Marco's Travel Tips: Vancouver

A View of the Vancouver Skyline


Lodging

When you attend the Olympics, you really need to plan well in advance. Lodging is usually the first thing you need to find, as most rooms will book-up rapidly. Inexpensive lodging options will be rare. We planned our trip more than a year in advance. We decided to rent a house for our Olympic adventure so that we wouldn't be forced to eat every meal out. We found our house on VRBO.com. The property was conveniently located in the residential Mount Pleasant neighborhood, within walking distance of restaurants, a grocery store, and public transportation.

Our Olympic Home



Our home away from home was ideal for our Olympic getaway. The house had three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, living room, dining room, and laundry. More importantly, the house had a television so we could watch the Olympics!

Front Entry Hall


Living Room (With Curling on TV!)

Dining Room

The Piano

The Kitchen

The Front Porch

Dining

Vancouver is one of the great culinary cities of the world. Because of the large immigrant population, there is an abundance of Asian restaurants of every type: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai among others. Please be sure to read some of my earlier blog entries for some information about some of the great Asian restaurants where we ate lunch.

The city is also well-known for its seafood. We decided to eat at one of the most popular restaurants in Vancouver, Coast Restaurant, where we had some of the freshest and best seafood to be found. Joshua and Rebecca has fish and chips, Marie and Allison shared the signature seafood platter (which consisted of B.C. cod, wild sea tiger prawns, sockeye salmon, Qualicum scallops, seasonal vegetables, potato gnocchi, and tomato gastrique), and I opted for the Arctic Char. Everything was absolutely delicious!

The Ketchup Queen

The Signature Seafood Platter

How's that Fish & Chips?

Amazing Arctic Char

On our last evening in Vancouver, we were feeling the need for comfort food. Some locals we met at the Women's Ice Hockey game suggested that we dine at Burgoo Bistro. This was the perfect place to cap off the week. The menu consisted of comfort food from around the globe. For a starter, the kids had Burgoo Biscuits (from Kentucky), Marie and Allison shared the Hummus (Mediterranean), and I had a white bean soup (Italy). For dinner, the kids had an incredible macaroni and cheese (USA), Allison had a vegetarian sandwich (Mediterranean) with tomato soup (Great Britain), Marie ate lamb tagine (Morocco), and I had the pot roast (France). All of it was outstanding, and it really hit the spot.

Getting Around

The best way to get around Vancouver is by taking public transportation. The Sky Train operated by TransLink was absolutely outstanding to use for the games. An all day pass cost $9, or it was free if you had a ticket for the day's events. (All of the rides are done on the honor system.)

TransLink also operated a water shuttle, called the SeaBus, across the harbor to North Vancouver. Even if you aren't going to North Vancouver, it's worth taking a ride across the harbor to see the city's skyline.

A View of Canada Place from the SeaBus

North Vancouver

Another View of Vancouver

You may also get a chance to see one of the many seaplanes that takes off from Vancouver Harbor. (I took one of these the last time I was in Vancouver to get to Victoria.)

Harbor Air Seaplane

The city of Vancouver also set up a new streetcar especially for the games: the Olympic Line. This free streetcar was a great way to travel along the southern side of False Creek.

Marie on the Olympic Line Streetcar

The bus network around Vancouver is excellent, and the drivers (for the most part) extremely courteous. Rebecca enjoyed sitting in the area between the two buses.

Rebecca's Favorite Seat

Taking the Bus to UBC

Mark and Mukmuk, the Olympic Sidekick on the Bus

Everyone, even the Olympic mascots and the sidekick, enjoyed taking the bus around Vancouver during the games.

Mukmuk and Mukmuk Take the Bus

Olympic Moments

Having left the snow behind in D.C., the weather in Vancouver was absolutely beautiful, with temperatures on some days getting into the 50's and 60's. This warmer than normal weather has caused the daffodils, crocuses, cherry blossoms, and other flowers to bloom earlier than expected.

Crocuses in Bloom


Colorful Vancouver Flowers


Snowdrops (But No Snow)

The Canadians are incredibly warm and friendly hosts. They also wanted to make sure that we enjoyed our stay in British Columbia, even providing us with Maple Leaf pins and B.C. flags.

Rebecca Displays Her B.C. Patriotism


Walking around the city of Vancouver or attending an Olympic sporting event, you are sure to see athletes wearing their country's uniforms. Its a lot of fun to guess where everyone is from.

Czech Athletes


The Beautiful Mountain of Whistler


Around the city were many places you could go (for free) to experience the Olympic spirit and watch the games on the big screen. These locations also provided Olympic sponsors a chance to show off their products.

Marie and Rebecca at LiveCity Yaletown


At the Olympics, the first thing you need to get used to are the lines. There are lines for everything. To get on the train. To go through security to get into the venues. In Canada, unlike the United States, the lines are orderly and well organized.

Waiting in Line at Curling


One of the most talked about things at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were the red, blue, white and beige argyle pants worn by the Norwegian men's curling team. Love them or hate them, these pants have their own facebook page with more than half a million friends. For those people who love them, you can buy them online directly from Loudmouth Golf Pants, that is, when they get them back in stock. (The other popular item to buy at these games were the red Canada mittens, which seemed to be harder to find than just about anything else.)

The Most Popular Pants in Vancouver


The Royal Canadian Mint circulated a special series of Olympic coins for these games. They also set up a pavilion where you could see and hold the medals being awarded to the athletes. Alas, we never made it inside the building; the lines were always a two to three hour wait.

Olympic Coin Collector

We figured out that we could get most of the Olympic coin collection by visiting the local branch of the Royal Bank of Canada. While waiting in line for our coins, we all had an opportunity to hold an actual torch used in the Olympic Torch Relay.

Our Olympic Torch Relay

Robson Square was transformed as the hub of much Olympic activity. The zipline ride across the square had waits that approached six hours. There were places to take photos, stages with international entertainment, and cultural displays around the square.

Josh on the Snowboard

Rebecca Gives Us a Smile

Korean Dance Troupe

Lanterns for Peace

Big Totem Pole Lantern

Collecting and trading pins is one of the most popular activities while attending the games. This activity was originally created for the 1996 Atlanta Games as a way for athletes to get to know one another. Little did they know that this would become the phenomenon it is today. The twins were especially excited about collecting pins and even got into trading old pins for new ones.

Josh Trading Pins

An Olympic Pin Trader

No visit to an Olympics isn't complete without seeing the Olympic Cauldron and Flame. Vancouver was the first city to host the Olympics where the opening ceremony was inside. Hence, a second cauldron was set up along the waterfront so that all could see the Olympic Flame.

The Olympic Cauldron

The Flame Burns Bright

Olympic Flame with Mountains in the Background

A Bird's Eye View of the Olympic Flame

Throughout Vancouver, huge billboards were splashed across the skyscrapers announcing the Canadian spirit and enthusiasm for the games. Here are a few examples.

The Largest Maple Leaf in the World

Support Team Canada


Samsung at the Olympics

The theme of the XXI Winter Olympics was "With Glowing Hearts", or in French "Desplus Brillants Exploits." This phrase is some of the lyrics from the Canadian national anthem. At each venue, this theme prevailed.

Marie and Allison

The Canadians love their ice hockey. Many Canadians walked around the city wearing hockey shirts with the name of the starring goalie emblazoned on the back.

Luongo!

There is so much to see and do when attending an Olympics, that I strongly recommend that you rest your eyes and feet every chance you get! You certainly don't want to miss anything.

Taking a Cat Nap