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Vancouver and five great things to do

I have a love hate relationship with Vancouver. I love the food, excellent public transport, the harbour, Stanley Park, Gastown, Granville Island, museums and the people. What I hate are the cheaply built residential high rises which are ugly it reminds me of Auckland city and the horrible apartment blocks, built in the 1980’s and 1990’s with cheap materials and resulting in lots of problems with leaks, fading and falling to bits. I hope Vancouver’s apartment buildings are not as bad and last a bit longer.

On the plus side, Vancouver has lots of great festivals and a few years ago we were lucky to be there during a fireworks contest with other countries.I think Vancouver won the fireworks contest. If you are going to Vancouver then check out to see if there are any events on while your there. One of my favourite things to do when visiting Vancouver is to hire a bike and cycle around Stanley park. The pathway is along the coastline with places to pull over and to enjoy the views of the bridge or the native American totem poles.

Five things to do in Vancouver

My list of top five things to do in Vancouver are:

Cycle around Stanley Park and its 8 odd kilometre track around the coastline, stop off and have a look at the Totem Poles

Visit Wander around Yale town and False Creek and take the Aquabus to Granville Island

Granville Island and enjoy the busking, restaruants, food market, shops and perhaps a visit to the Granville Brewery.

Visit the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park

Visit Gastown and see the worlds first and still working steam-powered clock.

There are of course many other things to do but as a taster I think this is a good introduction.

The other wonderful thing about Vancouver is the food. It truly has some wonderful restaurants and places to stay. Last time we stayed at a Best Western which was lovely. See my review about it below:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g154943-d182071-r136378658-BEST_WESTERN_PLUS_Chateau_Granville_Hotel_Suites_Conference_Ctr-Vancouver_British.html

Below are a few photos of visits to Vancouver and places in British Columbia.

: Rogers Pass

: Hiring the bike

: Stanley Park

: Beautiful Vancouver

: Boo – Grizzly Bear

: Firework display near Yaletown

: Yippee 1000 views

: Tasting some beer on Granville Island

: Mom and Dad’s RV in snow!

Debbie BridgeMay 24, 2014August 30, 2015 Canada, North America, Travel 3 Comments

The town of Beringe in Limburg

My father was from Beringe and ever since I was a kid growing up in Manurewa in New Zealand I had a fascination to see where he was born. Eventually after leaving school at 15, I saved for a couple of years and arrived in 1979. Over the years I have visited and lived in the small town of Helden-Beringe in the southern Netherlands province of Limburg.

My first visit to the town of Beringe in LImburg was at the age of 17 at Schiphol (which still looks the same today) at Xmas. I had my first encounter with snow and lots of it. I ended up working at Limoveld a steel manufacturing factory for a couple of years. Broke my hand in an accident, experienced a couple of carnivals and developed a life long love for frikandel, herring and cycling. Living now in England it is nice to be able to visit.

Beringe’s claims to fame is some of the best white asparagus in the world, Napoleon’s canal ends at Beringe. There are also held the Beringe Games with other towns in Europe with the same name, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. I also have a lot of relatives living there including 3 aunts and 1 uncle and there sons and daughters and their sons and daughters. Last year I introduced my niece from New Zealand to Beringe.

: The other Beringe’s

: Beringe

: My three aunts with me and my wife

: Lovely bike paths

Lots to do around Beringe

Beringe is a great place to live and work. In summer the weather is beautiful and warm with lots of cycle tracks and the Groote Peel National Park nearby to explore. If you ever get the chance then do visit. Every year the Fiets4daagse de Peel is held at the end of July. It is a four day cycle festival held which is great fun to do for all ages. It involves cycling sedately to cafes to eat cake and drink coffee. We celebrated the end of it one year by introducing my aunts friends to the joy of a Pimms on a hot July afternoon. It went down a treat as the drink is unknown in the Netherlands.

The other activity Limburg is famous for is how to celebrate Carnival. The South of Holland is definitely the place to be to enjoy carnival. The only drawback is that it is held in winter.

