Granville Island – Mitchell News

Friday 4 May 2018

Granville Island

We woke up to a cloudy morning but managed to get in a run along the waterways to Spanish Banks, a park beach near the University of British Columbia. After breakfast, we decided to brave the weather and venture further afield. Unfortunately, soon after leaving home, it started raining, so we popped into a nearby coffee shop serving Indonesian coffee. Whilst the coffee was good – we have had nothing but great coffee in Vancouver – it was way overpriced for a macchiato, so sadly we won’t return.

As the weather cleared a little, we headed off again…..only to be side-tracked by a pop-up store selling designer clothing at amazing prices. After some fun purchases, we were on our way again.

We eventually made it to Granville Island, located across False Creek from Downtown Vancouver, under the Granville Street Bridge. The peninsula was once an industrial manufacturing area, but today it is now a hotspot for Vancouver tourism and entertainment. There is a large public market, full of fresh food, where we sat and enjoyed some bakery items for lunch – the outside area looked nice, but it had started drizzling again. The island is full of arts and crafts shops, bars and restaurants. There is still a working concrete manufacturing plant on the island where trucks are seen loading from huge silos. Two Brazilian artists have transformed the silos into “Giants”, part of a global series aimed at transforming public space.

Heading home again, we stopped in at one of the telco shops in the hope of getting set up with data and voice solution for the rest of our time in Canada. This proved to be more difficult than expected! Mobile services are very expensive and tend to be very local – even Vancouver and Vancouver Island are different, despite being part of British Columbia. Roaming charges would be exorbitant. So we are still seeking a way to be in communication when we aren’t able to access wifi.