Reach for the sky

Vancouver apparently has the second most expensive real estate property in the world. Second only to  Hong Kong with my home city of Sydney supposedly in third place.

Much of the property in Vancouver is in high rise towers. This is a typical of what we saw in July.

What do we do? We Fly!*

(*From 'Do I Hear A Waltz', Lyrics by Stehpen Sondheim, Music by Richard Rodgers)

Flying Business Class can be heady but not all aspects of it are necessarily glamorous. Waiting in the Business Class Lounge of Air Canada in Vancouver recently for our return flight to Sydney we were confronted with two options for a hot meal.

And here they are.

Click on both photos to enlarge for a full sense of the quality of the offerings.

Looking at the food I was immediately reminded of the typically brilliant Sondheim lyrics;

The shiny stuff is tomatoes,
The salad lies in a group,
The curly stuff is potatoes,
The stuff that moves is soup.
Anything that is white is sweet,
Anything that is brown is meat,
Anything that is gray -- don't eat.

If you have a spare 3 minutes and 26 seconds play the full tune in the following recording. It is dated but it is still fun.



Here are the lyrics in full. I love them!

WHAT DO WE DO?  WE FLY!

Lloyd tells me, "Never go by plane."
I tell Lloyd,"Flying is insane."
We agree -- we would rather die.
We see a brochure, and sign for a tour
And what do we do?  We fly!

It starts the minute you check in
Departure time is at noon,
A cup of tea and a schnecken,
And -- quick! -- it's leaving soon.
One o-clock and you're at the gate,
Two o-clock and the flight's delayed,
When you finally leave it's eight,
And what do we do?  We fly!

I hate planes, sitting three abreast.
I hate planes, never get a rest.
I hate planes (I hate...
Ev'ry single one.)
The crossing was rough --
Which wasn't enough,
The fun hadn't yet begun.

The seat was throwing my back out,
But there I was with a book,
When suddenly there's a black out,
And everywhere I look
Is a close-up of Doris Day,
Ninety minutes of Doris Day,
There was nothing to do but pray,
And how do we go?  We fly!

I hate planes, most of all the sound.
I hate planes, even on the ground.
Can't stand planes (I hate...
Even more than those....)
The kids in aisle
Surrounding you while
Their parents pretend to doze.

The kid I noticed the first was
The one who stood on my feet.
The kid I hated the worst was
The one who kicked my seat.
There was one in the left who bit,
There was one in the right who spit,
There was one in the back I hit.
But what did we do?  We flew!

I hate planes.  Never can adapt.
I hate planes.  Always feel I'm trapped.
Can't stand planes (I hate...
most of all, the chow.)
To know what is what
Is difficult, but
I think I've discovered how.

The shiny stuff is tomatoes,
The salad lies in a group,
The curly stuff is potatoes,
The stuff that moves is soup.
Anything that is white is sweet,
Anything that is brown is meat,
Anything that is gray -- don't eat.
But what do we do?  We fly!

You're zooming up like a comet
Your ears are starting to ring,
Your neighbors starting to vomit,
There's ice along the wing.
As you wait for your palms to dry
You can see your whole life flash by,
And they tell you it's fun to fly --

Your chance to survive is so remote,
You're far better off to cut your throat.
But who has the time to take a boat?
What do we do?  We fly! 

Gastown Grand Prix

On our last evening in Vancouver we found ourselves briefly as unexpected spectators of the Gastown Grand Prix, a bicycle race.

Other spectators found a different vantage point in an adjacent multi-storey car park.

Sailing the bay

Whilst in Alaska earlier in the month we sailed into Glacier Bay. The MS Volendam silently and slowly made its way amongst small icebergs to get as close to several glaciers as safely possible.

Entering Glacier Bay

Low mist in the bay

Margerie Glacier

Johns Hopkins Glacier

Johns Hopkins Glacier

BC Parliament alight

On his tour of Canada Andrew mentions British Colombia's grand Parliament building but evidently he didn't get to see it lit up at night.

We visited Victoria, Vancouver Island a few days after Andrew and our hotel was adjacent to the Parliament grounds. Here is a photo I took of the building at night.

From on high

Views of Banff from Sulphur Mountain;

Nooks and crannies

Some snaps in and around the Fairmont Banff Resort Springs Hotel.

Sunset on a holiday

Air Canada Lounge at Vancouver International Airport

Home...but not so smart

We've arrived home after the 15 hours flight from Vancouver.

Despite departing Vancouver twenty-five minutes late we landed in Sydney about twenty minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Presumably the traditional head winds had a lesser effect on our flight. The early landing was completely undone by two delays once at the gate.

First we had to wait for the plane to be sprayed internally to eradicate those nasty bugs trying to infiltrate Australia.

Then having disembarked I made the mistake of trying to use the 'Smart Gate' Immigration clearance for the holders of those high tech microchip enhanced passports.

