Bike riding around Vancouver

Hey everyone,

We’ve had a fabulous day riding around Vancouver. The bike paths here are fantastic, and we can see why Vancouver competes with Melbourne as one of the world’s most liveable cities as a result. It was 23 degrees and brilliant sunshine today, the warmest day for six months apparently.

We hired bikes for six hours and started off riding the Seawall at Stanley Park. The park is just over four square kilometres in area and opened in 1888, named after the Governor General at the time, Frederick Stanley. Prior to this the area was used for military purposes, and was again used as a lookout/base during the first and second world wars. Its Seawall is part of the world’s largest uninterrupted waterfront path of 28km, and spans 8.8km of this distance. It was built in different sections between 1914 and 1971, to stop the tides that were wearing away the peninsula. Today it is a lovely walk or bike ride. We enjoyed views of the harbour and Lionsgate Bridge (even saw two seals here!), as well as some beaches. Then we continued on over the Burrard Street Bridge towards Granville Island where we enjoyed another donut each at the same place as yesterday, before riding back over the bridge and heading down towards the stadiums and Science World.

We stopped for a drink on a patio of a pub, Rob enjoying a beer and myself a frozen Bellini. Then we rode west to Kitsilano Beach. It was lovely seeing so many people out on the bike paths and at the beaches. People were sunbathing and even swimming!

Finally we headed back to Stanley Park again where this time we took the path for the more serious cyclists. By this point in the day there were a lot of people around the Seawall that clearly had never ridden a bike before or not for a while. Many were pulling out onto the path without looking or stopping for no reason, so we got over it pretty quickly. The more serious path went up some pretty steep hills, and my favourite part of this section was when some obnoxious boys in their early 20s seemed to take great pleasure overtaking us on their electric scooters (our bikes weren’t electric). I think they got a big surprise when a 56kg/30 year old woman with a hip injury gunned it and sped past them soon after as their electric motors struggled once the hill steepened. I haven’t lost my competitive streak! We then looped back to the bike shop and dropped off our bikes. I would go as far as saying mine was the best hire bike I’ve ridden, the gears worked well and the bike was nice and light. We rode 43km in the end.

Tonight we are contemplating walking back to one of the beaches we passed to dip our legs in, and we will probably go out for dinner. Then I’m off to sleep early as I’ll be up at midnight to watch the pies play Adelaide before we set off for Whistler in a hire car tomorrow. We’ve really enjoyed Vancouver!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox