Finally got to bed last night, more like this morning, about 2 o'clock.  I woke around 5 worrying that I'd sleep in and not be ready to leave on time.  Carol and Eddie took me to the airport for 7 for my 8.55 flight. As is becoming the norm for  my trip the flight is delayed, oh dear, that means I'm going to have amuse myself for another hour and there are plenty of shops for me to do that in.  

The plane   finally gets in the air at 10.10 and we're on our way.  Nothing much to see though as we are above a huge cloud bank so I settle down to read. My watch is still set on English time during the flight and as there are no individual tv sets I have no idea where the hell I am, but I can see snow for miles   so I figure we're somewhere over Canada now.  Snow capped mountains come into view, (on the left of the pic, wonder if we're over the Rockies?) .  Guess not as an hour later some more snow capped mountains appear below , although, having no idea where I am these could be somewhere else.  We finally touch down in Vancouver at 4.25 pm Canada time, 1.25am English time (it's now Thursday there).  Confused yet?  I am. So was the girl at customs, the usual questions were asked, why are you here?  How long are you staying in  Canada?  You live in Australia yet came from London, how is that? Guess she isn't expected to know I'm on a loooong holiday.  The luggage took a while to come through and then it was a 20 minute wait for the transfer bus, and wouldn't you know it, he got caught in traffic so was late too. The driver took the Mack to load onto the bus and was concerned that the body in there might scream as he hauled it up the steps.  Oh, forgot to tell you, when I checked in at Manchester airport the Mack weighed in at a lightweight 32.4 kilo's, and the new bag I'd bought weighed in at 9.8 kilo's.  Baggage limit is 20kg per person and here I am 22 kilo's overweight, but again, no charge.  There really is something to be said for checking in VERY early.

Two bus rides, and 45 minutes after leaving the airport I arrive at my final destination, The Rosedale on Robson.  I'm on the 2nd floor in a fantastic little suite, a lounge, fully serviced kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.   Time for a cuppa I think, nope, think again, there's tea but no milk, luckily there is a little grocery store at the end of the hotel drive so milk and toothpaste are purchased and back to the room for a refresher.  It's now 6.30 and I am starving by this time so wander down to the restaurant/bar for a chicken pot pie and a nice cold beer.  I check with the doorman about tours for tomorrow and get myself booked on a 4 hour trip.  Exhaustion finally takes over and I'm in bed by 9pm.  Slept like a log but woke at 4.30am so made a cuppa, read the paper that was left outside my door and did some work on this page to pass the time till my bus leaves at 10am for my bus tour.

The bus arrived at 10.05, it had picked up it's first passengers from another hotel first. You wouldn't believe it but as soon as we pulled away from my hotel it started raining, just a bit, but by 10.20 it was coming down in buckets.  We picked up a few more passengers on the way through town and then off we went.  I won't bore you with all the details but it was a fantastic trip and the tour guide was great.  He did tell us that Vancouver is a safe place to wander around, and if you ever need a cop, don't bother calling 911, just go to the nearest Starbuck's, there'll be a few in each one having coffee.  He took us around Vancouver's version of Millionaire's Row, but you really couldn't see much of the houses as they all have high cedar hedges around them.  A couple  we did see through the gates were rather nice and so was the price tag.  One even had a moat around it.  He told us of a storm that hit a month ago and wiped out about 3000 trees in Stanley Park and damaged the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which closed it.  We did get to see a fair bit of  Stanley Park though and it was sad to see the devastation caused.   Some of the trees were hundreds of years old and they were pulled right out of the ground, roots and all.  Some of the holes left were big enough to build a small house in.  Anyway, I guess you're more interested in seeing the pic's aren't you, so here you are.
Back at the hotel I'm having a restful time writing this story when I get the brain wave to distribute my luggage more evenly between the Mack and the new bag, now named Mini Mack, it's about the same weight now but a wee bit smaller.