What a wonderful day.  The weather has been perfect with not a cloud in the sky.  We started the day with a ride on a hop on hop off bus, and stopped at Granville Island.  This is a man made peninsula and is very arts and crafty.  They have a market 10 times better than Borough market.  Fresh veggies and fruit to die for, and so many stalls selling so many different types of food, from pies and pasta to salads, to bagels and pretzels, to curry and mexican food, pancakes, desserts, fish... you name it!  We wondered around for a couple of hours, bought a nice 'Native' indian print of a Salmon, and then sat outside on the dock eating our lunch.

Caught the bus again and travelled halfway around downtown Vancouver till we got to Robson street which is the main shopping street here.  We bought some accessories for the ipod and then took a walk down to Canada Place which is the pier where we embarked our ship.  Today there were 4 ships waiting to leave, and just as we got there, one of them tooted and left - a Princess one - so we stood and watched it leave, remembering all our special moments of our cruise.

From there we caught the bus again and travelled the whole route around downtown Vancouver - back to Stanley Park where we got to see a ship going under the Lions Gate Bridge (the one thats in the pics of our ship).  Once our bus stopped at its last stop - about an hour and a half later, we were in an area called Gastown which was the first part of downtown Vancouver. We had dinner at a lovely restaurant called the Old Spaghetti Factory - right up my street.  Every main meal includes a starter of soup or salad, plus garlic sourdough loaf, plus pudding or tea and coffee.  All for the price of an average starter in the US.  We've found prices here a lot more reasonable... but that could just be due to using the wrong exchange rate.  We're happy with that for now though! What are the rates at the moment anyway???

Tomorrow morning before we leave for London we'll probably go back on the bus as our ticket is for today and tomorrow.  The bus driver comments on all the sights and buildings as you pass, which makes it rather interesting.  There is also a movie being filmed here, and apparently Pierce Brosnan, Charlize Theron, Renee Zellwegger, Halle Berry and Ben Affleck are here, so we are going to take a walk and see if we can spot anyone we recognise.

We have loved being here.  The weather is good, apparently their winters are mild too - more rain and snow in New York than here. Lots of things to see and do, and it just has a nice relaxed vibe. We'll definitely be making our way back here in the future, and go on a tour of the Rocky's which our friends Ken and Sue did and said it was out of this world.

Catch ya later x