Saturday Week 11

Earlier starts this morning as I was meant to be having a gliding team meeting over Skype at 0800 (1600 GMT). "The weather" was so bad that they cancelled it as the UK based guys didn't want to travel, thus depriving me of my lie-in. So I had a leisurely couple of hours getting ready before heading down for breakfast and walking into the city. The weather called for scattered showers, so I went to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium. The highlight of said aquarium were the 3 beluga whales and a narwhal, something I have never seen before. The trainers got the belugas to show off their special hunting skill by spitting water at various members of the audience.

I then went for a walk around the sea wall of Stanley Park, measuring 10km in distance with handy little markers every 0.5km. On this not I'd like to point out how refreshing it was to be in a country where I could actually understand the measurement systems in use. Now is neither the time nor the place, but lets just say the fluid ounce is still meaningless to me.

I had a nice wander around China town and the touristy shops near the centre, where I finally found the 1 thing I had been looking for; a piece of Vancouver 2010 merchandise. Whilst I appreciate that the games finished 10 months ago, I found it odd that it was so difficult to find any trace of them. Maybe up at Whistler there is more of a heritage. I went for an afternoon wander down to what was the Olympic Village. The area was really nice, but apparently now it's very expensive housing and retail, with absolutely no character of the games. It then started to rain, so I escaped into a local bar where I found that Vancouver were hosting Toronto in the afternoon NHL fixture. No wonder the cheapest ticket when I looked was $250. This game lasted a while, and before I realised it, it was time for bed.