Chasing Waterfalls – Day 4

It felt like we had blinked and our stay in Toronto was over. We got up just before 06:00 and got ready. I packed the last odds and ends. Then we went downstairs to check out. Our transfer was due at 06:30, but our instructions stated to be there 15 minutes earlier. We had just sat down near reception when our transfer arrived. It was the same guy that had picked us up from the airport. We put the luggage in the car, and we were on our way. I soaked in the final views of the city.

This was the only time we were out and about in Toronto that the roads were not gridlocked. We had a nice clear run to the airport. We were dropped off right outside the check in area for WestJet. I had wondered if check in was even already open as the pickup had been on the early side and we had a clear run to the airport. We were in luck and our flight was already listed on the check in board. We headed to the self-service kiosks. Unfortunately, the computer gods were not on our side that day. I got a message that self-service check in as not possible and to approach a member of check in staff for assistance. We proceeded to the check in desks. The line was impressive, but things were well organised. They were calling out flights that were leaving soon and prioritized those. The regular line was also moving quickly. I got some amusement. At the next switchback there was a trolley that had a tote bag on top. I don’t know what made me look at this, but suddenly what I thought was a tote bag started to move. It turned out that this was a soft pet carrier and either had a small dog or a cat in it.

Soon it was our turn to check in. The check in agent swiped our passports and gave us our boarding passes. I wondered if maybe our seat numbers had changed, but they were still the same. We never found out why we could not check in at the kiosk. This shall remain one of life’s mysteries. On every flight I have ever taken, when we checked in at the desk, any checked luggage was taken off us at that stage. There, baggage drop off was in a different area in the next aisle. The person who had checked us in took us over there. However, there was a bit of a line, and she suggested that we use the self-service baggage drop where the kiosks are instead. This was a rather clunky system. We had to put the luggage on the belt and scan the barcode on the boarding pass. It took forever for this to register. We then had to enter the answer to some questions and then the suitcase was on its way. With hindsight, I would have preferred to just wait at the main baggage drop, but you are always wiser after the event.

In the grander scheme of things, it did not matter. We still had more than enough time, and this was the last hold up. Security was relatively quiet and well organized. It did not take us long to get through there. We headed in the general direction of our gate and went to find somewhere to get some breakfast. We ended up in an Irish pub called Fionn MacCool’s. We both had coffee. Graham had the pub breakfast, which consisted of sausage, breakfast potatoes, baked beans, fried egg, and toast. I had the breakfast poutine, which consisted of fries, cheese curds, Hollandaise, bacon bits, and fried egg. As I had found out previously, I am a bit of a purist when it comes to poutine. I did enjoy this, but the original version is definitely best. Still, breakfast hit the spot and was reasonably priced by airport standards.

After breakfast, we quickly went to the bathroom and then we were going to settle down at the gate, which was opposite. As I was leaving the bathroom, I got an alert on my Apple Watch that our gate had changed. I went to find Graham and he said that he had already noticed. He thought it had been changed to the next gate along, which is not the information that I had. The problem with flights between Toronto and Vancouver is that they are extremely frequent. Indeed, there were two leaving at exactly the same time. He was looking at another WestJet flight that was leaving a little later than ours. With this cleared up, we headed over to the new gate and settled down. Around the same time as getting the alert about the gate change, I had also got an alert from Starbucks that they have just launched a melon Refresher. I know that when we are in the USA, it uses location services, and I get alerts for any offers and new products in the USA. I figured it would be the same for Canada. There was a Starbucks not for away and I decided to check this out. I headed over there and the drink I was after was not on the menu. I did realise afterwards that I had an email about this, and it was for the UK. There was nothing else that jumped out at me on the menu and the line was quite long. I decided to pass and rejoined Graham.

I read for a bit and not long afterwards I noticed that general boarding had started. There had been no announcement since the preboarding announcement. We got up and headed to the gate. The advantage of this was that we literally walked straight onto the plane, and they still had two more zones to board after ours. This all worked out. I had worried about my hand luggage as this was a tight squeeze on the Manchester to Paris flight and WestJet is a low-cost carrier. However, the overhead lockers were spacious, and I had no issues fitting my backpack in.

Boarding was completed quite quickly and soon we were on our way. The flight was due to take about 5 hours. I started to read, but soon my eyes grew heavy, and I decided to have a nap. I woke up in time for the drinks service. We were given some pretzels and a cookie what was supposed to be a chocolate topping. I had declined this, but Graham took one and as he is allergic to chocolate, he gave this to me. I was pretty sure that this had never seen chocolate. I had some Coke and Graham had some water. Initially I was given just a plastic cup of Coke. However, a little bit later, the member of cabin crew came back and advised she had fished the service and nobody else had wanted Coke. She offered me the can, which I gratefully accepted.

I read some more and then had another nap before reading for the rest of the flight. I was surprised that they came round with another drinks service. Graham had some tea, and I had some ginger ale. This time I was not lucky enough to be given the can. I had some more pretzels and Graham decided to have the cookie following my assessment that this did not contain any chocolate. I was right as he had no ill effects.

