Motel Le Marquis De Richemont Richmond

... the Tour GuideI found the energy to go to an all day Vancouver tour with the hostels. I walked briskely with no socks to the Downtown Hostel to get started. We toured the first part of the morning in downtown Vancouver. Eric talked about the world fair land, how the new condos and new developoment is being put there now, the Market Island, some monuments, and a lot of other tidbits that only a local would know. I am in love with Vancouver. Eric should be ...

... lift i've been to, we went from about 2000ft elevation to almost 7000ft. Mt bikers rode down the trails of the lower half of the mountain, and as we ascend, the dirt slopes changed , and all of a sudden, instead of mt bikers, we saw skiiers and snowboarding carving down the snowy trails . The gondola seemed like a time machine which brought us from summer to winter in 20 minutes. Anyway, we were starving so we had some lodge-food ...

... Vancouvian who played host for some brewed hops before painting the city red. I met 2 of his colleagues, Kate and Kira and we smashed down tinnies and legged it for a little pub called Nelson Café and Pub. The journey however proved unnecessarily challenging due to bloody every ATM's incompatibility with VISA. **** you Mastercard!!! Making life Poo momentarily!!! I eventually tried every ATM for 4 blocks of Downtown Granville St and in the end  resorted retiring for the ...

... to the airport, I was amazed at how the people simply where not bothered with the lack of electricity. Life seemed to carry on just as normal. There were police on every corner directing traffic; businesses and restaurants were still open. Obviously people don't rely on electricity for their day-to-day lives. As the journey continued, I laughed when Celine Dion came on the radio. I told the driver that she was from Canada and he ...

... hike at 10:25ish. Known as the Grouse Grind for its steep switch back track, mostly steps for about 2 miles which took us through rain forest to the summit at 1211m or 3973ft. It was packed, reminiscent of the Ben Nevis track. The sign at the start indicated an actual ascent of only 2800ft, so bout twice Whernside! We started off together but I soon pulled away under Kelly's authority, naturally I offered to stay with her, but she didn't mind! I headed off and met her at the top, I ...

... since I didn't want to slip and have an accident. It wasn't until I sat down and my hairdresser started chatting to me that I realised he meant trousers, not underwear; still, I decided that I'd be more embarrassed to go and ask for my 'pants' back anyway so I just sat there. The robe was a little shorter than I had realised also, which rose a few eyebrows when I was lying back to get my hair shampooed. I haven't laughed inwardly so much at myself in a long time ...

... We didn't get very far, the crawl consists of the three bars closest to the hostel, but we did get free entry and a free drink at the end of the night. On Tuesday we ventured to Granville Island on a tiny ferry boat to explore the markets. There was a pretty amazing cake stall so I decided to treat myself for my birthday. I bought a Nanaimo bar (gooey chocolate slice with layers of cream and brownie ...

... of us have ice skated for at least 12 years. Remember how ice hockey is a religion in Canada? Well, this means that they all skate brilliantly. They probably skate before they can walk. We got off to a wobbly start and didn't embarrass ourselves too much, although we both fell a couple of times. After a while, we decided to go for a walk in the snow, then went back for another go. We also saw a film on bear rehabilitation, a project which is taking place in Grouse Mountain ...

... about and hour or so of playing I'd had enough, plus we were winning at the time 4-1. Went out into the city that night to play some pool and have a few beers. One thing I dont like about North America is they always want you to run a tab, so you drink for however long and pay at the end. We actually walked out without paying and had the barmaid chasing after us. Just rather pay for each drink as I go. Thats About it for Houston apart from ...

... on!!! Kyra & Sam were waiting for us with a sunflower each and our names Mrs L Thomsons on a card. We rang home then walk outside to wait for a limousine that was our treat to ride downtown in style ( welcome to Vancouver ) whilst on route they opened a small bottle of champagne they had plastic glasses & everything. When we got to the apartment they gave me my other surprise which was ...