We flew from Atlanta to Vancouver (via Salt Lake City; no direct flights from Atlanta to Vancouver) on Thursday, September 24th (2015), arriving at The Georgian Court Hotel in downtown Vancouver late in the afternoon. We unpacked, had a nice meal in the hotel restaurant (Italian), and decided to settle in for the night and get an early start in the morning. We'd have all day Friday to explore Vancouver as our train didn't leave until Friday evening at 8:30.
Vancouver is a wonderful city to visit: not so big as to be overwhelming, but with plenty of places to explore. We checked out of the hotel Friday morning and took a taxi to the Pacific Central train station to deposit our luggage at the VIA Rail Canadian office.
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The old (opened in 1919) Pacific Central station used by VIA Rail.
We then bought tickets for the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus system that makes a two-and-a-half-hour circuit of Vancouver. Buses run every 15 or 20 minutes, and it's a good way to see the city. You can hop on or hop off anytime at any of the bus stops. We hopped on and back off a number of times, ending up in Gastown, one of the older parts of the city, and quite busy with tourists. We explored Gastown, grabbed a quick dinner, then took a taxi to the train station. I didn't take many pictures in Vancouver. We were too busy enjoying ourselves. Below are several pictures and videos I did take.
A clock on a corner in Gastown. What's so special about it? It's a ...
This video was taken from Prospect Point in Stanley Park, a huge tract of land at the north end of the city. You're looking at Lion's Gate Bridge, which spans the inlet between English Bay and the Vancouver Harbour. The houses and hills across the inlet constitute West Vancouver. Here's more about Stanley Park.
We found an old roundhouse and locomotive (like magnets to me) at one of the bus stops. Naturally I took a couple of pics.
At the end of our train trip in Toronto we found another old roundhouse, but I didn't have my camera with me or you'd suffer those pictures when you get to the Toronto page of our trip.
