Vancouver - Downtown

So the reason for the trip to Vancouver is that we have a house sitting job for the next couple of weeks in West Van (north and west (obviously!) of the main city in an area near Horseshoe bay which is on the way to Whistler).

But we have to spend a couple of days in a hotel before we go to the house. We are staying in the downtown area near Granville Island which has a really good public market and loads of little eateries.

We arrive on Thursday a bit later than planned but the sat nav system is working okay... it came with the car and the last update was in 2003 (OS chums.. I know!). Its so old it doesn't have Kelowna on the map let alone where we are in Carr's Landing, but the GPS is doing a grand job of tracking us so maybe I will be able to sell the update to TomTom! However in the city, despite the 5 year time lag we are doing well....until we spot that she's not that bright on the one way system and we had a few hairy turns until we worked that one out...luckily THE LAMINATED MAP was to hand (thanks Sue, Sara and Eddie) and we got to the hotel in one piece.... or perhaps peace would be more accurate.

The hotel has a sauna and jacuzzi on the top floor and Mr R was able to get some pictures of the great sight seeing weather! Basically it started snowing on Friday and didn't stop until Monday and it was damn cold!

Vancouverites are even less prepare for the snow that we were so the driving was fun to watch...no snow ploughs, no snow tyres! Pavements not so fun as I went down on my backside/head and had a sore noggin for a couple of days, also got food poisining in a Chinese restaurant on Friday night...not nice! Mr R had to go and see the Maritime museum all on his own..

But there was fun stuff - we went to an exhibition by an Haida artist Bill Reid (no relation unfortunately) as his work is fabulous http://www.billreidfoundation.org/bill_reid.htm... and also Science World (the golf ball shaped building in the picture) which was filled with puzzles (as in make a T shape out of 4 odd pieces, undo the string from the ring without causing the end of the universe) and tests, including wheelchair racing (boy do you need upper body strength...which I don't have) and splat the rats variants, and then you get a little river taxi back to the hotel.

We also found a great restaurant near the hotel called the Twisted Fork - only open a month and the food was mouthwatering. You can order plates to share (kind of like extra large tapas) and we had the best mussels I have ever tasted with a mouth watering sauce, gruyere and onion tart with pear chutney, asparagus with roasted basalmic mushrooms and basil mozzarella, crab cakes and a molten chocolate cake with orange sorbet and red wine sauce...not that I memorized the menu or anything! Plus the Fat Cat beer was like a taste of home according to Mr R and all for under £30!

We also met Barb who we are house/cat sitting for and her two cats Razzle and Baby - huge maine coons, fluffy and lovely - Baby likes laps and isn't too keen on outside so its kinda of like have Spud on steriods!

Monday saw us leave the hotel and head for West Van....