Debbie BridgeMay 23, 2014October 25, 2023 Europe, Netherlands, Travel No Comments

Amsterdam and 80 days to go

This random photo is from last year. It was taken at a pub at 2am in the morning in Amsterdam. I am the sober looking one on the far left. I was hoping to do one other trip with the lads (and wives) and we did to Krakow earlier this year and had a great time. It would be nice if I could persuade them to meet me somewhere exotic in Asia. With 80 days to go or 1,920 hours or to stretch it out to 115,200 minutes or even further to 6,912,000 seconds the departure date to Vancouver seems a long way away. I have a horrible habit of procrastination, hence I have made a to do list, today I crossed nothing off it. Still back to procrastination and the boys weekend in Amsterdam where I had lived for two years. I was the tour guide. We did the usual, wandered aimlessly along the canals then did a canal tour on

a boat, visited the newly rebuilt and refurbished Rijksmuseum to look at the Rembrandts and Vermeer’s before heading out for a night on the town. I persuaded the lads to go to the Carre theatre a famous Dutch theatre where we watched a bizare show in which the main star had managed to break her elbow but still went on entitled Cirque Stiletto or along those lines. I am not sure they have forgiven me for the 2 and a half hours of different acts although some were spectacular others were a bit bizarre such as the trampoline dancers?

We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant which had mostly locals. Then a bit of a pub crawl. Where Ken from Eastbourne kept saying we don’t have this in Eastbourne. I am looking forward to another day or two in Amsterdam when we go to visit our relatives next month in the metropolis of Helden Beringe in Limburg, try finding it on a map you will struggle.

Debbie BridgeMay 22, 2014August 29, 2015 Europe, Netherlands, Travel No Comments

81 days to go

Wow it has been an eventful year. I got made redundant. Ironic really as last year while in Australia on holiday I had come to the conclusion that I had to leave my current employment as it was becoming soul destroying and I was obtaining zero job satisfaction. I felt like the Greek King Sísyphos and sentenced to eternity to push a large boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever. So with the redundancy payout and our savings we decided to do the sensible thing and blow the lot on an adventure around the world. Taking a year of our lives and perhaps longer to travel to Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, VietNam and India. First stop a visit to Holland to see a few friends and my lovely relatives. Where time will be spent cycling, eating herring, drinking beer and eating Limburg cake and maybe frites and frikandel with mayonnaise. As well as making my relatives laugh with my incredibly bad dutch think the tv series Allo Allo.

I also have decided to keep a travel blog. After our visit to Holland we spend a a few more weeks back in the UK and then Canada beginning our trip in Vancouver. Where we will meet up with my wife’s in laws and the Dutch Flyer a giant bus called a recreational vehicle. This will be our home for several months across Canada and the USA ending in LA. Below is a photo of the Dutch Flyer and the cabin in central British Columbia on the shores of Lake Okanagan where we will stay for a few weeks before heading off . Rumour has it that in the lake is the equivalent of the loch ness monster, I have not seen it yet. What I do hope to see is the bears who like to come down from the hills and eat the fermented fruit from a nearby neighbours orchard and get drunk, pass out and wake up with a hangover and a bad attitude. I like to think this is where the saying a bear with a sore head comes from.

With 81 days to go before our flight to Canada the time is going quickly. This week I sent off my Dutch passport for renewal, happily it is now has a 10 years duration instead of 5 years. Unlike my New Zealand one where they bilk you for 5 years with one of the most expensive passports in the world. Rant finished. We also have booked the flights aside for a connecting one to Delhi from SE Asia which I will do later. Did I get a good deal, I honestly have no idea but will write a blog about it later including the cost. I also am trying to figure out this whole blogging saga, many thanks to Indiana Jo and her advice on

How to set up a travel blog

I did have a try at a blog a few years ago but now I want to endeavour to become more proficient and adapt at it before we leave. Hence my first blog and hopefully it will become habit forming.

Debbie BridgeMay 22, 2014May 27, 2021 Travel, Travel Tips No Comments