The Park Route Tour
After lunch we walked back to Water Street to catch the Green Line hop on hop-on hop-off bus. This would take us to Stanley Park and beyond. This was the Park Route bus.
As the bus left Gas Town we noticed that it passed an alleyway decorated with lots of street art. We noted where it was and planned to return later the next day to have a closer look. On its way the bus stopped at Canada Place and waited to pick up more passengers before we moved off again. We passed the site of the Olympic Cauldron and later I managed a grab shot of some street art
After our tour the day before we wanted to see parts of Stanley Park more closely and therefore we left the bus at the totem pole park. There was a small shop there and after walking around the totem poles we went down to the sea wall to walk around Brockton Point to the lighthouse.
The views of Vancouver across the water were spectacular as we walked along the sea wall.
The path in places was shared with bikes and in others with roller skaters. We had to dodge them all as we walked along! On the way around we passed the cannon that was fired daily. This was the ‘Nine o’clock Gun’. It was in a cage and fires blanks and looked very automated.
As we walked seaplanes were taking off and flying up around our part of the Park.
After passing the lighthouse on Brockton Point we could see the small statue of the girl in a wet suit.
As we walked we had great views of the Lions Gate Bridge, funded originally by the Guinness family. This would be the bridge that we sailed under as we left Vancouver.
Statue of a girl in a wet suit
Once at the statue we stopped and looked at how closely she resembled the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.
Back on the Park Route Tour
We turned back to walk along the sea wall to the bus stop by the totem poles. Rather than walk back past the lighthouse and around Brockton Point we cut across by a small viewing platform and waited for the next bus.
The on-off drizzle was definitely on now and we were pleased to see the empty bus arrive. I sat on the outside and just about managed to keep dry as there were no glass windows. I took pictures as we made our way through the park and out onto the rest of its circuit.
Up ahead I watched a beaver make its way across the road as the bus approached, confirming all that we have been told about the abundant wildlife in the Park.
From the bus at the top of Stanley Park we could look down on the traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge.
The bus continued around Stanley Park and we passed the ‘A-maze-ing Laughter’ statues by the Chinese artist, Yue Minjun.
At the side of us were now beaches and just past English Bay beach we could see the Inukshuk Monument.
Before we left Granville Island I managed another grab shot of art on a building.
On Granville Island I found an interesting shop and on the walls of an underpass this street-art.
Our plan had been to ride this bus all the way around its circuit and get off back on Water Street in Gas Town. But soon we realised that the bus would be there long after the last bus on the City route would have left. After Granville Island, after crossing back over Granville Bridge, we left the bus at one of the stops on Granville Street that were near to the City route and was only a few blocks away from our hotel .
The drizzle was now rain and we walked up the few blocks back up to Burrard, sheltering as we went under the trees.