I only spout poetry when my feet hurt…
And having managed a fair amount of walking this week, I have to say my feet were starting to ache. Having managed a cursory tour of Vancouver already, on bus, I decided to venture slightly further afield and walk around a few of the slights and places I had previously driven through.
Wednesday evening saw unusually high temperatures for Vancouver and it was the turn of Team UK for the firework spectacular in the HSBC Celebration of Light. Over two weeks four teams each take a turn at setting fireworks to an appropriate piece of music. I have say I think I was ready to shed a tear when the National Anthem was played and the stirring opening bars of Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches could be heard. The fireworks were amazing, you wouldn’t have expected anything else, and the whole place was buzzing. All around the bay you could see the sky light up and people on all the beaches, tower blocks and hotel windows watching. If the weather holds out for the weekend then I think I may well be in the same place on Saturday night to see the final entry in the competition for this year- The turn of China I think.
Wednesday evening saw unusually high temperatures for Vancouver and it was the turn of Team UK for the firework spectacular in the HSBC Celebration of Light. Over two weeks four teams each take a turn at setting fireworks to an appropriate piece of music. I have say I think I was ready to shed a tear when the National Anthem was played and the stirring opening bars of Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches could be heard. The fireworks were amazing, you wouldn’t have expected anything else, and the whole place was buzzing. All around the bay you could see the sky light up and people on all the beaches, tower blocks and hotel windows watching. If the weather holds out for the weekend then I think I may well be in the same place on Saturday night to see the final entry in the competition for this year- The turn of China I think.
http://celebration-of-light.com/#
This weekend is a public holiday, so getting in the holiday spirit I thought I’d head back to Stanley Park, one of the largest urban spaces in North America and a fact I didn’t know until the weekend, some 20% larger than NYC’s Central Park. While I didn’t manage to cover anywhere near the 22 miles of trails that it contains I did manage a stroll along the Seawall to the Totem Poles, an aborted attempt in the late 1880s to recreate a whole village. Most the ones in the park today seem to be more recent reconstructions, yet they still manage to show a wide range of symbolic creatures and my favorites even manage to retell a story. The link to the local history being somewhat appealing.
I didn’t walk too far, but I did wander round to the lighthouse, which was a lot smaller than I had expected based on previous pictures I have seen. More of a light tower really, and since the light house keeper lived in a cottage and travelled there every day, I guess that is exactly what it was. More of a token effort than the big lighthouse you hear if in stories.
The “Girl in Wetsuit” statue is also situated in the park. It was initially a gift to the city by the sculptor Elek Imredy and despite the assertion that the statue bears no link to “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen I would have to disagree. The pose is almost identical, and to my mind it is just a slightly more modern interpretation of its more famous counterpart. And very much at odds with the reconstruction of the figurehead from the USS Empress of Japan which sits nearly opposite. This was installed to commemorate the trade of Vancouver with Asia. Stanley Park is an eclectic and thoroughly absorbing place, I can see I’ll be spending a fair few weekends in various points of this park as the year progresses.
My local endeavor for the week was to be a farmer’s market being held in Burnaby, it is hosted once a week from the end of June to the middle of October and this week I thought I have a brief wander around and see what was going on… Having first run around Central Park (not quite NYC) but a local park in Burnaby with a selection of marked out 5K trials I was ready for something a little different. However, I got a little distracted by the “World Fire and Police Games” which are currently taking place in and around Vancouver and I didn’t quite manage to make it to the market. The track and field events were taking place in the park while I was there, and I was impressed to hear that anyone could manage 3m 85cm in the long jump! I was also put slightly to shame by the runners who were doing 2k thru 5k warm ups before their events and seemed to look a lot more relaxed and fresher than I felt, and mine wasn’t even a warm up.
This week I feel I have managed a nice mix of activities, and I look forward to seeing what next week will bring, I may try the farmer’s market again….
This weekend is a public holiday, so getting in the holiday spirit I thought I’d head back to Stanley Park, one of the largest urban spaces in North America and a fact I didn’t know until the weekend, some 20% larger than NYC’s Central Park. While I didn’t manage to cover anywhere near the 22 miles of trails that it contains I did manage a stroll along the Seawall to the Totem Poles, an aborted attempt in the late 1880s to recreate a whole village. Most the ones in the park today seem to be more recent reconstructions, yet they still manage to show a wide range of symbolic creatures and my favorites even manage to retell a story. The link to the local history being somewhat appealing.
I didn’t walk too far, but I did wander round to the lighthouse, which was a lot smaller than I had expected based on previous pictures I have seen. More of a light tower really, and since the light house keeper lived in a cottage and travelled there every day, I guess that is exactly what it was. More of a token effort than the big lighthouse you hear if in stories.
The “Girl in Wetsuit” statue is also situated in the park. It was initially a gift to the city by the sculptor Elek Imredy and despite the assertion that the statue bears no link to “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen I would have to disagree. The pose is almost identical, and to my mind it is just a slightly more modern interpretation of its more famous counterpart. And very much at odds with the reconstruction of the figurehead from the USS Empress of Japan which sits nearly opposite. This was installed to commemorate the trade of Vancouver with Asia. Stanley Park is an eclectic and thoroughly absorbing place, I can see I’ll be spending a fair few weekends in various points of this park as the year progresses.
My local endeavor for the week was to be a farmer’s market being held in Burnaby, it is hosted once a week from the end of June to the middle of October and this week I thought I have a brief wander around and see what was going on… Having first run around Central Park (not quite NYC) but a local park in Burnaby with a selection of marked out 5K trials I was ready for something a little different. However, I got a little distracted by the “World Fire and Police Games” which are currently taking place in and around Vancouver and I didn’t quite manage to make it to the market. The track and field events were taking place in the park while I was there, and I was impressed to hear that anyone could manage 3m 85cm in the long jump! I was also put slightly to shame by the runners who were doing 2k thru 5k warm ups before their events and seemed to look a lot more relaxed and fresher than I felt, and mine wasn’t even a warm up.
This week I feel I have managed a nice mix of activities, and I look forward to seeing what next week will bring, I may try the farmer’s market again….
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