03 August - Wednesday - Vancouver

G'day All,

Opened the curtains this morning to a typical Vancouver day, raining... to be expected really as they do receive about 1,200 mm a year at the airport and around 2,400 mm in /north Vancouver about 20 km from the airport.

View from the 17th floor of the Rosedale on Robson this morning (rainy day ahead)

After breakfast we walked a few blocks to get to Canada Place to catch the Hop On op Off (HOHO) bus. As we left the hotel we met a couple of ladies heading the same direction, also to catch the HOHO, turned out they were from Brisbane (Caboolture and Burpengary). The HOHO voucher was exchanged OK, this was he one we purchased in Australia to be used on our first stay in Vancouver (before we went to Victoria) but were assured we could use today (guess sometimes you can trust the sales people) :-).

We are beginning to think that all bus drivers in Canada complete the Mad Max school of driving to get their licence as the rides we've had have been quite the adventure. We did the full green circuit which leaves from Canada Place at the port and goes through Stanley Island. From there we hopped off at the False Creek Ferry and took the huge ferry (photo below) across to Granville Island to browse the markets, shops and galleries.

The ferry that holds about 12 people.

Some of the fresh produce at the Granville markets.

From there we picked up the red circuit with another HOHO bus and driver who obviously used the same driver program. In all the green and red circuits cover 33 stops around Vancouver city.

The second HOHO trolley bus we took.

Museum of Vancouver

Crab sculpture at the Museum of Vancouver

Unusual car art.

Victorian style clock (actually circa 1970's) blows stream whistles on the hour.

Gassy Jack - founder of Gastown

International Village sculpture.

Prospect Point lookout to North Vancouver

Street Lamps and flowers

We stayed on until we made it back to Canada Place and decided to walk back to Gastown as it looked interesting and also had some nice shops for last minute gifts. It also appeared to had some darker areas with a lot more homeless and a line up at the methadone clinic. The homeless / beggars are everywhere in the city and nearly always approach with the line "I don't want any money but if you can spare some..." They can be seen sleeping on the streets from 1:30 pm, this guy was had an unusual approach, crouching down and hiding his head under the cardboard...

Not quite sure of this guys strategy, but it wasn't working for him, the cup was empty.

Not the brightest photo to end our holiday in Canada, so below is one of the more memorable photos from the trip, a family catch up. All packed and heading to the airport and we are both feeling that it's about time to come home, unless of course there has been a lotto win we don't know about . . .

The Canadian family selfie - Gary, Samantha, Penny and Oliver

Brisvegas, we are heading home...

P.S. For those interested in how many photos I took for the trip, lets just say it was more than 12,000 and I am going to be very busy sorting them out to compile our vacation book :-)

Cheers

Gary and Penny

23 July - Saturday - Vancouver & Cruise Day 1

G'day All,

A good rest up at the Rosedale on Robson overnight then off to catch the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus. Challenge here was that, unbeknown to us, the route had changed this summer and what was stop number one (50 metres from the Rosedale) was now stop number 24 and the route had been split into two routes (inner city and Stanley park). The scheduled start time for the HOHO was 9 am and the circuit goes for about 2 -3 hours so we thought this would be a good time filler as we needed to be at Canada Place at the Vancouver Port to check in to Holland America's ms Nieuw Amsterdam ship for the cruise. However after a 30 min wait at the HOHO bus stop with no sign of the bus we headed back to the Rosedale to google what was going on. It soon became clear that we would run out of time to try and catch the bus, especially with it running two separate loops. Since I had pre-purchased a HOHO voucher back in Australia I feared we had done our money but after ringing the company they indicated that as long as the voucher hadn't been exchanged for tickets we could use them on our return to Vancouver after the cruise (insert sigh of relief here). By now it was fast approaching 10:30 am so we decided to chill out for the morning at the Rosedale and rest up in preparation for the cruise.

Around 12 pm we jumped into the taxi for a $10 ride to Canada Place to check in to the ship. We arrived at 12:10 pm and it was about 2 pm before we cleared through check in and US customs and opened the door to our lodgings for the next week :-) The room (8040) was spacious and the bed very comfortable, nothing like the last cruise we went on which was very cramped. 

