Wednesday 11th July 2012 ­ Vancouver: Steam Clocks, Halibut & Chips and India Pale Ale with Kentish Hops!

What a beautiful city Vancouver proved to be as I made my way round on the Hop-on-Hop-off bus.  My guide book (DK Eyewitness Travel Canada) says that looking out towards the Georgia Straits Vancouver occupies one of the most beautiful settings in the world with the coastal mountains forming a majestic backdrop to the glass towers and copper-topped skyscrapers.  Captain James Cook claimed the area for the British in 1778 when he stepped ashore at Nootka Sound Vancouver Island.  Until then the area had been inhabited for more than 10,000 years by the First Nations’ Peoples. 

When a fire destroyed the fledgling town of Vancouver it drove people south across False Creek and English Bay to Granville Island.  Many of the early buildings were constructed on reclaimed land in 1915 to provide for the rapidly growing lumber and iron industries.  Today Granville Island has been regenerated from an industrial wasteland to a thriving and throbbing market place offering a wide range of local foods reflecting Vancouver’s ethnic diversity as well as a huge variety of local handicraft stores.  I was recommended to stop at Granville Island for lunch but decided to stay on-board and finish the tour first.

Stanley Park is another outstanding area only a few blocks from downtown Vancouver.  Named after Lord Stanley, a Governor General of Canada this 1,000-acre expanse of tamedwilderness was originally home to the Squamish and Musqueam native Canadians.  Today Stanley Park offers beaches, hiking trails, fir and cedar woods and wonderful views over the harbour, the Lions Gate Suspension Bridge and the coastal mountains.

I left the bus at its terminus in Canada Place and made for the Harbour Centre Tower which I had a ‘ticket to ride’ courtesy of the Rocky Mountaineer.  The view from the top some 580 feet above the city was pretty spectacular and the Seven Seas Navigator looked rather small as she awaited embarkation of new guests to return to Seward in the harbour below later in the afternoon.  The view from the tower was also my first introduction to the length of Canadian trains as I looked out over the vast marshalling yards next to the container dock.  Some trains have over 200 cars and stretch for a mile!!

Also below me I spotted one of the oldest areas of Vancouver – Gastown that I determined would be my next focus of exploration.  Gastown is named after “Gassy” Jack Deighton and English sailor noted for his endless chatter and for the saloon he opened for local sawmill workers in 1867. Much of the quaint charm of Gastown can be seen in Water Street with its gas lamps and cobblestones, shops, cafès and famous steam clock (See photo).  This is the world’s first steam clock driven by steam from the local district heating system.  It ‘toots a tune’ every 15 minutes and is still maintained today by the man who built it in the 1970s.  Another prominent feature of this are is the Triangular Building reminiscent of New York’s Flatiron Building.  Built in 1908 as a hotel today it is an apartment building.

By now it was early afternoon and I was beginning to feel hot and thirsty and as I meandered my way back towards the harbour I came across the ‘Steamworks Brewery and Restaurant’.  I was quickly seated on the terrace overlooking the harbour and intrigued by the ‘smile to die for’ of the lovely Stacey my waitress.  I ordered what by now had become a firm favourite with me of Halibut and Chips and India Pale Ale brewed from East Golding Hops grown in Kent!  Stacey could scarcely believe that I lived closed to where the hops were grown.  So Newcastle Brown Ale in Anchorage and India Pale Ale brewed with Kentish hops in Vancouver!