Vancouver Central Library

In a city that has very little history, in the European fountains, churches and pillars tradition, Vancouver Library feels a bit like home in a strange way. Concrete and glass is the staple architectural look around these parts and the modern, actually planned out, squares, grids and blocks system of town planning gets a bit boring after a while.

So the Central Library of VPL takes up an entire block and is full of every genre of book you could want to get your grubby hands on. It is an impressive multi-story building, with an indoor courtyard area on the way in. This is almost European in feel with 'outdoor' cafe seating and cobblestone type paving. It's basically sitting outside on Quay Street in Galway with a ceiling 6 floors above you. And a few more homeless lads shuffling about from time to time.

Mount Seymour Snow Tube Park

One of the best things about Vancouver is that you can decide to do something completely new in the morning, be there my midday, do it and be home for dinner/work/whatever in the evening. Case in point, we went to Mount Seymour the other morning to try out the Snow Tube Park.

Snow Tubes are essentially inflatable tyres that you use to propel yourself headfirst down the side of a snowy mountain. We were initially a bit nervous about the whole thing, but once we saw schoolkids racing down and yelling YOLO ('You Only Live Once' for those of you over the age of 30) we were shamed into having a go.

There were 4 tracks to take, each with charming names like Tear Jerker and Kamikaze. We started with the slowest one, which looks a bit like this:

While it doesn't look particularly fast, it does feel it, especially the first couple of times until you get used to it. You then sit on your tube and get gently pulled up the slope on a conveyer belt. Emboldened by the vaguely taunting shouts of fun from the schoolkids, I ventured onto Kamikaze and brought my camera with me. Apologies for not hitting stop in time...

There's loads more to do up on the mountain like hiking, skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing and just general sightseeing. It takes about an hour from where we are in Vancouver, but that includes waiting around for buses. From what we're seeing every little snow village has it's own unique, quirky charm and it's easy to feel like you're getting away when it's actually 'just up the mountains'.

Hidden Stanley Park: Beaver Lake

So, instead of going on about how we were stopped at US border patrol when trying to get to our connecting flight back to Canada, having to run a la Home Alone 2 through the airport to catch the flight, herself being sick for a week after we got back and me looking for work, I'm going to talk some more about Stanley Park!

I have waxed lyrical (or at least shown lots of photos) about it already but we are still getting our heads around the sheer size of the place. With a 7 mile seawall/prom/walking or cycle path around the outside of the park, it is easy not to stray into the interior of the park. However, during one particularly adventurous cycle, I went 'off road' under a bridge and down the less beaten path. EXTREEEME. This was more like cycling around the back roads at home, ducking under branches, squeezing through gaps, traversing narrow natural bridges and no smooth tarmac here! Despite not having a notion where I was heading I managed to stumble across a forest lake.

What's great about this is that it's one of the few areas in Stanley Park that is completely cut off from civilisation. You are surrounded by forestry and cannot see the high rise buildings. There are also less people around so it is more peaceful than the busy seawall loop. Luckily it has been sunny here the last couple of days so when herself got a day off we took to our bikes (well, she rented hers) and made our way into the (sort of ) wilderness. Apologies to those who want more photos, I was to busy trying not to fall off my bike.

Canadians are/were srs about Christmas lights

I say this because

1. When they do them, they do them right!
2. They only do them in a designated non denominational holiday zone that you will not stumble upon accidentally and be offended if you are not a Christian. No lights on the main streets for fear of upsetting other folks. More proof that Canadians are more politically correct than fun at times..

All photos taken in Stanley Park when it was absolutely lashing rain!