Soon we started the descent into Vancouver. The flight had been very pleasant. As we had arrived on a domestic flight, there were no formalities to clear. We were able to head straight to the baggage hall. I had checked instructions for the transfer while we were waiting to board, and it stated that our driver would be waiting behind the waist height wall near the baggage carousels. As soon as we got to the baggage hall, I saw that our driver was waiting for us. I went over to let him know that we had arrived, and he advised me to leave my backpack and coat with him. I was only too happy to take him up on that offer. Graham’s suitcase arrived pretty quickly, but mine took a little longer. Still about 10 minutes after I checked in with the driver, we were on our way.

The traffic was pretty bad even though this was early afternoon on a weekday. However, the driver was very nice and an interesting guy. We spent the journey chatting. Soon he dropped us off at our hotel. Our travel agent had booked us into the Hyatt Regency, which is a bit upmarket by our standards. We went to check in. She asked us if we were members of their loyalty programme. We were not . She told us that she would have a room available for us there and then if one of us was a member and offered to enrol me. I did not see any harm in this. She enrolled me, checked us in and we went to find our room.

We had a new experience heading up to our room. I know the newest Royal Caribbean ships have this feature, but it was the first time that I actually experienced this. When we got onto the elevator, there were no buttons. Somebody pointed out to us that there are touchscreens outside the elevators where you select your floor. It then shows you which elevator to get onto. I actually quite liked this system, and it seemed to work very well.

Our room was huge and quite modern. Unfortunately, the shower was again over a tub, but this tub had some nonslip coating. We both used the bathroom, and I took some photos of the room. We then took what we needed for the rest of the day and headed out.

Graham had found a little gem about a month before we were due to leave for our trip. Lynn Canyon Park is a municipal park in North Vancouver. It is not too far from Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, which we had visited on our two previous visits to Vancouver. Like Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Lynn Canyon Park has a suspension bridge, but everything is on a smaller scale. This is more frequented by locals rather than tourists. It is free to visit. Apart from the suspension bridge, there is a visitor centre and a number of hiking trails including a loop trail that takes in the suspension bridge and Twin Falls.

There is public transport that gets relatively close to the entrance of Lynn Canyon Park, but with limited time available, we figured that getting an Uber was a safer bet. At CAD25, this did not exactly break the bank especially as Lynn Canyon Park was a fair distance away from our hotel. I requested an Uber as soon as we were outside the hotel and was directed to a pickup point two cross streets down. However, the streets in this part of Vancouver are really close together and it took us just a couple of minutes to get there. Our driver got to us around 5 minutes later. I don’t think the poor guy had ever been that far outside of the city and seemed utterly confused. However, the app that Uber drivers use got us there and soon he dropped us off in the car park for Lynn Canyon Park.

We checked out the visitor centre first. They had some rather cool dioramas showing different parts of the park. There were also displays about the fauna and flora. I picked up a map and then we headed out. It was not very far until we reached the entrance to the suspension bridge. This is not as long and high as the one at Capillano, but it is still impressive. I had read that this the suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon Park sways more than its counterpart at Capillano, but thankfully this was not the case when we were there. I think it would be a different experience if it had been very busy. From the middle of the suspension bridge, we had fantastic views of Twin Falls.

Lynn Canyon Park is stunning. The Lynn Valley Forest is over 1000 years old and is home to western hemlock, western red cedar, Sitka spruce, cottonwood, and broad leaf maples. The loop trail we were doing is about 1.5 miles long. I had seen it described as an easy trail. However, which an elevation gain of 109 metres, that was not how I would describe it. On the plus side, most of the trail consists of gravel paths and boardwalks. There was only one short stretch that was a little rocky with some roots. The change in elevation was mainly covered by a number of stairs rather than steep paths. Stairs is still something I struggle with because of the arthritis in my knee. However, to my intense surprise, I coped OK. 

After coming off the suspension bridge, there was a gravel path that was then replaced by a boardwalk that was leading us further in the forest. For the most part, stretches of boardwalk alternated with wooden stairs. It was on the way to Twin Falls that we encountered the only rocky part of the path, which was also slightly steeper. There were handy benches dotted around, and we spent some time sitting down and admiring our surroundings. When we got to Twin Falls, there was a bridge across the river and then there was a lot of stairs very close together. I was relieved when we reached another gravel path. However, we were lulled into a false sense of security. The gravel path took us to another set of seemingly endless stairs. Every now and again, there was a bench on one of the landings and we made good use of this. Eventually we could see a carpark at the top of one set of stairs and this time round, we were done going up in the world. The trail was definitely not easy, but we thoroughly enjoyed it and would not have missed this for the world.

Soon we passed the entrance to the suspension bridge and shortly afterwards the cafe. We figured that we had deserved some refreshment. Graham had some iced vanilla coffee, and I had a Mexican mandarin soda. This hit the spot. We used the bathroom and then we headed out. I had intended to leave a donation, but the visitor centre was already closed when we came by.

