Europe Day 1: Whitehorse to Vancouver
Today is the first of 38 days of the grandest Adventure Cathy and I have ever been on. Although it wasn’t intended that way, perhaps it is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of our first meeting, at Carcross on June 10, 2000. We’re starting in Paris, then most of the trip will be a 28-day cruise that visits Norway, Iceland, and Greenland primarily.
We checked in at the Air North counter at 10:20, early enough for our 11;50 flight that it was still very quiet.
There wasn’t much activity on the field.
A couple of water bombers taking off perked up a few of us in the waiting area. N419BT is a Canadair CL-215T operated by Bridger Aerospace from Montana.
Our flight was half an hour late, but at 12:15 I shot this photo of C-FVGF, an Aerospatiale ATR 42, from my seat in a Boeing 737.
The never-ending construction has the main runway closed again, but at 12:29 we taxied across it to what will some day once again be the secondary runway.
I’d love to see a report some day of what exactly they’re doing. I got a good look at it as we took off, though.
As expected, wildfire smoke reduced visibility a lot. There are 2 fires just north of Atlin as of a couple of days ago, and I expect the people on the other side of the plane got a look at them. On my side, the incredibly rugged peaks between Atlin and Juneau could be seen at 12:46.
The Llewellyn Glacier a few seconds later.
I got a couple more photos of the Brucejack gold mine north of Stewart. I first saw it in 2021 – the final 15 km or so of the access road from the Stewart-Cassiar Highway to the mine was built down the middle of the Knipple Glacier.
I didn’t shoot any more photos on the way to Vancouver, where we landed at about 2:30. Cathy and I both enjoy the Canada Line when we’ve reserved a hotel close to it, and that was the case this time. At 3:05 we were nearing the train station.
Getting tickets was confusing, but Cathy eventually got it done. Though it didn’t seem like the right tickets, it was all the machine would offer, so it would have to do 🙂
I got a seat one back from the front of the train, an excellent photo location 🙂
The number of buildings going up around the first station north of the Fraser River (Marine Drive Station) has been incredible. Convenience and a great view are certainly a marketable combination.
From here to downtown, the Canada Line runs underground.
By setting the big camera to ISO 16000 and 1/200th of a second, I got a few decent photos of the tunnel and stations.
Downtown, you come up from the Canadian Line into the beautiful and historic Canadian Pacific Railway station, built in 1910.
From there to the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel is only a couple of blocks. The Celebrity Solstice, a gorgeous ship that took us to Hawaii, was docked in front of the hotel at Canada Place.
At check-in, we were asked if we’d like to upgrade to Fairmont Gold for $120. The list of perks sounded good, and we accepted. That turned out to be a very good move. At 4:15 we walked into room 916, and were very pleased 🙂
The room description led us to believe there would be no water view, but there was.
It took a minute to figure out where some nice music was coming from – it was a busker on the sidewalk below.
At 5:00 the Solstice departed on a 7-day Alaska itinerary.
The old Alaska state ferry Bartlett is still moored at what used to be the main commercial fishing boat area.
Architecture is one of the things I love the most about Vancouver, and year after year, decade after decade, I keep photographing the infinite variety of details like this tower on the Sinclair Centre.
The Fairmont Gold upgrade got us access to a large lounge on the 9th floor. It has both inside and outside areas, both peaceful places to enjoy our stay.
Six floors below is the swimming pool.
This broad view also brought some details to my attention.
My favourite building in Vancouver, the Marine Building, an Art Deco gem that dominated the skyline when I was kid, now peeks out here and there between new towers.
On top of the Lot 19 building at the bottom centre of the broad view is this deluxe-looking patio.
There are so many great places in Vancouver for people to relax, like this spot right below us.
The Fairmont Waterfront has a rooftop garden and apiary. They have tours every day at 3 pm, but we unfortunately had to leave about then.
We went out for a walk along the waterfront, and this Coast Guard ship, Naalak Nappaaluk, was one of the vessels that sailed by. Launched last August, she has just started sea trials.
A deluxe expedition ship, the Roald Amundsen, took the berth where the Solstice had been, and we walked over to a very large public space that offered a good look at it.
That space also offered a colourful addition to that view.
The view to the east looks over the ramp to the Seabus ferries that run across the harbour to North Vancouver, to what’s left of the railyards and beyond.
A Seabus.
Walking back to hotel, I spotted a McDonald’s sign and suddenly got a craving for a filet of fish! Weird – I hadn’t had one in decades. With that accomplished, though, our route took us up alongside this wonderful water feature.
Back on the 9th-floor patio, I noticed two Vancouver City Police cars parked below, with their emergency lights on. Two other police cars joined them, without lights, but though they stayed for a long time I never did figure out what brought them.
Looking directly up from my seat on the patio.
The inside part of the Fairmont Gold lounge.
Getting back to our room at 8:45, we were reminded what we love about Fairmont – their attention to the little details. Our bed had been made after a nap messed it up, and there was a pitcher of cold water and a pair of slippers on each side of the bed.
A final photo from our room at 9:35 as our busy day ended.
I wrote this post while sitting on our Icelandair flight – it was pretty tight but I made it work. Nearing the end of writing it, we passed over Greenland at 37,000 feet, but clouds completely obscured it. When I finished it was 01:11 in Vancouver, and we were exactly one hour from Reykjavik. We had a short break there and then continued on to Paris, another 3 hour flight. I’m posting this from our hotel in Paris. What a start to this Adventure!
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What a fantastic way to kick off such a long-awaited adventure! Loved the behind-the-scenes details about the flight, Vancouver architecture, and especially the view from the Fairmont — the Marine Building is one of my favorites too.
I’ve been writing about travel stories and visual experiences too — feel free to check it out. Looking forward to reading more from your trip — especially the cruise part!