Whistler  3rd and 4th October and Victoria, Vancouver Island 5th to 8th October 2017

Always wanted to see Whistler after Sarah travelled there 10 years ago to work for 6months in the ski season. He description and love of the place did not disappoint in any way shape or form. It is such pretty place and I can only imagine what it would be like to visit at the height of the season. No wonder Sarah fell in love with the place and she was staying in a hostel not the opulent Fairmount like we were. I could have just absorbed the hotel for the two days, so much to experience without leaving the place.  We did wander down and caught a local bus who kindly told us if we stayed on the bus we could take in his whole run up to other parts of the mountain. He said he was the number bus driver which he was as he shared so much information about the whole area while we communicated with the locals. He dropped us back to Whistler village where we did some shopping, tried poutine in Sarah’s favourite pub before catching the hotel shuttle back to the hotel for a spell, both getting tired now. Whistler you are so pretty can’t wait to come back someday soon.

The pictures won’t do the place justice but have to share just the same

After our final leg back into Vancouver and saying goodbye to new friends and the most comfortable train I will ever travel on we headed back to Vancouver by shuttle and check back into No 1 Canada Bay for the night.

The next morning we up early so as to not miss our pick up and transfer to the coach that was taking us to Vancouver Island via the BC Ferry.  A bit of waiting around but eventually we were on the coach from the train station and headed to the ferry terminal.  It never ceases to amaze me how many vehicles including large semi-trailers and buses can go on one ferry.  We were soon up on deck enjoying a coffee and a look around before settling back to enjoy the 2-hour long ride. Disembarking was as smooth as embarking all on the bus, wait our turn and off the ferry and on our way in no time.  The drop off point was just behind our hotel for the next two night, the worldly and magnificent Fairmount Empress Hotel. It is the only place to stay when enjoying such a beautiful place as Vancouver Island.  After choosing the longest and most stairs to access the hotel we were eventually checked in and had booked our day trip to Burchart gardens for the next day.  We decided on a walk around after resting up for a while and explored the main shopping area and found a good pub for a meal before heading back for an early night.

We decided on a good breakfast in the hotel before heading out to the front of our hotel to pick up our tour bus for the day trip to the Butchart Gardens.

I am not going to say much about the gardens and let the pictures speak for themselves but seriously if there is an opportunity to visit do so as it worth the time and money and will go down as a highlight for this trip for sure.

We decided to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner in the hotel restaurant as the last dinner in Canada for this trip. It was delicious and we really savoured every moment of the whole dining experience, the surroundings, the food and the excellent service.

Time to go and reorganise the bags for our return to Australia. The next morning we stayed in the room until check out before cloaking our bags with the hotel. We decided to the hop on hop off bus for a couple hours to fill in the day and have a good look around  Victoria. This took us a couple hours and the commentary provided insight into some the history and interesting places within the city. After making our way back to the hotel we still had a couple hours to kill so settled in to the bar and with a couple Pimms, our flight was a late one from Vancouver but we did need to be on our ferry connector bus at 4pm to start the crossing back to the mainland and to the airport.

As always it is a relief to get checked in at the airport and get to the gate heading home, another trip with no missed connections, incidents and no one getting sick is always a blessing.  Slept most of the way home as per my usual go on plane watch couple movies eat then sleep the rest of the flight. That is trip 3 of 4 overseas trips for this year. Definitely going to take a break next year maybe just one or two at most.

Another amazing trip draws to a close – Oh Canada we have hardly scratched the surface so we will be back…

So many more photos – no time to share them

A glimpse of the highlights..

 

 

 

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Mum and I set off on our long-planned trip to see a small part of Canada in the fall.  Our flight from Sydney on Air Canada Flight 34 was uneventful and quite comfortable l, lucky enough to have two seats at back to ourselves.

 

After arriving in Vancouver and clearing customs in record time we in back of a cab and head on the x mile ride to downtown Vancouver. Vancouver definitely hadn’t woken up yet and our first glimpse was of a bit of untidy shutdown city. It may just have been the streets we were on to avoid traffic as we never saw this side of Vancouver again.

It proved to be a very pretty green city that is easy to navigate. Out lodgings were the Pan Pacific Hotel at number Canada Place.

A lovely hotel which was home for next 3 nights. After a walk down to Old Town (checked out the steam clock, it nice area but very touristy) and had a coffee while we waited for our room to be ready.

 

After our coffee, we headed back to finish our wait in the comfortable lobby. The hotel had us checked as soon as they had a room free which was a couple hours early which we both appreciated and head straight to shower before settling in to watch the coming and going of the seaplanes on Vancouver harbour and relaxing.

With help of concierge, I booked the hop on hop off bus for day two and a tour to Grouse Mountain & Capilano Bridge Tour for the following day. Dinner was in-house at the restaurant which was very nice and it wasn’t long before we turned in for our first night on Canadian soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast at Tim Horton’s, we set out to board the Hop on

Hop off the bus and set off for Stanley Park. Designated a national historic site of Canada, Stanley Park is a magnificent green oasis in the midst of the heavily built urban landscape of Vancouver.

Explore the 400-hectare natural West Coast rainforest and enjoy scenic views of the water, mountains, sky, and majestic trees along Stanley Park’s famous Seawall. Discover kilometres of trails, beautiful beaches, local wildlife, great eats, natural, cultural and historical landmarks, along with many other adventures.

We had a full but enjoyable day which includes a small ferry ride across to Granville Market I mean a short ferry ride is a small ferry. The markets were well worth the visit and we lunched there and wandered around for an hour or so before heading up the hill to rejoin the Hop on Hop off bus on the other line to continue our journey. This took the rest of the day with one more hop off at the Chinese gardens in china town. Back to hotel for a rest before heading out cheesecake factory in the old town for dinner. We fell into to bed feeling like we had good look at Vancouver in one day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we decided on a hotel breakfast before our full day tour to Capello Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain and the salmon hatchery. Wow so glad we did this tour. It was great to see a couple of bears up close which was a highlight.

The lumberjack show was great despite the very poor visibility due to heavy fog. It was a shame when coming down in the cable car we could actually see more than a few inches in front of us. The sights going down the very steep mountain would have been amazing. The suspension bridge was good to see and experience. It had cleared a bit by then and so views were pretty amazing. After an hour or so on the bus ( we didn’t mind needed to the rest) we arrived right back at the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner was a few goodies and coffee from Tim Horton’s before packing the bags ready for our early taxi to the airport for our short flight to Prince Rupert.