I hit another snag. When we arrived, I checked if I had a signal on my phone, which I did. I even noticed that I had a signal when I took photos on the trail. However, when we got back where we had started, I had no signal. I connected to their Wi-Fi network, but was still not able to connect to the Uber app. Graham had spotted a sign for the nearest bus stop, which was not far away. We figured we may as well head in that general direction and see if the signal would come back. In the end we were nearly at the bus stop when I had a signal again. At this stage we decided we may as well stick with the bus especially as the relatively short trip into North Vancouver cost about the same as the trip from the hotel had cost us.

There were bus stops on either side of the road. There were people waiting at the bus stop on one side of the road and we asked them which side we needed to be on for North Vancouver. We were advised that we needed to be on the other side. As we were coming up to the bus stops, one bus on that side just left, but the run pretty frequently and the next bus arrived about 15 minutes later. The bus that goes from this bus stop is referred to as a community shuttle and various websites that I found about Lynn Canyon Park suggested that this service is best avoided. When the bus came, I was bewildered about this advice. Yes, it was a smaller bus, but in all other ways it was just an ordinary bus service. It is operated by Translink, and it cost the same as any other bus in Vancouver. They even accepted contactless payment. I did some research when we got back. Apparently, a community shuttle is just a smaller bus that covers residential areas with less demand. I can imagine that on weekends and during the summer it may not be a good idea to try to use this bus, but when we were on it, it was about one quarter occupied. Essentially this service links the residential area of Lynn Valley with two different transport interchanges. The bus ride was pretty scenic, and we had our first bald eagle sighting of the trip. When we were getting closer to the transport interchange where the bus was heading, the driver asked everybody where they were heading. This particular transport interchange is spread out across three blocks. He told us when we needed to get off and told us that the bus we needed to connect to should be straight behind.

The connecting bus route was not quite as scenic, but it definitely was interesting. When we did the food tour in Gastown last year, our guide did share with us that one of the up-and-coming areas for foodies is North Vancouver. Just going down the main road on the bus, we saw restaurants and cafes from just about every country imaginable. There were also all kinds of unique shops. I think this needs a more thorough exploration. The same people we did the Gastown food tour with also offer a North Vancouver food tour and this may be an interesting thing to do. However, this is something for a future trip.

For the time being, I was very grateful that there was a bus stop right in front of our destination. When I originally looked at what north Vancouver has to offer, I came across a recommendation for a German restaurant called Jägerhof. I have to admit that I did not expect German food in Vancouver. However, the menu looked very promising, and Graham was happy to humour me. When we arrived, we were asked if we had a reservation. We did not. We were asked if we think we would be able to finish dinner within about 75 minutes and we saw no problem with that. We were seated. The décor of the restaurant is somewhat eccentric to be polite about it, but both the service and the food were first class. This is a family business, and the two older generations had emigrated to Canada from Germany. The younger members of the family were born in Vancouver. All the food served is based on old family recipes and this showed. 

I had planned to just have a main course, but one of the specials of the day was goulash soup, which I could not resist. Graham stuck with the plan to have just a main course. He had schnitzel with mushroom sauce, Spätzle, and red cabbage. I had what probably is my absolutely favourite meal Beef Rouladen, red cabbage, and Spätzle. We had a bottle of Gewürztraminer with our dinner. Everything was perfect. This turned out to be our most expensive meal of the trip, but it was worth every Penny.

We walked the short distance downhill to the waterfront. There is an indoor market in that area, and we cut through there. They were about to close, and a lot of the stalls had already closed. We figured that this would wait for a future trip. Then we headed over to the SeaBus station.

The SeaBus is a foot passenger ferry that crosses the Burrard Inlet to connect North Vancouver to Vancouver. Unlike the False Creek ferries that we had used last year, SeaBus is part of the Translink network. During peak hours, this is considered a two-zone journey, but off peak it only requires a one zone ticket. When we got to the SeaBus station, off peak hours had just started. One SeaBus was just leaving as we got there, but the next one was not far behind. The journey takes 12 minutes and is quite pretty.

Our original plan had been to walk back from the SeaBus station to the hotel. This is only about three quarters of a mile. However, most of this is up a rather steep hill. We both figured that we had done enough mountaineering for one day. When we had gone to meet our Uber earlier that day, we had noticed that there is a Skytrain station right next to the hotel. That station is only one stop from Waterfront station, but it cut out the uphill portion. It also turned out that if you transfer from the SeaBus to either the Skytrain or a regular bus with 90 minutes, this is included in the fare. Having said that, I would happily have paid for this.

When we got to the platform, a train was just pulling in. This was perfectly timed. When we arrived at the local station, we decided to check out the underground shopping centre that entrances from the Skytrain station and from our hotel. However, this was already closed. We had hoped this would provide some breakfast options, but it turned out that this was not due to open the next day until after our pickup time for our excursion. We headed across the street to the hotel and went straight to our room. We got ready for bed and within minutes, we were both asleep.