Hope and Vancouver

Hope

On the day we had to return the camper, we wanted to explore something outside of Vancouver. There was only the little town of Hope left. Muriel had made a stop there a few years ago, so she had good memories of it.

It's from a rather open valley that gets narrower and the mountains get taller. Hope was really a bit wedged between mountains. It had something of the Tessin about it. There, we again had to find a campground that was still open for the season. But we found one relatively quickly, and I must say it was one of the prettiest campgrounds on our journey through Canada. The campsite was situated among huge fir trees, and we had power and a dumping station right on our spot. 

Muriel then asked the gentleman at check-in if there was anything cool to do in Hope, and he just chuckled briefly and said, 'Not really - the canyon is still under construction as it was destroyed during the floods in 2022.' That made us realize where we really were in Hope - it looked a bit like the Tessin after the big landslide. The only difference is that in the Tessin, everything was promptly rebuilt. However, in Switzerland, that's actually a rarity when I think about it. Well, we still booked two nights since we had to drive directly to the return station with the camper on our last morning. On the evening itself, we made some leftovers in the camper and cleared out our supplies. The next day, however, we wanted to go check out the canyon.

On the way, there were ancient gigantic trees - and the leaves were correspondingly large :-D Yes, Muriel isn't the tallest person, but that leaf was really huge.

Along the way, there were always old ski tunnel remnants, but unfortunately, we could only explore one since the rest were closed.

It was nonetheless beautiful.

We then made our way into the town to take a look around. Somehow, it felt familiar and then suddenly it clicked: This is where Rambo started his mess.

With that bothersome sheriff.

There were also wooden figures everywhere as the World Championship in sculpture carving with chainsaws had taken place here.

After we had something small to eat and enjoyed the last rays of sunshine in the village, we returned to the campsite - after all, we still had to tidy everything up to return the camper and pack our remaining things. 

That evening and the next morning, we did just that and then drove off to Vancouver. The transition worked perfectly and was super uncomplicated - we only had to pay a small surcharge as we had driven 320 kilometers more than booked. However, it was the right decision not to book more kilometers in advance since there was only an 800 kilometer package available. With heavy hearts, we returned our Snowflake - it had been a good camper over the last three weeks.

But I have to quickly mention something.. Yves, my best man knows this, I always had a really hard time emptying the camper's toilet due to the smell, etc. But I have to say, they have a super system - yes, I even enjoyed it :-D So much so that emptying the toilet sounds a bit weird, but that's how it is. You connect a hose and the other end goes into the dumping hole. After that, you have levers on the side of the camper that you can pull - one for the black water (from the toilet) and one for the gray water (from the shower, kitchen, etc.). First, you pull the lever for the black water; once it is properly emptied, you have to pour a bucket of water into it and then close the lever again. Next, you pull the lever for the gray water, and with that, any soap, washing detergent, etc. in the tank gets washed out. Once that is also empty, you can replenish everything, refill the water, and you're good to go. One of my biggest fears turned out to not be so bad after all.

Vancouver

We really made our way to the big city, Vancouver, where we were able to check into our first really nice hotel.

Feels quite different than in a camper. You don’t have to save water, it’s not so cramped anymore, and you don’t always have to walk from A to B. And the phrase 'We’re actually on our honeymoon' really works - thanks Luce and Tanja for the tip!

It says ‘Dear Mr. Baumann & Mrs. Switzerland’ but almost… At this point, I’m traveling with Mrs. Switzerland :-D Although she has been my Mrs. Switzerland for a long time now..

In the evening, we went out for a nice meal and then checked out the famous 'Steam Clock'. It runs on steam and every half hour there’s a little pipe concert just like from a steam locomotive. The clock, however, was very inaccurate so you couldn’t really rely on the time.. Maybe that’s why there’s no more of it :-D

The next morning, I had something really special lined up. I noticed how the animal and especially cat population are taking on dramatic proportions.. Therefore, I searched for a cat café and found one.

After the cat hunger was somewhat satisfied, we strolled around the autumn city and I spontaneously went to Habibi to get a haircut. Unfortunately, there was a Champions League football match on, and the good barber was distracted while cutting my hair... I was really hoping there wouldn't be an own goal and I'd have to walk around with a half bald head.

In the evening we had something very special planned.. As luck would have it, the first Supercross World Championship race was taking place in Vancouver on that Saturday. We certainly didn’t want to miss that.

It’s like motocross but indoors and much more technical with jumps, etc.

Yes, this will be our conclusion from Canada. The next day we went to the airport where we then flew 5 hours to Honolulu.. Oh yes, we Foxy-Foxes sent a FedEx package back to Switzerland with all our warm clothes that we no longer needed. Thanks, Dave for the FedEx account :-D It was indeed a bit of a hassle until that package was finally acknowledged as the nice lady said about 5 times after we answered a question, 'Oh, we are not allowed to do this'... In some way she still figured out how to accept the package :-D On Friday it was posted and on Tuesday it was already delivered in Switzerland. Not bad.

So, the next post will be warmer as we are expecting 30 degrees, blue skies, beach, etc... Excited excited!

Next Stop: Hawaii, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu