So we arrive in Vancouver somewhat jaded and disorientated after little sleep and an arrival time of 6am. Notwithstanding that fact we manage to find the train station, get on the right train and find our hostel.
Now Gemma and I are not total princesses but we passed the likes of the higher end shops into the realms of Vancouver's 'adult shop' district only to stumble upon our hostel. We drop our bags off but not before we have a suitably hysterical moment with regards to the names that they had come up with.
Bags dropped off and we head out looking for strong coffee and a good hot chocolate. We venture out finding the sea front, shopping centres and thankfully a good coffee shop. After re-fuelling for an hour or so we head back check in and start what can only be described as a panic planning session prompted by the fact we had, had trouble booking any hostels up to now. The next five hours pass in a flash of spending money and writing notes of what we are actually doing! Feeling accomplished we grab some food and celebrate our achievements.
Wanting to make sure we tick all the Vancouver boxes we start book to head out of town to Whistler for the day (on a bear hunt). We depart at 8.20 am arriving in Whistler 1 hour and 45 mins later. On the advice of the ticket office we head up the first mountain by gondola and then up to the summit point. Up at the top we take in the views and take enough pictures to fill a book. One amazing view is followed by an equally beautiful one. Heading back down to the first mountain we jump on board the peak to peak gondola. This is the highest and longest of its kind. (Still on bear watch). On the other mountain we make our way to a fairly easy hike loop and take in yet more views and even some wildlife. Still no bears!
Our shuttle back to Vancouver was at 3 so we head down to the village on the chair lift to make the most of the panoramic views we were faced with. It really was a tough day!! The tranquil and peaceful journey was disturbed by shouting from two chairs in front of us. OH MY GOD IT'S A BEAR!! A real life actual bear just below us in the field just chilling out in the sun. This made our day! Bear watch successful.
Revelling in our excitement of seeing a bear we grab our shuttle back to the city.
The next day we decide that we would jump on bikes and scale the sea wall (bike path) stopping off at 3rd beach for a quick pit stop (falling asleep and waking up bronzed an hour later) back on our bikes we continue round the wall and through Stanley park. Whiling away 6 hours on the bikes and somewhat saddle sore we scrub up and push on through heading to Vancouver's revolving bar / restaurant to watch the sunset and enjoy a glass of wine.
Having chosen to exert ourselves on the bikes around town the previous day we feel it is only appropriate to accept the Grouse Grind challenge from our friend Jess (who we met on our travels in the outback last year) Jess fetches us at noon and we head toward the mountain commonly know and 'mother natures stair master' 2830 stairs, 853m elevation gain over 2.9 km. we set off at a good pace and complete it in 1 hour 12 minutes. Feeling triumphant we reach the top and are greeted with cloud. No views at all ( probably best for those reading this as you do not have to listen to me bleet on about how amazing they were or how my pics do not do it justice) freshened up we head down in the gondola and head back into the city for our amazing picnic that Jess had put together. Gemma and I were delighted by this. Not only because we got to catch up with Jess after a year but also because we got to feast on cheese, bread, salads and fruits all washed down with Gin and homemade lemonade (our hostel had no kitchen. We were feeling deprived of proper food) A perfect sunny picnic with great company in Vancouver.
This was our last day in Vancouver before we began our mini road trip over to Tofino, Vancouver island.