Granville Island and the Magical Duck Island (Throwback post)

Granville Island, Vancouver

Granville Island is worth a visit while in Vancouver, especially if you want to buy any of the local arts and crafts.  The island is home to various studios and shops covering a broad range of specialities.

Granville Island, Vancouver



It is also a good place for food and drink, as there is a great little wine shop here, and a fairly well stocked food market.  It also has the excellent Edible Canada bar and restaurant and the Granville Island Brewing Company.  The latter is not licensed to sell alcohol, only to let you buy a few small tasters, but it is a good opportunity to try out those in the range that you don't often see in the bars

Granville Island, Vancouver

Our other alcohol tasting on Granville Island was in the form of sake, at the Artisan Sake Maker.  Not what we had expected to find here, but then we hadn't realised that Vancouver had such a big Asian population.  Masa Shiroki set up his sake winery in January 2007, fermenting his own rice and bottling it by hand.  Rather than sticking to the usual Japanese process of making one batch per year, he makes small batches throughout the seasons, to create different tastes that will go with the more varied North American foods, and so is better suited to the local market.
 



He uses premium Junmai rice, originally imported from Japan, but now grown by him in British Columbia. The quality of the sake depends on how much the grains of rice are polished down.  The more that is taken off the outside, the better the sake.

Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

We did a tasting of a few different styles, with lots of helpful information from the woman serving us.  We liked them very much, and would certainly recommend giving them a go.

Granville Island, Vancouver

We also ventured out to the Richmond Park night market. The market bit was rubbish in our opinion, as it was just a lot of mass produced that, but it did have a lot of food stalls, some of which were quite interesting.



Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

Nic started practising for Asia, with the Bakudanyaki, an interesting, but apparently enjoyable mix of seafood, cabbage a rice cake.



Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

I opted to try the Dragon's Beard Candy, a kind of filled candyfloss. Not as adventurous admittedly, but it was fascinating to watch them make it.




Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

The other notable thing about the market was the array of ducks around. They were doing this magical duck thing that had been trending around Asia, so they had the big duck, and a selection of smaller painted ones.



Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

There was some kind of gamecard that you could do, which involved getting stamps from different stalls. I guess that's one way to boost sales.



Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

Magical Duck Island, Vancouver

 

Stanley Park and totem poles (Throwback post)

Stanley Park, Vancouver

One of the main tourist spots in Vancouver is Stanley Park.  And with good reason.  We rented some bikes from EzeeRiders in Robson Street, one of many rental shops near to the entrance, and took a look around.

Stanley Park, Vancouver

Sat on the coastline, you can cycle around it quite easily, with nice views and the odd statue or bridge along the way to keep you interested.

There is an aquarium which is supposed to be quite good, but we were more interested in the totem park.



Stanley Park, Vancouver

The totem park has collected together a number of First Nations' totem and house poles.  The totem pole was normally placed in a prominent place for gatherings, whereas the house poles, as the name suggests, were placed either side of the doorway into a home.  The carvings on them usually specifically refer to, and sometimes depict, the occupants and their ancestors.



Stanley Park, Vancouver

When you see a collection, you can tell the difference because the house poles are flat and undecorated on the rear, which went up against the house wall, whereas the totem poles are carved and decorated all the way around.



Stanley Park, Vancouver



Vancouver

Stanley Park, Vancouver

Stanley Park, Vancouver



Vancouver MOA

We discovered more about the poles and the First Nation's traditions and culture at the Museum of Anthopology.  This was an excellent museum, and we could have spent days looking through the many drawers of artifacts about people and cultures around the world.



Vancouver MOA

Instead we took a short tour and focussed on the First Nations people of Canada.  It is an excellent museum and well worth a visit.






Vancouver MOA

Vancouver MOA



Vancouver MOA

Vancouver MOA

Vancouver MOA

Vancouver in technicolour (Throwback post)



Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

At the start of May we flew from Edmonton to Vancouver and immediately noticed the difference that 500 miles makes.


Vancouver

Where still chilly Edmonton was just losing its snowy covering and looking dreary in the slushy brown mud and a few dark evergreens, Vancouver was warm, sunny (a bit too sunny for walking with a heavy backpack), and ablaze with greenery and colourful flowers.



Vancouver

We were staying in an Airbnb near to Commercial Street, which is a real neighbourhood area of town.  There are nice leafy streets of family homes as you go towards Main Street, but around Commercial Street itself, the locals tend to be younger and hipper.  Lots of students and more than the average number of piercings, tattoos and unusual clothing choices!




Vancouver

It was a great area to stay in for a while as it had a cheap cinema, inexpensive places to eat - including St Augustine's, which was excellent for craft beers as well as great value and very tasty wings on Wednesdays - but was still walking distance to Main Street and only a quick bus ride into the centre.
 






Vancouver

We did a bit of touristy stuff here, but mostly just 'lived' here, so. it was good to be near to the shops and bars of Main Street.  We took quite a liking to one bar, although we felt a little out of place at times as I'm sure we were the only people there who didn't have multiple, sizeable tattoos.  We also discovered that Vera's Burgers are very good, and decent value.
 






view from Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver



Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Main Street is also home to Queen Elizabeth Park, which has a small aviary at the top of the hill, but more importantly offers a great view over Vancouver.

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver



Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver












When we were there it was graduation day, and this is where they all turned up to have photos taken in their fancy frocks.


Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

It was certainly a colourful sight, and I rather liked the groups of girls that made the effort to stand according to the shades of colours, or the one group that went for the rainbow sequence.

Gastown, Vancouver

We did spend some time downtown.  The older gas light district was probably the most interesting to walk around.  Of course we needed a few breaks, and made a couple of fortuitous finds.

Gastown, Vancouver

One was East Van Roasters, an artisinal chocolate shop in Gastown that is part of the Rainier Hotel, and aims to give shelter and employment to women with a history of addiction.  They import the cacao beans in their raw state and roast them on site before shelling them and using them to make really excellent chocolate.  We took away a bag of the cacao shells after discovering how tasty and healthy they are infused as a tea.



East Van Roasters, Vancouver

East Van Roasters, Vancouver

Gastown, Vancouver

Our other find was Salt Tasting Room, which was predominately a sherry bar, with an excellent range.

We also had an unexpected surprise in Vancouver, when we got a message from Vanessa and Bert, a couple from Belgium who we met whilst on our Dragoman trip in South America.  They happened to be in Vancouver briefly while we were there, so it was great to meet up with the for a quick drink and to catch up on their news.  We knew they had got married since we last met, and now they were expecting their first baby (which they will have long had by the time I get around to posting this!). So we send our Congratulations to them both.