A day of discovery in Vancouver
On Monday we had a broad overview of Vancouver, yesterday we visited a few of the many attractions to see the details.
This was the view from our 9th-floor room at the Westin Bayshore. A local we chatted with yesterday pointed out that while the downtown areas of many cities become ghost towns when the offices close, downtown Vancouver is very much residential, with apartments outnumbering offices by a substantial margin.
We fueled up for the morning at the hotel restaurant, with a local speciality that I’m a huge fan of – smoked salmon Eggs Benedict. Yuuuum! I was first introduced to this dish at the Westmark hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska, a couple of decades ago.
The public art in Vancouver is quite remarkable. We spent a while with this piece that tunnels into various aspects of Vancouver history.
We approached this building from the right side and I thought that it was quite ugly. Then I saw that it was designed to look like a ship! What a wonderful way to honour the city’s maritime heritage.
There’s a ship on the street sign as well, but as there are planes and trams on other street signs, I don’t really know what’s being said.
Another of the many old-and-new building details that I photographed.
Here the new building actually hangs over the small old buildings.
The main focus of the day was the University of British Columbia (UBC). We walked to the Waterfront station of the Canada Line…
… and got off at the Broadway station, where we got on a bus headed out to UBC. This was the first transit bus I’ve ever been on! It wasn’t on my Bucket List, but… 🙂
We got a series of bad advice from people who should know better and getting to our first stop, the Museum of Anthropology (MoA), was a long, frustrating process. We didn’t arrive until 1:30 pm, 3 hours after leaving our hotel. It is an incredible place, though, worth whatever it takes to get there. The admission cost is $16.50 for adults, $14.75 for seniors.
At the entrance of the MoA is “Transformation, 2010” by Musqueam artist Joe Becker.
The spiritual power of this place needs to be experienced – it really can’t be described. What these poles must have seen when they lived in a coastal village.
These huge potlatch bowls were an important part of the culture, but aren’t seen in many Northwest Coast collections.
Bill Reid’s best-known sculpture, The Raven and the First Men, is displayed alongside four cases containing some of his other works in gold, silver, argillite, and wood. The sculpture illstrates a creation legend in which Raven finds a clamshell with people in it. He convinces then to come out and they become the first Haida.
Our stay at the MoA was too short – an entire day is needed, but 2½ hours was all we had time for. Even 4 days in Vancouver was just going to allow us a quick look at what Vancouver has to offer.
The next stop was across the street – the Nitobe Memorial Garden. This is widely considered to be the most authentic Japanese garden in North America, and among the top five Japanese gardens in the world outside of Japan. The aAdmission cost is $6 for adults.
Serenity is the theme. A self-guided tour is available on paper – no plaques will be seen to disrupt the natural flow.
The beauty is simply overwhelming.
Large and small, each feature has a distinct purpose. This stone basin (tsukubai) is used for ritual cleansing before tea ceremonies in the adjacent pavilion.
Just after 4:30, we started the trip back to town. There’s a great deal of small and large-scale construction going on at UBC.
The campus is extremely beautiful, but it is quite hard to find a sightline without construction fences or cranes at the moment.
Our trip back to the city centre was much quicker, and we reached our final attraction of the day, the Vancouver Lookout, at 5:30. The admission cost is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors.
One of the historic parts of downtown Vancouver.
The industrial part of downtown Vancouver.
A general view of the downtown core.
Stanley Park, with a freighter arriving after coming under the iconic Lions Gate Bridge.
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