Free day in Vancouver

Today, no alarm clock😊💪🏼 Finally sleeping in again. We started the day very relaxed today. Okay, it was a bit stupid for a moment because Jörg's drugs couldn't be found, but luckily we have a drug store around the corner. The nice lady from the on-site integrated pharmacy wrote out an emergency prescription without any problems. So we got what we need. In Germany something like this would have been a huge bureaucratic act with a lot of running back and forth.
We then had breakfast at Subway. Refreshed, we went to Canada Place. A conference center and cruise terminal at the same time. Logically by the water. Unfortunately everything was gray and rainy again, but what can you do? Sitting around in the hotel wasn't an option. First an obligatory selfie at the Vancouver sign, then we took a lap around the terminal. Of course, the last few meters, a construction site. No getting through. Instead of going back, we walked to a few elevators that were there and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of the convention center. I have no idea what's going on there, but it was pretty busy 😅 Back outside we went straight to the other end of Vancouver to look at the Granville Island Market Hall. Iceland = island = water. There we stood now. The Granville Street Bridge to our left. We could have walked across the bridge, but we would have had to go back quite a bit 🙄 Luckily, Google showed us a ferry. With this huge thing we went over to the island😅
The Granville Public Market was founded in 1979 so that local farmers had/have a place to sell their fresh produce. Over 50 vendors have their stalls open here all year round.
Once through, ate a little something (for the gentlemen there was currywurst from the German butcher), looked around a bit, then we took the ferry back. Since we didn't really feel like walking around outside any longer in the rain, we went back to the hotel with a stop at SportScheck and the Robson Square Ice Rink. The gentlemen were doing eye care and it occurred to me that our hotel has a pool. Looked where it was, found that no one was there, quickly went back to the room to change and go to the pool. The view, very cool and I had the whole area to myself for the first hour🥰 Later some of the tour group showed up. It was okay, they had music with them and we exchanged a bit about our experiences on Hastings Street 🤣
Back in the room, synchronous snoring. I moved again in great shape and motivated and wanted to explore the Parcific Center. I thought it would look so huge... The center stretches over several blocks, but when I went shopping I discovered that there was only the level where we ate here on our first day. So it was a pretty short trip in there. Another flash of thought on the road: tomorrow we'll take the bus to Seattle for at least 2.5 hours and we won't have anything left to drink. So go to the nearest kiosk and get something. On the way back to the hotel we passed the Ice Rink again, which now looked a lot nicer in the dark than it did in gray this afternoon😅 Shortly before our hotel, a picture of Uwe in the travel WhatsApp group. He was at Canada Place, which was of course now beautifully lit. Hmm, if you know me...🤷🏼‍♀️ So we walked past the hotel and continued down to the water. What can I say, it was worth it. It was really nice. When lit up like this in the evening, everything looks completely different than it does during the day. Since I was starting to get a little hungry, I wrote to the snorers asking if they wanted to eat something else. We then arranged to meet at the Old Spaghetti Factory. On the way there I walked through the Gaslamp Quarter. Yes, I know, there's only one in San Diego, but it was also a street with lots of old gas lamps, so that's what I call it🤷🏼‍♀️
I also passed the Gastown Steam Clock (now it occurs to me again, the Gaslamp Quater is called Gastown😅). A beautiful, large clock that runs on steam. She also plays a melody every hour on the hour. The timing would have been right for me and I would have liked to have seen it, but there was a problem: people. Too many people. And a bunch of chicks who did a photo shoot there. Then I just took a souvenir photo and moved on. When we arrived at the old spaghetti factory there was of course a lot going on. I then went to reception and the nice lady said, register and you'll have a table in 15 minutes. It was really like that. Everything went quite well. As soon as Jörg and Andi arrived we got our table. If you're ever in the area and like Italian food, come here. A nice, quaint restaurant, very tasty food, super attentive staff and really fair prices. The two of us each needed a 3-course meal and drinks for less than 50 euros. And yes, we were really fed up.
After dinner, the usual: shall we go for a drink? Jörg's "I don't have to go on tour every evening" was cleverly ignored and we moved on to the Greta Bar. Really cool here. A bar with street food and lots of slot machines like we know from our vacations. And then it was happy hour too🥰 That said, with $20 Canadian you could gamble as much as you wanted for 3 hours. Made directly. Basketball, all shooting games, ice hockey, Atari tennis, Pac-Man, pinball, Mario Kart,... I was in paradise😅 The other two also had fun. Our absolute favorite was Jurassic Park. The only stupid thing was that you could only extend it a maximum of once. The time flew by here, but since we are sensible and have to pack up and travel again tomorrow, we went back to the hotel WITHOUT any stops. Yes, and here I sit, nothing is packed yet but the blog is finally up to date again 😅