City tour with Canadian humor

After exploring Vancouver on my own for a week, it was time for a city tour. Even in Germany, I had heard the suggestion to join the 'Tourguys' city tours. And I have to say, the suggestion is worth its weight in gold. The tours are led by young Canadians and are free. At the end of the tour, you can (!) give a tip, in an amount that seems appropriate and affordable to you. On Monday morning, our tour through downtown Vancouver started, led by a woman (whose name I can't currently remember). I have never met such a likeable, energetic, and enthusiastic tour guide. In every sentence, you could feel how much she loves the city and is proud to be Canadian.

I have to say that the often praised friendliness of Canadians is omnipresent. At the phone store, I was kindly advised on contracts for over an hour, in the supermarket, you just have to look inquiringly and an employee will immediately come and ask if they can help you. Actually, every employee you pass asks if everything is okay. In the jeans store, I think I was asked eight times if everything was good. Always nice, always friendly, never intrusive. Although I have to admit that sometimes it's a bit much for me. The small talk still gives me some difficulties, when I meet my roommates and each time a 'How are you' follows, I eventually feel stupid with 'fine' :)

But back to the city tour. The Tourguys do the city tours for fun, for the joy of getting to know new people, and to simply have a good time. And you can tell. It all started off in the direction of the Vancouver Art Gallery. There, they deal with the various Canadian cultures in their own special way. On the roof, there are various ships. A white sailing ship stands for the whites, a yellow ship for the Asians, and a red canoe for the indigenous people.
After a few stops on the tour, we could take a look at an old church. From the outside, it looks inconspicuous, but on the inside, it has been beautifully restored. Next to the church is one of the many skyscrapers. Here, I encountered Canadian humor for the first time on the tour. Now, it is the case that in Vancouver, there is a law that houses can be a maximum of 40 (could also be 42) stories high. One of the old mayors used to live with many of his friends in a place in Vancouver where they could see the water, and they didn't want to have their view obstructed, so they decided on these maximum dimensions, over which they could look precisely. However, building land in downtown is very expensive, and the higher they can build, the more lucrative it is, of course. So, the builders looked for a loophole and found it. If there is a public building in the immediate vicinity of their skyscraper that does not utilize these heights, they can buy the air rights from it. Of course, the church is nowhere near as high. A few years ago, the church could no longer afford the high property costs and was on the verge of bankruptcy. So, they made a deal with the builders of the skyscraper. They get the air rights and can build higher, and in return, they have to financially take care of the church as long as the high-rise stands. Now, the city couldn't object to this deal, but Canadians keep their sense of humor, and the following number was chosen for the house number of the building: 666. They could have chosen any number, but they found this one most suitable :D

After a few more stops, the tour ended at the waterfront. With a view of North Vancouver and the seaplane harbor, an important means of transportation in this area.

Here, we had the second encounter with Canadian humor, to take some things as they are and make the best out of them. There are sea birds by the water, and they are known to make a mess. When the new promenade was being built, they wanted to keep the birds away from there as much as possible. And for that, they simply left a piece of the old structure in the water, that the birds know and are familiar with, so that they return there instead of going onto the new promenade. Unsightly but useful.

By the water, I also noticed that the Indian summer has even more to offer than I realized in the past week. The colors of the trees are simply beautiful and unfortunately not properly captured by the camera.

After the city tour, I walked around on my own, first along the waterfront and then further through downtown. In doing so, I also passed by the Landmark Tower. A hotel that I happened to have read a few days earlier that it will be demolished. They are hosting a sale of the entire inventory, so if anyone needs a few hundred mini refrigerators, you know where to go ;) It's really a shame that the tower will be demolished, on the top in the 'UFO,' there was a restaurant. It slowly rotated 360 degrees and offered an incredible view of the city, as I saw in a video.

On Tuesday, I made a detour to the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet at the airport. Supposedly built in European style - well, it reminded me a lot of the buildings in Europa Park. However, I quickly realized that the outlet prices for Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Co. are still not quite in my price range ;)