View from Balcony

View towards balcony

Our luggage was already in the room, well most of it as one of our suitcases was missing, the cabin staff looked into it for us but couldn't find it so I went down to Admin to check through some of the suitcases I noticed being held there. While I was looking around Penny received a call in the room from Admin to say they had the suitcase and to come and claim it. Penny went down to Admin where they told her security had wanted to inspect the contents further and that was why it was not delivered directly to the room. However the suitcase still couldn't be seen anywhere, Penny headed back to the room with an assurance that it was definitely on board. It was looking like I was going to have fun dressed in the same clothes I walked on board with for the rest of the week as it was my suitcase that was missing. It was an hour or so after boarding that I returned back to the room to find the suitcase sitting on the floor and it wasn't a minute or two later that Penny returned. Turns out that the cabin staff (Dony or Wahan) had picked up the suitcase for us and dropped it up to the room. Looks like my camera tripod had warranted further investigation by security who had held the bag and opened for inspection. With that sorted we headed for lunch on board and then unpacked and flopped onto the bed to read the day's activity sheet. I didn't seen long before it was dinner time at the restaurant and then an early night after a big day. The ship departed at 4:45 pm and it was smooth sailing as we headed up the inside passage to Juneau, a day and a half away.

The Ship (obviously not my photo)

Tomorrow is a day at sea and getting to know our way around the ship.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

06 July - Wednesday - Celebrating 30 years Niagara Falls

G'day All,
Today we celebrated 30 years of marriage with a Niagara winery tour which went from 10 am until 4:30 pm with a lunch in the middle. A quite day with a few samples in the belly meant for a relaxing afternoon. Met a nice couple from Columbus, Ohio, Tammy and Ralph, who we enjoyed the afternoon with before going our separate ways after the tour. Hopefully will keep in touch down the track, FB friends already :-)

Wine barrels of course!

Winery Buildings

We had pre-booked into the Watermark restaurant for our anniversary so it was a quick rest before we were having diner overlooking the falls. Great menu and service and the food was excellent. Headed to the room after diner to watch another fireworks show over the falls for the late cruise, something we missed out on last night as the fireworks are on every other day but at least we still got to see it from the great vantage point in our room.

Anniversary Fireworks

Early night tonight as we have to pack and head to the airport at 9 am in the morning to catch a flight to Calgary to spend time with Samantha and Oliver.

Not too much camera time today but I am sure there will be in the remaining days and weeks to come.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

05 July - Tuesday - Niagara Falls

G'day All,
This morning was a nice hot breakfast at the Hilton and an taxi out to catch a ride with Niagara Helicopters, over the falls. Taxi was a little over $17 but it is about a 5 km trip. Penny didn't come for the fly but was more than willing to wave me off :-). she's still not a big fan of flying... I had a ball and tee'd up with the operator to get the best seat for photography which turns out to be the high seat behind the pilot and I think I captured some great aerials. While the DSLR does great videos I really wanted some control over stills so opted to let the Panasonic FT6 do the video and mounted it on my DSLR to shoot a video throughout the flight.

Left to right - American Falls, the small Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls

And again - looking from south to north.

The Canon 1Dx with the Panasonic FT6 top mounted via a $2 eBay hot shoe threaded mount.

After the flight we decided to walk back the 5 km to the hotel along the Niagara river stopping along the way to some of the other oddities on the river. The first was the Whirlpool created over 4200 years ago whereby a collapse in the river escarpment created a 90 degree right hand turn in the river which meant a counter clockwise spinning of the water flow to get back on course. A this point there is also a cable car that run across the gorge over the whirlpool, we gave it a miss as we wanted to get back in time for rest before we were out again. A quick look in the reasonably priced Souvenir shop, another view of both falls and then back to the room.for lunch from subway. Arrived back in the hotel a little worse for wear as the temp was getting up to the 30's, but we got there and had a shower to cool off.

