Vancouver City tour and Smart Cars

Tuesday

Our day began with a really nice buffet breakfast of eggs benedict, fruit, potatoes, toast, etc.    Then we began our Vancouver tour in which we rode around the city with our tour guide pointing out things of interest.  We had 3 bathroom/ photography breaks and ended up at the city market, where any possible kind of fruit and vegetable was available along with various meats, crafts, and a food court.  

This happened just after noon on a Tuesday and the market area (not small) was wall-to-wall people.  Almost impossible to navigate the aisles without pushing and shoving and being pushed and shoved.   Interesting, but way too crowded for my comfort.

 One of the points of interest we saw was Stanley Park (named for the Stanley Cup man)  It covers 1000 acres and has dense forest portions which were used to film parts of the X Files t.v.show.  Some of the heavily forested areas are inhabited by homeless people.  In this city, the homeless are tolerated- rather than harassed.  The park police check on them frequently (supposedly) to be sure they aren’t doing anything dangerous (fires during drought/ drug use, etc)  

One place we 
stopped in the park had numerous Totem poles set up with a “gift” shop offering “Indian” curios.  I found a shirt I loved.  Black with a large red embroidered Thunderbird—what was the catch?  The only size was XXL.   Now every shirt I see doesn’t measure up to that one. 

 I mentioned   the    Smart    Car     rental    business in a previous post, well, I began counting the white and blue Smarites with "Car 2 Go" on them and in a few hours we had seen 34.   Saw 17 other Smarts in the same time frame.  I’ll have to do some Google research about this business.

One unusual sight was a high rise in downtown Vancouver with trees in pots covering the roof.

We got to the train station just in time to board and get our “sleeper room”.

And the train is another story for another day.

 

 This is the Inuit symbol for mankind (people) available in paperweights, necklaces, etc.  This example was in front of a commercial building in Vancouver.