Distance: 26 km
Elevation: 234 m
Date: August 2, 2022
The flight was nice and eventless. I even got an upgrade to premium economy which was very good for my legs.
Flying into Vancouver I caught a glimpse of the snow covered Rocky Mountains. Simply breathtaking! I also saw the satellite image of where I was headed. It was one of this „oh my god“ moments. What have I gotten myself into again?
We arrived in Vancouver at 3pm local time. One hour behind schedule. Immigration felt easy and I met friendly officers.
My bike box arrived almost an hour later – in perfect shape. What a relief! By 5pm, the bike was reassembled and ready to go.
Cycling into Vancouver was a nice experience. The closer you get to the city the more bike routes are there. I even found a „green way“ which is like a highway specially built for runners and cyclists which leads over 20km.
Vancouver downtown has a super cool vibe to it. The Pacific is everywhere and there are little picnic areas all over the town. The cycle routes are closed down former streets. Quit a statement I find.
I found it totally unreal to now having popped out at the other end of the world, cycling through an unknown cool city in the sunshine with my own gear 😊
I actually wanted to go all the way to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island today but that became unrealistic plus I had not done any grocery shopping yet. So where to sleep and what to eat?
At 7pm I found an RV camp site right after Lionsgate Bridge which leads out of downtown into West Vancouver. I quickly drove to a nearby mall to buy myself dinner. Everything was closed already but one Chinese takeaway had still one box with warm food for me. Lucky me ☺️. I had dinner outside in the evening sun and then cycled back to the camp site.
With 50€ this is officially the most expensive camp place I have ever slept in. The power of monopoly. Since I was really tired I was in bed by 9pm. I slept ok but my body still needs to adjust to the rough comfort of my sleeping pad.
