandoori Flavour" Indian Bistro on Beacon Avenue at Sydney. Had a very good buffet lunch. Took some coins in exchange for note to board the bus.
Waiting for the bus at the bus stop on Fifth street to go to the Ferry terminal at Swartz Bay.
Ferry again was a super experience. It's so huge and we hardly notice that Ferry is moving. Aboard the Ferry and at the back of the deck , Titanic style !
On the upper most deck and it was very cold here !
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I could snap a speed boat next to the ferry
Had a good pizza from a close by shop and hit the bed.
7-May
The WestJet flight to Toronto departure was at 7 am , so we left the Hotel by 4:30 am. This was a longer flight from west to east of canada and we reached Toronto Airport at 2:30 pm.
Srivatsa and Niharika had come to pick us up at the airport.
As the car raced past , we pulled the curtains to a very eventful second leg of the Canada trip, a truly memorable one !
Important notes
Let me list down what i learnt about the geography of this region. Below is the picture of the area around Vancouver.
- The "metro Vancouver" or Vancouver city is where the international airport is and the busy city area, UBC and so on.
- Greater Vancouver region includes Vancouver and other municipalities - Burnaby , Richmond , Surrey , Delta , Langley and more .
- To get to the Coast Tswassen Inn which is in Delta , we have to go south first through Richmond and then to Delta area. Very funnily the southernmost portion of Delta belongs to USA, so border is very close.
- The Metro sky train only serves few municipalities and not the Delta surely. Because of this, I had to rely on Uber mostly ( the bus service is not very frequent and also takes longer ). See Sky train route map below.
- Surrey has large Sikh population and so naturally good Indian food joints, so perhaps a place closer to King George or Surrey central would have been better from both food/grocery shop options and metro accessibility perspective.
