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I actually don’t have a picture of the actual vehicle that I’m riding on, but this is the Big Bus, the supposed “best way to discover Vancouver”. The buses come in as a half-convertible or as a double-decker and stops at many of Vancouver’s attractions, including Stanley Park, Granville Island, and Gastown.

Another “bus” that is meant for tourists to Vancouver and that again I do not have a photo of is the Vancouver Trolley. These trolleys replicate San Francisco’s cable cars, only they run on gas and wheels, not tracks and electricity.

After having ridden on both of these meant-for-tourist buses (twice each), I have to say that the Vancouver Trolley does more justice than Big Bus. Both have commentary, but Big Bus has automated lady and man voices, which the drivers often get wrong (as in the automated voices are talking about something we’re not even passing, woohoo).

With the Trolley, the driver is usually the commentator, which just shows that not only does the driver know where to go, but knows what he’s talking about too. It makes the experience a bit more personal as well, and not constant “Welcome to Big Bus!” after every stop and start.

In any case, both of these buses have over 20 stops, with the Vancouver Trolley having even 2 lines depending on where you wish to go (Downtown core or all the way down to Granville Island) and tickets are valid for 2 days. Tickets are uberly expensive, which doesn’t come as quite a surprise, and visitors are allowed and encouraged to hop off the buses anywhere along the routes and simply hop back on after.

Following are photos of various places I passed while mainly on the Big Bus (as I was on the half-convertible, or “Cabriolet” as they call it).

The Olympic clock in front of the Art Gallery, counting down the days and hours and minutes and whatever else until the 2010 Olympic Games (and Paralympic Games I should add) in Vancouver.

This is the Art Gallery (the building with the pyramid stairs and Roman-looking columns). The Shangri-La (remember that?) can be seen in the background on the left and I believe the green roof building next to the Shangri-La is the Fairmont Hotel. I can’t be 100% about that though. I’ll need a few more staycations to see everything Vancouver has to offer.

This is while I was cruising along the Burrard Street Bridge, wind blowing in my hair, sitting in the Cabriolet, living the high life. Right. The bridge in the distance is the Granville Street Bridge and the buildings should be part of Yaletown (which is a part of Downtown if you didn’t already know).

And here’s the oh-so-famous-oldest-part-of-Vancouver Gastown. These streets are made of cobblestone (I love it) and the funky streetlights make it known that this is Gastown. I have absolutely no recollection of ever being in Gastown before doing the Tourism Challenge. Some Vancouverite I am, eh? (Although I do have New York relatives who’ve never been to the Statue of Liberty. Hm.)

Here the Harbour Centre is in view from Gastown’s Water Street (I still don’t really know what’s so special about this street). OH! You can see the Big Bus on the very bottom left corner of the photo. And the awesome streetlights that look like Lego pieces.

Ah, you just can’t get enough of Gastown. There’s something magical (and supposedly freaky at night) about the area. Here is the Gastown Steam Clock, which is indeed a steam-powered clock. It was actually built to cover a steam grate and is supposed to puff out steam although I didn’t see much steam coming out of its ears. Supposedly the clock still works even though I did not take that photo at 10:02am. More like 4:01pm. Here you can see another Lego-like streetlight.

A better-ish view of the streets of Gastown. The road there doesn’t look very cobblestone to me, but I know I’ve passed other roads made of cobblestone.

Upcoming…

This photo just shows a tiny portion of the entire place. What is it?

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Photos, Staycations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.