Around Vancouver

This post has a large number of photos and a few comments! They show aspects of the city's large, diverse, and well situated commercial centre. The first item is one of only 4 steam clocks in the world, which is located in historic Gastown.

The city has a large number of warriors - often not in terracotta materials - replicating those unearthed in central China. I don't know where the idea came from to scatter them around the business district.

The waterfront has ample berths for itinerant cruise liners like this one.

Here is the Lions Gate bridge connecting the city centre on the south side with North Vancouver and the road northwards to Squamish and Whistler which I have travelled on a couple of occasions.

The Convention Centre was the control hub of the 2010 Winter Olympics and has, unusually, a grass roof. One bus driver told us, probably incorrectly, that goats are periodically air-lifted on to the roof to keep the grass under control!

The city centre has gorgeous views north to Grouse Mountain and other peaks.

At some of the town beaches deck chairs have been replaced by logs. We were told that these are more difficult to steal!

And here's a group of happy people laughing their way through the day.

This was the Olympic cauldron, now a work of art in the CBD - accompanied by the Lego-like Orca below.

And this is the interior of the Anglican cathedral. Its roof is particularly interesting have been constructed by ship-builders to a design the resembles the up-turned hull of a sailing vessel!

Finally, we return to a Chinese theme - the large Chinatown which contains a beautiful traditional Chinese garden named Dr Sun Yat-Sen. Here is his statue behind which lies the garden shown in the last photo.

AS