Thursday 27 July 2006
Highlights: Stanley Park

The tour really began today.   The group includes 35 people (10 more will join later) with a lot of USA citizens included which is a new experience for me. We started with a bus tour around Vancouver I had seen most of the sights already but the insights from the tour director add some meaning.   For instance Vancouver is named after George Vancouver a first officer under James Cook who discovered this place.

In Stanley Park we visited the Totem Pole display.   These poles are not a religious icon but rather a way of telling a story of the tribe or band (as they are known in Canada).   Leaving Vancouver over the Lion’s Gate Bridge I found it interesting that it was privately built by the Guinness family (yes the beer family) who only allowed English citizens to live on the other side of the bay. During our trip we stopped for lunch in a town called Love (they had a great wooden craving of a bear) and stopped for the night at the Lac Le Jeune Resort.