Canada 08/09 – Vancouver to Whistler

Today started earlier than any other – 8am for most of the crew, and some slightly later. We had to be on a bus at 10am, so the early wake was well justified. Breakfast was quick and we enjoyed the last of our great views over the towering city of Vancouver.

We were out of the apartment by 9:30am and made our way down to the hotel lobby where the bus was to come past in less than 30 minutes. Unfortunately, it was not typical for busses to pick-up at this location, and so front desk staff were rather skeptical that the bus would come.

Luckily for us, the bus did come – and it was on time too. We had to laugh a little though, as the bus arrived with very dark, tinted windows and was completely black in colour. It looked a bit like we were on assignment for the secret services or something – or just super concerned that we’d lose our vehicle in a snow storm/white out.

It was only a small bus – maybe 20 people capacity – but there were only 10 people or so on board which was nice. Our driver, Curtis, was super friendly and made the 1hr 40min journey fly past.

After leaving Vancouver, we cruised through Stanley Park and into North Vancouver, moving soon onto Highway 1 – the main highway that cuts Canada in half. Heading West, we soon were out of metropolis and on to the Sea to Sky Highway (Highway 99) which would take us North to Whistler.

An hour or so out of Vancouver we passed the small town of Squamish. This was set to be the home of the press for the 2010 Winter Olympics, stationed on two cruise ships brought in specifically for the purpose. But alas – the IOC deemed that the 30/40min drive from here was too far for these folks. Sucks to be them – now they’ll have to fight everyone else for accommodation!

Passing through this town, we saw a number of Bald Eagles – which apparently are very common in Summer, being home to more than 500 at this time. While it would certainly be a sight to see, it just wouldn’t be the same without the thick cover of white – everywhere.

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The drive was uneventful and we were dropped at our hotel first on the list. Unfortunately for us, we had arrived at 12pm and check-in wasn’t until 4pm. That was ok, however, as we wanted to have a look around anyway and lunch wasn’t going to be far away either. The hotel took our phone number “in case the room was ready early”. I figured this was code for, “it’s not going to be, but at least this makes it look like we’re trying” – but nonetheless. From here we set out into Whistler village, where the temperature was currently -5C – slightly cooler than Vancouver’s +2/+4C we had seen in the days prior.

We walked the length of the village, ending up at the base of both Whistler and Blackcomb where the lunch crowds were gathering. A number of lifts were still closed on Whistler, which no doubt was due to the avalanche danger – a number of people have been killed here in the past few days, some in those locations which remain closed. While these areas were our favourites from last year, we are certainly happy to sit back and wait for them to be cleared properly.

We ventured into some of the shops of the Westin, located totally mountainside in absolute luxury, but didn’t find too much that wet the shopping taste buds. From here we ventured back from shop to shop until we hit the main stretch, which we walked to find some lunch. We were really looking for a sandwich, sausage roll or something of the sort – something that wasn’t a hot dog, or that wasn’t served with fries.

We tried a number of locations, but either they didn’t have what we were looking for, or they were simply too packed with people trying to find the same thing that we couldn’t even fit through the door. We eventually found a quaint little coffee house on the road to the Whistler Marketplace, which had cold sausage rolls (which they were happy to heat up… odd, I normally eat all of my sausage rolls heated…) and enough in the way of a ‘Breakfast Bagel’ to keep Ed’s hunger at bay.

Once we had wasted a little more time here, ultimately just trying to wait for our room to be ready, we headed for Whistler Marketplace – the final part of the village that we had not explored. We looked in every shop here, searching for an additional pair of thermals for Pip (they were a specific kind, originally obtained at Kicking Horse), but with no luck. We even stopped past McDonald’s – not for lunch, obviously, but just to check whether they still served mini pizzas in their happy meals as they had done many many years before. Unfortunately, no cigar there either – no more pizzas it seemed.

By this time, it was after 3pm and we were getting tired of hanging out in the cold so we returned to the accommodation to see how the room was coming along. Unfortunately, the front-desk staff had troubles with their radios, firstly, and then trying to get someone to physically confirm that the room had been cleaned. 10 minutes later, and they had concluded that the room was not clean, but someone was cleaning it as we spoke. When 3:50pm came around, the room was still not ready according to the computer system, and nobody was available to inspect it to see if it did in fact still need doing.

As 4pm came around, our proper check-in time, the room was still not ready. Instead of fixing this problem, they hotel tried to patch it and created a much bigger one – they gave us a different room that was ready, but had a larger problem. Once we, and all 9 of our bags were upstairs in the room, and Pip had already finished unpacking, Ed discovered that the airconditioning unit located outside his bedroom made an awful noise – something that nobody except someone without ears would be able to sleep through. The porter who had just finished unloading the bags agreed that the noise was not normal, and arranged for a maintenance worker to come and look at it.

The maintenance worker came to fix something that had fallen off of the wall – whatever – but decided that the noise was ‘normal’, and that every room in the hotel would be exactly the same. This wasn’t really the most acceptable outcome, and surely if this was the case, the manager on duty would be well aware of the problem. As things progressed, the Chief Engineer did not agree that the noise was normal and arranged to have us transferred to another room – ironically, the very room we were originally checked in to – one floor below our current abode.

The Operations Manager and the a manager of the Check In desk came to help move the bags, and we completed this move swiftly – after Pip had repacked her case. We settled in, unpacked ourselves, and decided it was time to get some supplies for the coming morning. From our location, we were perfectly in the middle of two supermarkets, and under my suggestion, we decided to head to the one in Whistler Village. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a great move, with the supermarket being very busy, disorganised, crowded and so on. I guess we’ve learnt for next time.

After unpacking the goods we had purchased, we thought it was best to get some dinner – now that it was after 7pm. We tried for a crowd favourite, the Mongolie Grill, but unfortunately the wait line for a table had ballooned to an hour; similarly for a number of other restaurants we tried. As we got more and more desperate, we tried Caramba – a restaurant we had visited in previous journeys, but not the classiest of places by any means. Unfortunately the wait was 45 minutes, even here, so we decided to try the Brewhouse, as that place was sure to be large enough to have free table. But no luck there either – up to an hour’s wait also.

In the end, we found ourselves back at Caramba, wishing we had placed our names on the waiting list 15 minutes earlier, but nonetheless, were going to get a meal as soon as a table opened up. After a good 30 minute wait, we were sitting and ready to order – but not before Ed had been served a glass of red wine (while we were waiting) that turned out to be the most expensive wine (by the glass) on the menu.

Dinner was nice, and we ended up having quite a relaxing time. The serves weren’t big, by any means, for $20 each, but what was there was nice. We skimped on dessert and instead headed for Cows for an icecream – a must-do while in Whistler. This treat was enjoyed by all, and we got some great ideas for presents while browsing Cows’ amoosing range of clothes and gifts.

Following this, we returned to the hotel room where we relaxed and watched a few episodes of CSI:Miami, again. Unfortunately, our prime location here meant that two floors down was one of Whistler’s famous nightclubs – with music loud enough to be heard and felt at times through the floor. This caused much unrest (and a few more phone calls to reception), and I am yet to try and sleep with the banging thumping in my head.

I’ll let you know how it goes, but be sure to take a look at the photos – and now you should be able to comment on these posts on OnSno.com. We are hoping to be up nice and early to hit the slopes tomorrow, but again, I’ll let you know on our success there. They are predicting some snow tomorrow, with major dumps (20-30cm) on Sunday.

Fingers crossed it all comes nicely, and the avalanche danger clears so we can get ourselves back over to the Symphony bowl! All the best to everyone back home – hope you’re enjoying the summer weather!

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