Perth's Smart Gates

The first two 'smart' gates I approached broke down just at the sight of me. A harried Customs Officer referred me to a third gate which worked until the moment it informed me it could not match me with my passport photo. This 'smart' gate referred me to the 'Assistance Desk'. My traveling companion, Hn, on the other hand was recognised by another of these 'smart' gates and quickly was waved on to the baggage carousel.

The benignly named 'Assistance Desk' was just one lane amongst many overcrowded lanes at the Immigration Clearance line. Being Saturday morning there were huge lines of passengers queued for clearance.

Our 'Assistance Desk' lane had its own ever growing queue of very disgruntled passengers each rueing that they had tried the 'smart' gates. I was queued for over thirty minutes before 'Assistance Desk' cleared me for entry. Hn, in the meantime was waiting with both our bags.

By the way, a young girl in one of the presumably 'non smart' queues for passengers unfortunate enough not to be in possession of a high tech passport fainted in the crush of the queues of which she was a member.

Welcome to Australia!

Last year I grumbled about slow Immigration clearance at Los Angeles and London Heathrow Airports. Sadly, my home city's performance this morning was just as unwelcoming.

Inside Passage

Yesterday was a day at sea headed for Vancouver. We travelled through the Inside Passage which provided further evidence of Canada's scenic beauty. The weather was very pleasant with temperatures around 22ºc.

Approaching our berth in Vancouver

Back in Vancouver

We've docked back in Vancouver. Disembarkment was well organised and pain free. Our hotel, the same one we checked into on arrival in Canada three weeks ago, is directly across the street from the wharf and wonders of wonders our rooms were ready for us even though it was only 9.15am.

We have the rest of the day and most of tomorrow at leisure in Vancouver before our flight home scheduled for 23.40hrs tomorrow.

A couple of photos from our last port in Alaska (Ketchikan) to tide you over for the time being.

The view back to the harbour from Cape Fox Lodge with our ship to the right and the Norwegian Jewel to the left. Three other cruise ships (out of photo) were also in port.

The Lido Deck pool with its roof partially open.

Hello, Dolly

Yesterday we sailed to Glacier Bay and I will post some photos from that visit after I return home.

This morning we berthed in Ketchikan, our last port of call in Alaska and the 'salmon capital of the world'. Naturally, our first visit was to a fabled red light district where 'Dolly' ran a grand house and, of course, was a madam with a heart of gold.

Dolly's house bears the inscription it is 'where men and salmon swam up stream to spawn'.

Arriving at Ketchikan

There were two other cruise vessels berthed when we arrived and by lunchtime a total of five cruise vessels in the port.

We depart this evening and will be at sea all day tomorrow arriving in Vancouver on Wednesday morning. We fly home on Thursday night.

There's a bear out there

We berthed at Skagway early this morning and after breakfast joined a tour that had us backtracking overland into Canada again to the Yukon Territory for the day. I'll post photos of this trip later but for today I'll just post some photos of bear sightings during the day (all shot through bus windows and zoom, hence the fuzziness). In fact we saw a number of bears during the day in multiple sightings.

One sighting

A later sighting

This bear walked across the street

Red Dog Saloon

We are in Juneau, capital of the US state of Alaska, and everyone who is anyone is in the Red Dog Saloon Bar. Waitresses are wearing red corsets, there is sawdust on the floors and there are swinging doors at the entrance. The bar is full and the singer is in good form.

Butchart Gardens

My friends know that I could kill a cactus. I have no ability to foster flowers, plants or maintain a garden. I can't tell an A from a Z (fill in names of any flower or plant of your pleasure). So a visit to a  garden display is not the first outing I would select.

The Butchart Gardens was on our tour itinerary and I went along without high expectations.

Wow! They are impressive. Even with my lack of interest in this art and hampered by a degree of colour blindness I was blown away the magnificence of the display.

Here is a small sample. (Don't ask me to name anything displayed.)

The Sunken Garden

Japanese Garden

Whistler to Victoria

Smoke haze from distant forest fires which we first observed yesterday moved across Whistler and 'our' part of British Columbia overnight and today. The smell of burn in the air was noticeable in the corridors of our hotel and turned the atmosphere into a fog-like haze for most of travel from Whistler to Horseshoe Bay and our ferry journey to Vancouver Island for the drive to the Provincial capital, Victoria.

Two Saturdays ago I posted photos from Horseshoe Bay with dazzling views across the harbour to distant mountains and a clear blue sky.

The view in Horseshoe Bay today as our ferry departed for Vancouver Island was very different.

A third ferry is in the murky distance

Chemainus, Vancouver Island BC

We arrived in Victoria mid afternoon and soon started exploring the harbour front to which our hotel is adjacent.

British Columbia Parliament House

The harbour front

Beautiful flower pots all around the harbour front and surrounds