A picture postcard city

Because I thought that I have really written not very much about Vancouver, and because not many of you have been here, I have decided to show a little bit of Vancouver occasionally, just so you can see more about where I am living. Who knows, it might encourage you all to visit!

So here are some shots of Vancouver, which sadly I didn't take, because my camera is currently pretty crap, so I apologise to anyone whose copyright I have infringed. I did look before saving the pictures, and couldn't see copyrights on any of them.....




This, as far as I know from not travelling over many of the bridges out of Vancouver, is a view from the Burnaby side of the river towards downtown, with Canada and GM place (where hockey would take place, if there was any, and big concerts happen) on the left hand side. And there is snow, which never happens here, so you won't get many more pictures of that.






This is the view of downtown, looking northish, with the mountains in the background (the one in the middle, roughly, is Grouse Mountain, up which you can do the famous 'Grouse Grind' which is apparently a killer, and takes fit people about 2 hours. I have yet to have the pleasure myself. There is an annual competition to see who can get up there the fastest; the record holder got up there in some stupid time of 43 minutes. What was he, superman?

Although this picture is sadly small, it was the only one I could find of my favourite night-time view, coming over a bridge into downtown. I don't know why I like it so much, but I guess it must just be the contrast between the massive mountains in the background and the metropolis of the city in the foreground. And although there are loads of people living downtown, the lights don't seem to be overpowering or harsh, it all just kinds of fades in well together.





This is the view NW, from Granville Island and the bridge, across to the Burrard St bridge and the mountains beyond Vancouver. And eventually Whistler. The buildings that make up part of Granville Island are open air markets and nice cafes, and places where people go to pick up specialised products from various countries. English Bay is the beach you can see in the left hand side, and if you follow that round to the west you end up in Stanley Park, my favourite place. That is another picture posting, coming soon....




And finally, an aerial view of downtown Vancouver as a whole, just to give you some idea of how big the central bit is. The Granville and Burrard bridges are to the left, and Canada place is on the right. The big bit of greenery in the top is Stanley Park, and the view as a whole is kind of NWW.

Well, I hope I haven't bored everyone to tears with this. I just thought that you should probably all know where I live....



In other news, this weekend was spent watching tv and trying not to do work, going to see National Treasure at the cinema, and car shopping. I have my eye on a nice little number; however this week is another week of research before actually buying anything. So hopefully next weekend, I may be mobile...