Whirlpool Cable Car

Had lunch and were back on task again with a Day / Night tour of the falls. This was hosted by a great young man by the name of Guy (French origin pronounced Ghee), who had a good sense of humour, a wealth of knowledge and a nice guy to boot.

This tour had a list of activities that went from 2:40 pm to 11 pm. Started with a quick history lesson and tour of the falls Niagara falls area, a trip up the river to the base of the Horseshoe falls on the Hornblower, A ride up to the top of the Skylon Tower, back to the Elements on the Falls Restaurant located near the brink overlooking Horseshoe Falls for a three course dinner,then off to another cruise up the river to see the falls lite up with coloured lights and finished off with a tour of the facility that lights the falls and changing the lighting ourselves for the world to see. A big afternoon and tired little tourists looking for bed... except for Mr photographer who wanted to get some better photos of the falls in their night time colours...

Behind Horseshoe Falls

On the Hornblower in front of Horseshoe Falls

American Falls under lights

Cheers
Gary and Penny

04 July, Monday - Toronto to Niagara Falls

G'day All,
Morning Update
I did a little late night photography at midnight and was surprised at how busy the streets were for a Sunday night, at least 50 people at any one time in the street and constant traffic.

Random Toronto Street

CN Tower - Supporting Pride Month

Another Random Toronto Street

Saying goodbye to Toronto today and heading for Niagara Falls. Did the obligatory last minute stuff the suitcases and headed out for one last lap around the block before checking out. Called into Tim Hortons for a "double double" which is a unique Canadian double cream, double sugar coffee that is about $2 but would be double (see what I did there lol) that in Australia. Think it is my new go to coffee at least while here in Canada. At check out we noticed a couple of soda's on the bill that we didn't consume and an extra internet fee but these were very quickly sorted and taken off the tab :-).
Turns out the mini bar has sensors in each position that automatically record removals and add to the bill. The reason for the billing was that we bought a small milk and took two cans out to put the milk in  and this was enough for the fridge to "think" we had taken the drinks...

Fairmont Royal York - Reception Area

Transfers are once again organised through Niagara Airbus, waiting for them to arrive at the moment so jumped on to do a quick blog update....

Afternoon update

Accommodation is the Hilton Niagara Falls and the view from the room is to the falls, we are spending the next three nights here celebrating our 30th anniversary on the 6th July, should also get to see the USA 4th of July celebrations across the falls tonight but will have to wait and see.

The Hilton Niagara - Our room on the shorter building facing the USA falls (not my photo)

All booked in after a slow traffic jammed run to Niagara, took 2 hrs 30 mins, the Hilton computers had gone down so they only had one open and the line was about 20 deep when we got there but all sorted after another 15 mins. We are in a room on the 31st floor facing the USA falls and the Skylon Tower, similar to the CN Tower but about 1/3 the height. Went and had a nice lunch at Applebee's washed down with a large sangria (Penny) and a Canadian 67 (lite beer for me).

Niagara Falls - Horeshoe Falls

Grabbed the camera and set off for a closer look at the falls before heading back to the room to settle down and prepare for watching the 4th July fireworks from the height and comfort of the room. Well the USA certainly knows how to put on a fireworks show and the view from the room couldn't have been any better. The falls all alight, the Skylon tower in colour and the fireworks in between.

4th July at Niagara Falls

Cheers
Gary and Penny

03 Jul 16 - Sunday - Toronto (Casa Loma & CN Tower)

G'day All,
Today was another sunny 28 C day in Toronto and we head off to the HOHO bus to get to Casa Loma a Gothic Revival style house and gardens in mid-town Toronto. No problems with the HOHO bus tickets today and we also purchased tickets to Casa Loma from bus operator as I couldn't get them online due to Australian credit cards not getting through their approval system. No worries as pricing was the same. The bus took about 25 mins to get there so we didn't arrive until about 10:30 due to the bus stops. The place was packed and the pre-purchase of tickets was a wise move as the line to buy tickets at the venue was about 50 deep, we just walked straight in. Casa Loma is now a museum and Toronto landmark and was built as a residence for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt's wife from 1911 to 1914.
Even with its 98 rooms covering 64,700 square feet (6,011 m²) it was stuffy inside with hoards of people and the lack of cooling due to closed windows (safety reasons) but the gardens were cool and here was a nice breeze outside, the gelato helped as well :-).

