Again catching up after a couple days thanks to limited wireless options and a very weird schedule -
Anyway, Saturday was one day we didn’t have anything planned, so we wanted to try and do some “tourist” stuff around town. Again, an incredibly sunny, warm day (50+ degrees during the day), and locals keep telling us that this weather is really not the norm. We should be experiencing 40s and overcast or rainy skies. Oh well, I’m definately not complaining.
Kay decided to take a personal roadtrip over to Grouse Mt, which is where the Today show is broadcasting. Jean and I decided to have a casual afternoon just going to check out the Olympic Cauldron. Simple isn’t exactly the right word though, since tens of thousands of other people had the same idea. Its absolutely insane as to how many people are in town right now. Streets continue to be packed with people all over parts of downtown. This included the small area around the Olympic flame too. Easy to get to, but honestly badly placed. The flame is located on the waterfront, but its wedged between two buildings and actually very low to the ground (maybe 25 feet??). Also, one side of it is walled off by an ugly chain-link fence. Another interesting twist, the location is not near any olympic venue but opposite side of downtown – very strange. Still, it was cool to see amidst the masses of people itching to just get a picture.
Thanks to the busy transportation and tons of people, this little task of seeing the flame took up the entire afternoon. No complaints, when you’re dealing with all those people and an event the size of the olympics, you need to be ready for this sort of thing. That night, we just headed over to the community of Richmond, which required another ride on the new Canada Line (aka, subway). If it didn’t mention it before, the rides on the subway are included in your tickets, and its really the most efficient way of getting around town. It also has cut down on traffic gridlock too.
Richmond is a suburb of Vancouver, just south of the city and the location of the speedskating oval and their own community celebration called the “O-Zone”. A free activity, like the ones in downtown Vancouver, it included gigantic video screens showing the games, lots of interactive exhibits and was very family-oriented vs the events downtown. Very nice setup, but the main draw for me was the Holland Heineken House. I heard before my trip that this was the place to be for a big party, apparantly holding up to 5,000 people in an indoor beer-garden. However, when we arrived, they closed the venue to the general public to let the Dutch celebrate winning a gold medal in speedskating. Dutch only. We also found out the just five days into the games, the Heineken ran out of stock thanks to all the drinking.
Still, we enjoyed the various exhibits on the grounds, including lots of info on British Columbia areas to visit, and a slab of ice that was also a work of art, basically as long as a semi-truck trailer. Knowing the next day would be a long one (Whistler excursion), we actually called it an early day to get our rest. It doesn’t sound like we did much today, but with the time spent getting around town it was still a long day.
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