Vancouver - View of Granville island

We rented bikes today to cycle around Vancouver. This city has the best network of cycle lanes that I have ever seen, we cycled about 40km today and all on cycle paths without ever having to share a road with cars. We met the Canadian family after breakfast and ably led by our nephew, we started from where our hotel is in the Coal Harbour area, and cycled on the seawall all around Stanley Park - where we stopped off to look at the Totem Poles - then continued past the beaches at English Bay, past the Olympic stadium and village (Winter Olympics was held in Whistler in 2010) until we reached Granville island. We had a booking for lunch at a really cool restaurant, once again outstanding food, all my kind of favourite things with many choices for vegetarians and vegans.

After lunch we cycled to Kitsilano beach, our nephew and his girlfriend live in Kits and spend weekends playing volleyball on the beaches there. It has a very young vibe and was full of activity, with people cycling, roller blading, using electric scooters, its very vibrant and looks like a fun place to live. It is near the University where he works as a research engineering scientist, which is  where he studied for his masters and PhD. Adam and Tommy were keen to see his lab at the university so some went of to the University of British Columbia, Luke and Meriel went back to go for a run (serious marathon training!) while the rest of us cycled over the Burrard St Bridge where I took this photo. 

Gavin and I continued cycling to Yaletown which is a very popular area and on to Gastown which is quirky but with a very depressing side to it to. We have all fallen in love with Vancouver, it is such a fantastic city built around water and the lifestyle here looks so healthy and outdoors based. However as in all cities there is always an unpleasant side to it, and in Gastown there were homeless drug addicts lying on the pavements shooting up while people are just walking by. While cannabis is legal here in BC, other drugs are not but there are needle clinics there to help drug addicts get access to clean needles to help prevent the spread of other associated diseases. 

Extra photos of the Granville Island ferry with the Burrard St bridge in the background, and then the amazing berry display at the Granville Island market.