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Instead of just jumping in (or in our case, moving to)
Vancouver sight unseen, we decided to dip our toes in the ocean, look before we
leaped...i.e. check out Vancouver before we sold everything and moved there
lock, stock and barrel. And besides, it was high time for another
vacation!
Holiday or Traveling?
There is a difference between traveling and going on a holiday. Limited in
time as a holiday is, you have a choice between completely shutting down to
forget day-to-day work hassle or trying to get in an overload of all local
highlights to forget day-to-day work hassle.
While traveling this choice is non-existing because you don’t have
day-to-day work. It is entirely up to yourself how fast or slow you poor
out the water.
It took us a few days to realize we were on holiday in Vancouver, going for
option two. After arriving on Sunday afternoon, relatively unbroken (fears of
low quality Canada3000 flights were unfounded), we ran around like chickens with
our heads cut off. On Thursday we finally slowed down, also forced by
blistering hot weather that started the day we arrived. Although on a holiday,
we were going to act as travelers. See lots but take our time.
So where does Vancouver rank?
In polls for the most popular city in the world Vancouver always competes
with Sydney. Our stay in Australia has qualified us as relevant contributors to
this poll. As always there are several aspects to the question. In short: Sydney
wins the city part, Vancouver wins the surrounding part. Confused? You won’t
be after this short explanation.
It is hard to beat Sydney as the most beautiful city in the world. The
combination of harbor, people, beaches and weather has not been equaled yet. The
only possible contender we do not have experienced yet is San Francisco.
Vancouver is a perfect spot to start trips in all directions. Swimming in the
ocean, skiing in Whistler or Calgary, hiking in the Rockies, and convenient air
travel to west coast USA, Australia, Asia, Alaska, Mexico etc. Apart from that
the city is not bad either, although not as handy as Sydney.
Of the Canadian cities Vancouver is certainly top. Toronto does not even
qualify, Ottawa gets bloody cold in winter, Montreal is French but more
important nowhere near the Ocean and Halifax is really remote from the rest of
the world. If only it would rain a little less at the west coast!
Driving east...
The surroundings of Vancouver are just a small example of the things to see
in British Columbia (BC from now on). On our five day return trip to Calgary we
got a (Highway) view of all the beauty that BC has to offer. From the serene
quietness of Emerald Lake to the arid steppe in the Kolowna Valley, the clatter
of Takakkaw Falls to the engineering wonder of the Spiral Tunnels, the Radium
Hot Springs to the cold water of Kicking Horse River.
Goal of the first day was Golden, turning out the be a strip mall at the
beginning of the Rocky Mountains, only interesting for people who don’t want
to cross the Rockies by night or are in to hiking, skiing and other outdoor
activities. To save some time the first two hours were spent on the Trans Canada
highway. Despite being on highways, there is enough to enjoy as you go
through the mountains. From Merritt on we took the older highway 5A that winds
around a few big lakes to Kamloops. A bit longer than the Freeway, but no steep
hills to traverse.
Kamloops has some resemblance to Mount Isa in Queensland, Australia. A pretty
remote bigger town that suddenly pops up. In Mount Isa it is the mine, in
Kamloops it is the cattle industry that makes it important. Just outside town a
museum about the Shuswap Natives is moderately interesting, though not worth
making a detour for it specifically..
Like the previous hours, the rest of the ride to Golden went over the Trans
Canada through the valleys of the mountain ranges leading up to the Rockies. A
short stop in Glacier National Park to take in the magnificent view of the
eternal ice fields rounded out the first day (experiences in Golden are not
worth writing about, except the hot tub at the motel).
The National Parks of the Rockies...
The second day we set off for the actual Rockies with Yoho National Park and
Lake Louise as main goals. Yoho NP is a small park (compared to Banff and
Jasper) but has a few gems. In there is Emerald Lake where renting a canoe
for an hour makes you forget all the craziness of the world. Next stop was
Takakkaw Falls, the second highest fall in BC (they do like their adjectives in
Canada. Every place has some qualification, like biggest, highest, oldest, etc.
(They don’t mention the dirtiest, most expensive, most boring ones though). In
this case they had a point. The falls are beautiful, especially in August when
the amount of water coming down is at its peek, as the glacier is melting in the
summer heat.
Only a few kilometers away a viewpoint from the Trans Canada gives a good
overview of the spiral tunnels. To decrease the steep angle of the railtrack,
Canada Pacific Railway (CPR) made two tunnels in the mountains that spiral up
(or down if the train is coming from the other direction). We were lucky that a
freight train just went through from east to west, which means the train has to
go down. The train is so long that the engines are leaving the lower end of the
tunnel, while the cars are still going into the upper entry. All in all this
reduced the gradient from more than 4 percent to somewhere in the 2 percent
range. Enough to prevent a lot of accidents that had been happening
We didn't manage to make it to Lake Louise that day
because it is by far the most popular spot among tourists, so the traffic line
to it was long and slow moving. Thought best to save it for another
day. And on to Calgary we went.
Calgary
You can certainly tell you are at the start of the flat Prairies once you
get to Calgary. Only 180kms previously we were traversing huge mountain
ranges, and then we arrive in Calgary and it is flat! Flat in all
directions are far as the eye can see (except for the ski jump built for the
1988 Calgary Winter Olympics). We spent two days in Calgary, and the most
interesting part of the visit was catching up with a friend Kirsten! When
you have the Rockies next door, I wouldn't recommend spending much time in
Calgary (the exception being people watching on Prince's Island or Seventh
Avenue on a summer sunny lunchtime).
Back again...
Two days later we are back in the car and heading in a westerly
direction. We leave early and manage to get to Lake Louise before the tour
buses have blocked the road up. To get our picture taken we had to speak
in Dutch as the only languages to be heard at the Lake were French, Japanese and
Dutch (and Krista didn't think she would ever need Dutch in Canada!). Lake
Louise is truly spectacular to see, but get there early in the morning for best
photo opportunity and minimal traffic.
Home of Roxanne
We put in a long day of driving to get to Nelson, BC. We intended to
get a few hours of sleep and keep on driving, but Nelson turned out to be a real
treat. We stayed a couple days and did hikes up the mountain to overlook
the town. Steve Martin filmed his movie Roxanne in Nelson, so we did the
Roxanne walking tour. Apparently the Tourism department of Nelson was inundated
with calls from people that wanted to move to Nelson after they saw the
move. It is indeed a charming town, but I don't think I would move there
sight unseen based on a movie!
The next day we did another long day of driving to arrive
back in Vancouver in time for a couple days to rest before heading onto Halifax
for a visit with Krista's family.
Photo Gallery
Run through the online album gallery below to see the magnificent
mountains, lovely lakes, friendly folks, and just the general greatest of the
Canadian west.
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