I only had two days in Vancouver - so, what to do? I had some really great Sushi (but of course). And as mentioned in previous posts, went biking around Stanley Park and visited a Sake Brewery (note: the only Sake brewery in Vancouver). As well as these, a couple more delights are worth more than a brief mention…
One was the tea sensation known as “The London Fog”. This is basically a latte with a shot of tea (one or two bags of Earl Grey) instead of coffee and some Vanilla flavouring. Why London Fog? Possibly because it’s a milky (foggy) concoction based on a famous English beverage. I bought mine at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, where I imagine they would make the ultimate London Fog. Despite their noble attempt I wasn’t impressed - I never like my tea particularly milky. Will such a choice be seen in the fashionable tea salons in London? Doubtful, but it’ll be fun confusing unsuspecting barristas with this obscure request. Despite all that, the Institute does amazing cake and also fabulous dinners. I paired my dubious tea with a weird, but good weird, green tea and mango sponge.
The other Vancouverian delight was the Aquabus, the tinyest (is that a word?) ferry I have ever seen. If ever there was a little ferry that could, it’s this one. I stumbled across this in attempt to Escape from Granville Island (is that a film?). And I’m glad I did. I am not sure how many passengers it holds, but none of them can stand up. Plying it cheery route around the inner harbour at Vancouver it’s my must see tip for this city.
Finding several neat things to do in Vancouver makes me think it’s probably a pretty good place to spend a bit more time in…next time. It certainly is easy to get around; a driverless underground system, lots of bike lanes, dinky ferries - and probably the only place in the world where the buses have bike racks. It would be European if it wasn’t for the massive wide roads everywhere. If I can get my head around that whole driving on the other side of the road thing, I’d be set.