While we were OK with the St Clair Hotel (see earlier post on Vancouver) this time we'd reserved a room near the back, away from the noisy Richards St. However, on arrival Matt at reception confessed to an oversight so that we found ourselves back in our street-view room. This was only for one night of the four we were to stay, however, and Matt went out of his way to move our packed personal belongings between rooms while we were out sightseeing on the second day.
So, what does one do with several days to kill in Vancouver? Grouse Mountain; Capilano Suspension Bridge; Hop-on/Hop-off Bus; Aquarium (this excellent and very good value compared with most things, but buy ticket before you get there as the entry line for tickets is a terrible time waster); Granville Island (brewery tour's pretty good). So they are some of the touristy things.
The St Clair Hotel has no bar or restaurant, although it does have excellent laundromat facilities and it is wonderfully positioned to take advantage of the numerous eating and drinking outlets which proliferate around it.
Our favourite watering hole was the Black Frog, in Gastown, five minutes away on foot, -- great beers and free Wi-Fi also.
And for eating our custom went almost exclusively to the delightful Taiwanese Canadian family whose tiny restaurant, just around the corner, supplied us with excellent and amazing value breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Super Wok is in Dunsmuir Street, almost diagonally opposite the Catholic Cathedral and next door to Suzette's Cafe.
After a long search we eventually discovered a fishing tackle retail shop: Army Navy Store in Hastings Street. We also found that London Drugs stores in Vancouver had some bargain consumer electronics, clearly diversifying its product range from the original intention.
On Wednesday 10th we were in good time for our 8pm Air New Zealand flight from Vancouver to Auckland (13+ hours). One small thing that surprised us was that, contrary to the situation in Australia, there was no requirement to pass through Canadian passport control. After airline check in and standard security check we simply walked to the departure gate. For those interested, Vancouver airport has free and fast Wi-Fi throughout.
