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Weather report from British Columbia.......It's grey, solid cloud and rainy and it looks like it's in for the day!

So when they put the British part into British Columbia they meant it! We woke up to seriously grey skies and as we had planned a mammouth walk for the day we were hardly excited to be heading out from the roof covered hotel and the dry!

Still being built of strong and sturdy english stock venture out we did and we headed out to the docks and the waterfront and an area called Coal Harbour.

Now Vancouver as a city is nearly all vertical high rise glass towers that all cling to the waterways that surround this city and Coal Harbour is one of the most expensive.

The views from the floor to ceiling apartments that hug the waterfront here in Coal harbour ar of the Lions Gate Bridge, the harbour and Grouse Mountain, a pine tree and snow covered mountain that would normally be breathtaking. We say normally as today you could hardly make out the other side of the Coal Harbour Inlet never mind see the mountain. The weather was foul and to get to the waterfront we had probably walked a couple of miles and we were wet!

It may come as a surprise therefore based on these conditions that we had decided to walk the whole way around Stanley Park some six miles.......in the rain!

Stanley Park i a huge green park that sits on a headland at the entrance to the city if you are coming in via sea.and covers a whopping 400 hectares of land. The coastal walk that we were planning to take along its perimeter is supposedly some 9km but remember you have to get to the park first.

Now as we were walking to the park you not only pass all theses marvellously expensive glass high rise apartment blocks but you also pass marinas full of world class billionaire yachts and powerboats and ...well lets call them floating palaces. It is no coincidence that tonight there was actually a report from the local news channel stating that a boat had recently come into Victoria with a value of some $95,000,000!

These harbours are full of floating gin palaces as they say in England, and they just keep on coming. Vancouver has two main waterways that flow through the city. There is the Coal Harbour Straits that is the main entrance into the city where we were this morning, but there is also another major interior waterway called False Creek. What is significant about both these waterways is that they are both lined with floating pontoons and marinas along all their banks. We are talking billions of dollars of water front property and billions and billions of dollar's in luxury boating. We have both never seen so many super yacht's in one relatively small area ever......(N.B. we have never been to Monaco and I expect that the same could be said of that principality).

So back to Stanley Park, The park itself is full of various features and is split up into many different areas from natural beaches, boating lakes, totem heritage parks, wildlife sanctuaries....you get the picture.Our walk was right around the perimeter today taking in the limited views due to the weather. We did make a brief stop at the Totem Heritage Park but to be honest with you these totems although totally original and historically and culturally important all looked a little fake and too well preserved after what we had seen in Alaska and in Canada so far. Still it is a very impressive collection all in one place so if ever you need a fix at looking at ancient Indian Totems, this is the place to come to!

Back to the waterside walk and the next thing that we came across was the 9 o'clock gun. This is an old British Cannon that fires out into the bay at 21:00 every evening. Now the information as to why this happens was a little vague but it did tell us that the cannon had come from a foundry in Woolwich East London in the times of James Cook, undoubtedly Englands finest explorer.

Walking along the coastal route we also encountered various statues, like a bronze of a female swimmer that had been gifted to the city by the artist, it now stood on a rock about a metre off the shore line. There were old ships head from Ancient Chinese shipping vessels that had ended their seafaring lives in Canadian waters and stories of shipwrecks on the treacherous rocky straits that bought old ships into the port of Vancouver.

By the time that we had walked our 12 / 13 mile route we were i need of sustenance so we caught one of the little ferry taxis over to Granville Island. Now Granville Island is a fascinating place but its main focus is the farmers market that is a feast to the eyes. From fruit to flowers, bakers insanely devourable delights in chocolate to some of the most succulent looking meats we have ever seen. This place adds on the calories just by being here and it's a strong willed person that it able to ignore all it's temptations. Granville Island is not just about food though, it is also home to a micro brewery that brew great local beers (the grapefruit beer that Jonathan loved up in Whistler is brewed here).

Its also a place for local aboriginal artists to sell their art and clothing goods that they hand knit. Its a bohemian mecca and the quality of the food displays is outstanding.

Now you woud think that because of all the naturally good food that surrounded us than the food stalls selling meals etc would be of an equally high standard. Unfortunately this was not our experience. After walking for the best part of three hours in the rain we both needed heating up so soup was the order of the day. Unfortunately Trevor could not even eat the hot and sour chinese soup that he ordered and Jonathans Noodle and seafood soup was not that much better, Such a shame as we had been looking forward to this all day after getting drowned by the rain.

We left Granville Island by Ferry down the internal river way of False Creek and went as far as the boat could take us. This was the science museum and although we did not fancy having a look around it was interesting to see all the new skyscrapers going up. The worlds downturn of economy has clearly not hit Canada in the same way as it has the rest of the world as here in this one area there were four more (from what we could see) shiny glass floor to ceiling towers going up at a pace, the people of Vancouver must have money to spend and as we said before the whole way up here had been a wall of super boats.

Next stop was a lovely area called YaleTown. Yes it was filled of more of the same glass apartment blocks but it also had a real boutique feel. It was also clear that the inhabitants of YaleTown never cooked as every other shop was either a designer hairdresser or spa or a restaurant. This was clearly the neighbourhood for the young aspring professional and yummy mummies filled the local organic coffee bars and sat in chairs having their nails done or eyebrows threaded.

Leaving YaleTown behind (after stopping for another warm me up coffee) we headed back to the hotel to organise ourselves. Trev got stuck into some ironing and repacking his case whilst Jonathan went out for a 10mile run. Vancouver is very flat so its ideal running grounds and with a great pedestrian network He managed to run the whole 10 miles with only having to cross two roads!

Both back at the hotel we headed out for our final meal in Vancouver and an Italian a few blocks away.

The food was great and so was the wine but the portion sizes were ridiculous, I mean when you order a bruschetta starter you expect maybe two pieces, you certainly dont expect six. I was full even before the main course arrived !!

We leave Vancouver tomorrow for the last stop in British Columbia before we cross the state border into Alberta.

The question that going on in our heads is would we come back here? After being here twice we really don't need to but if ever we were in the vicinity I would not think twice about coming back. Its a great city and a real mixed bag but worth your time for its sheer natural beauty that exists in between all the fancy luxuries of modern life.

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