DAY 2 IN VANCOUVER - DISCOVERY BY FOOT AND BY BUS
As usual we always try to know as much as possible about a new place, we visit. And to do it in the shortest possible time. Our hotel here is really good, also on that point. It offers its guests a free guided tour with a professional guide in the centre. Superb idea. European hotels should learn from that. A very entertaining young man called Ali took us around for about two hours. There were 20 of us from all over the world.
We learned how this area of Canada was a real outpost in the country until the second half of the 19th century. After George Vancouver discovered the area in the 1790ies it was still in the hands of the local Indian tribes ( today called the First Nation people ). It was the so-called Gold Rush in the mid and late 19th century, which brought thousands of white people, primarily men, to the area. After Canada became a self-governing nation within the British Empire in 1867 develop started, also here in the west of the country. The Canadians were very worried that the United States would take over the whole of the west coast. It would be practical for them, as they in 1867 had bought Alaska from Russia for 7,2 mill. dollars. To avoid that the Canadians decided to build a Pacific Railway from the East coast to Vancouver. It was opened in 1881. This de facto stopped the Americans from taking over the area, and it also started a very fast development of the west coast. Thousands of Chinese workers had been imported to help build the railway ( lots of them died due to the hard work ). The surviving Chinese stayed. And many more people moved west with the railway. Vancouver grew from 8.000 inhabitants in 1867 to 100.000 in 1910. Many also came from Europe. Of today's population here about 48 % were born outside Canada - or their parents were.
Our 2 hour bus tour around Vancouver - with German-born Heinz as our entertaining guide -gave us an impression of the huge area it covers, including the very nice Stanley Park right at the Pacific coast. With water, islands and mountains in all directions the views are magnificent. So it is not surprising that Vancouver is a very out-door area for its populations and its tourists. The winter Olympic Games took place here in 2010. The only real problem during those games was that exceptionally there was no snow that year! So it had to be imported from other parts of Canada.
Nothing negative to report from here? Our view is that they have built too many high "sky-scrabers" in a too small area ( including a Trump Tower! ). And their Chinatown is not really interesting - unlike Chinatowns in many other cities.
People here are extremely friendly, helpful and curious to know where we come from and what we do here. Crime is very low. So the famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police does not have too much to do here. We haven't seen any of them yet. You recognise them in their red uniforms and with their special hats. They are in principle police on horses - but the horses normally only get out at special occasions.
We were very surprised and chocked to hear about the terror attack yesterday in Edmonton (which we passed on our way coming here). We are less surprised about the terrible terrorist massacre in Las Vegas last night. Again a proof that it is a very "good" idea, that Trump wants as many guns as possible in circulation in his country :-(
We learned how this area of Canada was a real outpost in the country until the second half of the 19th century. After George Vancouver discovered the area in the 1790ies it was still in the hands of the local Indian tribes ( today called the First Nation people ). It was the so-called Gold Rush in the mid and late 19th century, which brought thousands of white people, primarily men, to the area. After Canada became a self-governing nation within the British Empire in 1867 develop started, also here in the west of the country. The Canadians were very worried that the United States would take over the whole of the west coast. It would be practical for them, as they in 1867 had bought Alaska from Russia for 7,2 mill. dollars. To avoid that the Canadians decided to build a Pacific Railway from the East coast to Vancouver. It was opened in 1881. This de facto stopped the Americans from taking over the area, and it also started a very fast development of the west coast. Thousands of Chinese workers had been imported to help build the railway ( lots of them died due to the hard work ). The surviving Chinese stayed. And many more people moved west with the railway. Vancouver grew from 8.000 inhabitants in 1867 to 100.000 in 1910. Many also came from Europe. Of today's population here about 48 % were born outside Canada - or their parents were.
Our 2 hour bus tour around Vancouver - with German-born Heinz as our entertaining guide -gave us an impression of the huge area it covers, including the very nice Stanley Park right at the Pacific coast. With water, islands and mountains in all directions the views are magnificent. So it is not surprising that Vancouver is a very out-door area for its populations and its tourists. The winter Olympic Games took place here in 2010. The only real problem during those games was that exceptionally there was no snow that year! So it had to be imported from other parts of Canada.
Nothing negative to report from here? Our view is that they have built too many high "sky-scrabers" in a too small area ( including a Trump Tower! ). And their Chinatown is not really interesting - unlike Chinatowns in many other cities.
People here are extremely friendly, helpful and curious to know where we come from and what we do here. Crime is very low. So the famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police does not have too much to do here. We haven't seen any of them yet. You recognise them in their red uniforms and with their special hats. They are in principle police on horses - but the horses normally only get out at special occasions.
We were very surprised and chocked to hear about the terror attack yesterday in Edmonton (which we passed on our way coming here). We are less surprised about the terrible terrorist massacre in Las Vegas last night. Again a proof that it is a very "good" idea, that Trump wants as many guns as possible in circulation in his country :-(
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