Vancouver 2

So we spent yesterday morning doing the cycling thing around Vancouver. It really is rather nice and you can see why Boris is so keen on establishing something similar in London, were it not for having thirteen times the population density and a road layout and driver mentality perfected for the destruction of cyclists.   It works pretty well here though.

Look how fearsomely ecological this guy is

Once we were done following the rest of the tourists around Stanley Park, we rode across the Cambie Street Bridge to Food Cart Fest. Canada, much like the US, has a fairly established habit of successful restaurants selling their product out of the sides of vans.  I know we do too, but how much of our equivalent would/should one eat sober?  Anyway, the festival has them form a big wagon circle on some disused land and gluttonous foreigners happen across them and fill their gaping maws.

Resist me, ladies.

That one was some kind of Japanese burger made out of prawns, served by about 20 Japanese ladies in the back of an un-air conditioned wagon who were disconcertingly loud and happy about doing so. So that was certainly a thing. 

Today had us pop across to Granville Island (the country's second most popular attraction after Niagara) for a nose around.  We joined a tour by the chaps at Tour Guys and learned of the island's colourful history as an occasional industrial centre, ecological crime, brownfield site, tourist trap or some combination of the above over the past century.  We do recommend the distillery for some stereotypically British reasons. 

Note the un-aged "white whiskey".  I'm pretty sure that's not considered whiskey outside of prison bath tubs, but who's keeping score.

Also, I spotted these in the local market:

The picture lacks scale but these pastries were about a foot wide. You're fooling no-one Canada: real eccles cakes can't be substituted as trench weapons.

Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Wir haben Fahrräder vermietet. Wir haben alle touristischen Sachen auf Granville Insel gesehen und dann haben wir ersatz Whisky getrunken.