Walking the Streets

Vancouver is a very easy city to negotiate, particularly when on foot. It is laid out in regular blocks on a regular grid and best of all it is relatively flat, so up until now I have been walking everywhere. That means I get to see things, but I am usually pretty tired by the end of the day. I do have a book of transport tickets, so I must start using them.
Yesterday dawned pretty fine, that is with no signs of black clouds and drizzly rain. As it turned out it got to a balmy 12C - I felt quite at home actually, and was stripping layers off in the shops. So I hit the track and headed downtown to check some sights.
Started the morning at the Vancouver library, a pretty stunning building with a facade resembling the Colosseum  in Rome, with light filled glassed areas and filling a full city block.Believe it or not, when I asked there is not one piece of printed material available at the library with information about the construction etc, I was directed to the Wikipedia  page!!!!


As the weather was still holding I headed off to the observation tower to check out the city views, and from the top the views were pretty good, although not entirely clear.




From there down into Gastown a well know tourist area of the city, with it's old cobblestone streets and gaslamps and the beautiful old steam driven clock, the most photographed item in Vancouver I am told. I was lucky enough to be there when the whistle blew it's tune and the steam belched out everywhere. Apparently this has just been repaired - so doubly lucky.


It was then a case of just keep walking, this time along the waterfront to Canada Place, where the large cruise liners dock in summer and much of the Olympic opening events of 2010 took place. The large cauldron for the Olympic flame is there and the "Leggo" Orca and great views over to the North shore and the mountains.


Then continued walking to check out the famous Robson  St shopping strip and of course the 2nd biggest Victoria's Secret shop - you just gotta' when you are here. It is amazing, just like all the adds you see, with all this amazing underwear everywhere. Lucky me, it was the last day of their sale and already marked down goodies were another 50% reduced. I came out with a bag of 3 things, only one of which is a present for my niece - the rest for me, and all for a price less than the cheapest item . What fun!
     
                                       
By the time I staggered back to the apartment - with exhaustion, not the weight of purchases, I don't have room for any more rocks in my case! it was all I could do to walk the dog, but in an apartment, these things have to be done.

Decided that as it is misty, moisty again today, a day to catch up is a good idea, and I need to wait for the credit card to tick over to the next cycle - been giving it a bit of a hard time lately.