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Walking Gastown and Coal Harbour |
 2 to
3 hours, not including shopping, eating, and sightseeing stops
Coal Harbour is one of Vancouver's newest
neighbourhoods
Gastown is one of Vancouver's most
oldest fascinating
neighbourhoods. |
View Hotels at the Vancouver Cruise Ship Terminal at Canada Place in a larger map |
Begin the Walk at Coal Harbour on the West side of Canada Place
Vancouver
 Walk
around the Vancouver
Convention Center Vancouver and the Olympic Cauldron past the five tall Teflon sails
at
Canada Place.
Around the outside there's a promenade with plaques at regular intervals
explaining the sights or providing historical tidbits.
To continue the tour, walk back toward shore along the promenade, drop down the
steps, turn left or east, towards Gastown
Waterfront Skytrain Station
Though this beaux arts edifice was converted to the
Seabus Terminal in the 1970s
(Skytrain, was added in 1986), this building
still shows its origins as the CPR's Vancouver passenger-rail terminal.
wander east onto the cobblestones of
Water Street, Gastown's main thoroughfare.
Steam Clock
A quirky kind of timepiece, the Steam Clock gives a breathy rendition of the
Westminster Chimes every 15 minutes. It draws its power from the city's
underground steam-heat system. A plaque on the base of the clock explains the
mechanics of it all.
Maple Tree Square
A historic spot, Maple Tree Square is where Vancouver first began. The statue by
the maple tree (not the original one, but a replacement tree planted in more or
less the same spot) is of Gassy Jack Deighton, a riverboat captain and innkeeper
who erected Vancouver's first significant structure -- a saloon -- in 1867.
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One small travel advisory, however it neighbourhoods Vancouver's Downtown Eastside,
otherwise known as skid road -- an area of taverns and cheap rooming hotels that
is troubled by alcoholism and drug use. While there is very little actual danger
for outsiders, you may stumble across a scary-looking down-and-outer here and
there |
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