Showing posts with label Vancouver Hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver Hotel. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Remembering

Welcome to my newest followers, Nancy from A Gardener's Cottage in Michigan and Jose Ramon Santana Vazquez from Spain. Thank you both.

It was almost two years ago that we had a fire in the condo and had to move to a hotel suite for a few months. My room mate had one suite in the hotel and I had another. It was nice having this because daily someone would clean my bathroom and vacuum and my roommate would cook dinners and bring them to me down the hall. All I had to do was get ready each morning and wash my dirty dishes as well as do my laundry. There was a washer dryer in the apartment so that was handy.

This was my kitchen area.

This was my living room area and the small built in desk at which I did my blogging. You can see through the open blinds that there was a small patio.

I enjoyed living in the hotel but by the end of my time there (about 4 months), I was ready to go home. Lately though I find myself missing the hotel. What I really miss is the ready access to downtown and the well known English Bay area. 

Off of my patio I can see the waters of English Bay just beyond the high rises.

It was hard to get a good shot of the water due to that one building, lol. But you can see the big "ship" in the background.
Here is a night time shot of the sunset and the busy strip called Davie Street. I enjoyed the busyness and it wasn't too noisy to sleep at night.



What I miss most though is the wonderful and colourful sunsets which I could readily see and photograph from my patio.






I also miss my Saturday walks to nearby places like this farmer's market

... along "secret" winding paths like this

 

... and lovely, unexpected places to sit


...and being able to buy big bunches of flowers like this :-)

and fireworks displays like this....

Even crowds like this rushing  back from the fireworks show.


All in all, I enjoyed my stay at the hotel.  But I am glad that my home is repaired and I can stay there once again. It was just nice to remember the "good times" at my temporary home.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

City Architecture

This post is part of a new series on posts about my city, the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. This particular post is intended to show you some of the city's varied architecture. It is not a post on describing the architecture as I am no architect or student of architecture. I simply like looking at different structures and buildings and I'm using the building as a jump off point to tell you a little more about my city. I hope you enjoy the little tour. In future and as weather improves, I hope to show you a lot more of our city's natural wonders so do drop by often.

Last week, I posted about the neighbourhood of Gastown. At the west side of Gastown is the Harbour Centre which houses the Vancouver Lookout. As the name suggests, here you can look out over the city and take in the 360 degree view. I haven't been to the Lookout for many years but when I first moved to the city it was one of the first places I went and the view was simply spectacular though the sky line has now changed considerably. The tower below the Lookout is home to 28 floors of business offices and to the satellite location of the Simon Fraser University whose main campus in located in Burnaby, BC. The Vancouver Lookout was opened in 1977 by the Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon.

To get to the Lookout, you will enter a glass encased elevator which will whisk you to the top in record time. So don't blink! Your entry fee is good for the entire day so you can leave to go and shop in Gastown next door, have a meal and return. You can also sit in the Lookout lounge and enjoy a refreshment.

The Harbour Centre and Vancouver Lookout is located just steps to the west of Gastown. See photo below and read all about it in my post here.

The Harbour Centre Lookout is also located right in front of the main station for the sky train which is the hub for the City's Light Rapid Transit. The Waterfront station is the connection point for the West Coast express (commuter train to points east), the Sea Bus (city transport over the water to the North Shore), and the 3 different sky train lines which take you to many different points in the city and to the outlying municipalities. You can read more about the schedules for each of these transportation options here.


Burrard Station is the last sky train stop before you get to the Waterfront and make connections to points elsewhere. Alternatively it is the first stop after you leave Waterfront sky train travelling to points east. Burrard Station is also a bus connection hub. Many of the buildings you see behind the station are at least 50 years old and seem to be in what I refer to as the "blah" style.

The building below is St. Paul's Hospital and is located in downtown Vancouver. It was established in 1892 by the Sisters of Providence though the sisters no longer run the hospital. This is where my cousin's daughter has been staying all week recovering from major heart surgery.


Burrard Inn, formerly Bosman's Inn, is a smallish hotel with 71 rooms and suites and has recently undergone renovations. It is the only hotel I am aware of which is in the downtown core and has reasonable rates. The rooms are $65. (Canadian) for double room from September-May and goes up to $99. Canadian from May-September. This is a favourite place for my relatives to stay when they have to come to the city for medical reasons since it is across from the St. Paul's hospital. These rooms and many others in the city are completely sold out for the Winter Olympics which will begin very soon.

Vancouver Hotel (below) is now part of the Fairmont group hotels. If my memory serves me correctly, it used to be part of the Canadian National group Hotels but hasn't been for some time. In recent years this hotel it has completed an extensive 65 million dollar renovation. The results are stunning. You can see some of the beauty in these photos here. Don't you just love the roof of this building? In olden days, you could go to a club at the top of the hotel and listen to jazz.

The next three photos show the relatively new Sheraton Wall Centre. One of the buildings is called One Wall Center and is the second highest building in the city. Designed by Busby, Perkins and Will, it won an award in 2001, its year of completion for the Best Skyscraper. apparently, it has something called a tuned water damping system at the top of the building to counter act the swaying of the building.
The first two photos above were taken last week and the photo below was taken last summer. The sky scraper is quite aesthetically pleasing in a long view, don't you think?


The building below is St. Andrew's Wesley United Church. This is one of the United Churches that recognizes and embraces the gay and lesbian community. They also have a number of broad based programs to invite the community in to their sanctuary. One of them is Jazz Vespers every Sunday afternoon. I simply love the carved stone in the building and the archways of the windows and doorways.


That is the tour for today. There is so much more to share but we will need to do it in stages. Some days I may have themes as in today where I showed you numerous structures. Other days, it may be about one specific site or a natural scene of beauty. I hope you will join me again soon.

It Was a Spectacular Day! ~ Skywatch

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