The blossoms are out, real coffee smell in the air, friendly people and great food... It all looks like Wellington multiplied by ten. Can't wait to get out and see what's going on.
Tomorrow, breakfast at Artigiano's, below, Patrik says one of the best in Vancouver.
This is Davie Street where I'm staying at Patrik and Kathleen's - lovely hosts!
Being welcomed in my room on Davie Street.
At BelCafe opp. Vancouver Art Gallery
...white linen serviettes a nice touch.Three men speaking an indecipherable language,
perhaps it is Quebecois a la Vancouver!
I walk outside on Davie Street, see a bus and decide to take it. The bus driver doesn't charge me and says I can buy a fare-savers pack at London Drug Store, then proceeds to take me ten blocks and drop me downtown just near the Art Gallery which was to be my first visit anyway. I buy my book of ten tickets and find a Post Office in the same building and get stamps for my cards. Amazingly smooth and stress-free start to my stay. I already feel strangely at home. Find a nice cafe in Hotel Georgia and decide to have some yoghurt and muesli, just right, and a flat white, still not as good as in Wellington. The baristas haven't learnt the same skills as the Kiwis, who I have heard, are the best baristas in the world.
Also walking along Georgia Street I am offered a free organic coffee sample which I accept. My arrival in Vancouver and I am already offered a gift, and an organic coffee pack to boot!
Sitting in the hotel cafe I notice all the men in very smart suits, some resembling the young Kiwi fashionistas I see on Courtenay Place. There is a good sense of fashion pervading the streets, perhaps the invasive French influence, but it's certainly not American. Next stop the Vancouver Art Gallery, a great stone building formerly the Law Courts and transformed in only 1993 into the gallery. What better way to begin a visit than to see the nation's Artworks.
Well dressed people...
Cafe Faubourg, decor Renoir
A bit peckish after three hours at the Art Gallery discovering amongst others the pre-eminent Canadian visionary artist Lawren Harris, the first of the Canadian abstract artists in the early to mid -twentieth century. Also the very talented and interesting Emily Carr who was his compatriot.
Now I am in Cafe Faubourg, 'tres francais', as you will see from the Renoir murals, and the food - good baguette and coffee not too bad, but still not up to NZ standard. This time I tried a cappuccino on a recommendation from the last cafe, but it's still not right. However enough caffeine for the day, the sun is shining, it must be about twenty degrees celsius, and the weather makes for walking. If it stays this way I will bicycle in Stanley Park tomorrow. The people are out on the streets in droves as it is lunchtime. It's colourful and Continental in the European sense, but the hum of conversation around me is all Asian, Japanese to be exact. There is a big Asian population here especially from Japan, possibly because it is about the same latitude as Tokyo, and an easy way to emigrate to America?
I sounded picky about the coffee but it is mainly because of their size...no-one in North America seems to know what a normal coffee size is, my 'small' cappuccino is in a very, very large cup! Peu importe, I am now on to the sunny streets to savour the sweet air of cosmopolitan Vancouver. I take another electric powered trolley downtown bus, they are regular and everywhere. This onevtakes right to Denman where I am meeting Duncan McKenzie, my Scottish Country Dancing host for the weekend. I am attending his class tonight at the West End Community Centre.
Notice RUMI Opticals opposite...
Later that night (I can't sleep!)... the Scottish class went exceedingly well and the dancers welcomed me one and all. Duncan turned out to be a very sprightly seventy-five year old who doesn't look a day over sixty. Such are the benefits of Scottish Dance. It's going to be an exhausting weekend, but I'm sure, very enjoyable.
No comments:
Post a Comment