Casa Loma - One of the main bedrooms

Casa Loma - Looking from the back

Casa Loma - Looking from atop one of the towers

We headed back to the bus stop to catch the next HOHO but it appears we are always out of luck as it was pulling out when we we about 25 m away, so it was another 20 mins wait for the next one. we headed back to the room for a freshen up and booked dinner in the revolving restaurant at the CN Tower. We were lucky to get the 5 pm booking as it was fully booked out until late the following night. Booking at the restaurant also gets you free access to the viewing platform and the glass bottom floor at the height of 324 metres. Took us a bit longer than normal to get to the tower as the Toronto Blue Jays had just finished their baseball game at the Rogers Centre next to the tower which meant we were against the flow of pedestrians all the way to the tower. Once there we went through security, yes security with metal detectors and guards with wands just like customs but obviously looking for nasty stuff to prevent it getting into the tower. Something we weren't expecting but simple enough process. Again the booking helped us jump the massive line ups and we pretty much went straight in to the elevator to get to the top. It took just under 1 min to go from ground floor to restaurant and there is a glass panel in the floor of the elevator too. It literally makes your ears pop going to that height at that speed. The restaurant rotates 360  degrees in about 72 mins which pretty well means it has done a complete revolution throughout the course of a meal. Considering Pen is afraid of heights she did well to look out from the rotating restaurant and afterwards at the viewing platform but I couldn't get her to stand on the glass viewing floor :-).

View over Toronto with Fairmont Hotel in middle

View out over Lake Ontario from CN Tower

Gary standing on the glass floor 342 meters up in the CN Tower

Last night in Toronto and we are off to Niagara Falls around midday, so time for a sleep in and lazy checkout before we leave.

Until tomorrow...

Cheers
Gary and Penny

02 July - Saturday - Toronto

G'day All,
The first leg of the travelling is done and the the tourism has officially commenced!
Had a great night's sleep on a very nice bed. Probably could have slept in a lot longer but we wanted to get to the St Lawrence Markets for breakfast and get on the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) 2 hr circuit bus ride to take in the sights and sounds Toronto has to offer. Initially we didn't see the signs along the street for the stop points but did see the bus pulled up and legged it to catch up, unfortunately all too slow as it sped off into the distance with us only metres behind. We back tracked and found a stop point and waited for the next one to arrive. We bough a 3 day HOHO bus pass as it is a great way to get around only to find out that they only do 2 day passes, so will need to let our friendly booking girl back home know about that one. To top it off when we went to exchange the voucher for tickets the HOHO girl said "take a seat and I'll bring them to you" after we did the majority of Toronto we jumped off the bus to take the included ferry trip around Lake Ontario and asked her for the tickets, only to be told that she had already given them to us...  A quick and polite exchange of words had it all sorted but for a moment we had no tickets at all.

 

 

A very broad range of buildings with a mix of old and new and sometimes new with old. From the HOHO we picked out where we would be heading tomorrow as today was all about working out what we would like to see tomorrow. So it'll be Casa Loma Castle and a close up tour of the CN Tower.

We weren't expecting to do the ferry ride until tomorrow however we took the opportunity as we jumped on the HOHO a bit late after spending the morning at St. Lawrence having breakfast. A good 45 min tour around the lake in a very full ferry was great to see the city from the water. Being a Saturday on a long weekend (Canada Day was Friday) in the peak season made the waterfront a busy busy place.

Took in a bit of sun by being on the top of the roofless double-decker and the ferry so we are a lovely shade of pink tonight but the sun doesn't have half the sting that Aussie sun does. We got back in around 4 pm and Pen had a little (5 hr) catch up sleep while I down loaded the 300 odd photos from the day (see above). A quick bite to eat and time to finish this blog and get to bed ready for an earlier start tomorrow.
P.S. still getting used to the 9:30 pm sunsets.


Cheers
Gary and Penny