The Last Act

Done! We have reached our destination of Vancouver on our journey across Canada. In total, including our car rentals, we have covered 12,000 km in two months. Canada is such a huge country. Before arriving in Vancouver City to participate in the celebrations of the 150th Canada Day, we first got to know the partly very idyllic suburbs of Abbotsford and Maple Ridge. We had two viewing appointments there because we wanted to sell Trudy before our departure. Unfortunately, these two appointments didn't yield much except for a tip on how to get to the city by train (we didn't necessarily want to drive into the city by car on this special holiday due to overcrowding). Although we received a very sympathetic price offer, the person wouldn't have had the full amount available before our departure, which made us hesitate. So we left Trudy in Coquitlam and took the SkyTrain, the local S-Bahn, to Vancouver City. In the city, especially around Canada Place, we encountered huge crowds, as expected. However, there wasn't much going on. It seemed like everything was focused on the evening fireworks. Therefore, we set out to get a first impression of the city and to get away from the crowds. Since most people were at the Canada Place for the fireworks, we joined the smaller crowd on the Stanley Park Peninsula. The approximately 30-minute fireworks display was very beautiful and ended with a spectacular finale.

In the next few days, we tried to sell Trudy in Vancouver. Long story short: the sale was a disaster. The biggest problem was that the different provinces do not recognize each other's MVIs (TÜV) (we had requested a brand new MVI when we bought Trudy). For a new registration of the van, a new MVI would have been required. Since we had registered Trudy in another province and also in an eastern province, an Out of Province Inspection would have been necessary, which has different standards and regulations than a normal MVI in British Columbia (BC). If Trudy had been registered in BC from the beginning, the new buyer could have driven her without problems. But since that wasn't the case, numerous repairs and replacements would have been necessary for a new registration, which no one else would have done. However, this information could not be found anywhere in advance, so we were a bit taken aback since every private buyer naturally wants a new MVI. After a long back and forth and after a lot of sweat and nerves and wasted days, we finally sold Trudy to a camper dealer in Vancouver at a lower price, as we didn't have much time left until our departure. Thankfully, we were allowed to spend the remaining nights in the van, which was then parked on the dealer's yard. We used the last few days for some activities. We took a closer look at Vancouver, where the smell of marijuana was everywhere, and we really liked the district of Kitsilano and the numerous beaches, but the city as a whole was almost too American for us. We also visited the beautiful Vancouver Aquarium and the breathtaking Lynn Canyon, which has a small but free suspension bridge (the bridge in Capilano costs about 45 dollars per person). One day, we took a bus tour to Whistler (35 dollars round trip from the provider Epic Rides), which was worth it just for the beautiful route. In Whistler, we went hiking for a bit and then relaxed at Lost Lake - the water finally had a pleasant bathing temperature :D.

After a short night at the airport in Vancouver, we initially took an approximately 4-hour domestic flight to Toronto. We had a 7-hour layover there before flying back to Frankfurt for about 8 hours. In retrospect, our two-month honeymoon was eventful and full of experiences, but also very exhausting. What we liked the most were the Rockies and the Berg Lake Trail. There, we truly experienced Canada as we had always imagined. However, as a German, you have to get used to the fact that places and paths are signposted and marked in a very different and much less consistent way in Canada. For many things, you simply have to know where they are and how to get there. Overall, Canadians are very open and warm people, especially in the eastern Anglo-Canadian provinces. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in particular, the drivers were very relaxed and courteous, which made driving much more pleasant. The Germans could learn a thing or two from this...