Grouse Mountain

Perhaps the most stunning views of Vancouver and its surrounding area can found on the peak of Grouse Mountain. It rises to a height of 1250 metres and offers an obstructed view of the city, its harbour, Vancouver Island and the scenic Strait of Georgia. On a clear day you can see across the border into the United States and as far south as iconic Mount Rainer, the Cascade Mountain’s impressive snow-capped imitation of Mount Fuji.


Access to the mountain top is via North America’s longest aerial tramway. The Skyride, as it’s known, takes 12 minutes to traverse a 1.6 km cable-way up to a station sited 125 metres below the mountain’s summit. Here the mountain briefly stretches out into a small plateau where all manner of entertainment can be found. Highlights included lumberjacks engaged in log-rolling competitions, zip-lines spanning entire valleys and a 30-minute live show featuring birds of prey in flight. On more than one occasion the birds were encouraged to swoop low over the crowd.


We also stopped by the Grizzly Bear habitat, home to Grinder and Coola, two bears rescued from accidents in the wild. We found them idling in two separate pools, before they ambled off for a stroll through their bush-clad five-acre enclosure. We now know that Grizzly Bears are huge. I pray I’ll leave run into one in the wild.


However, it was the view that continually stole the show. It dominated our window-side table at lunch, grew in majesty as we rose on the peak chairlift and simply took our breath away at unexpected moments.


On the highest peak, at the top of the chairlift, is a massive 20-metre high wind turbine. For an additional $25 you can ride an elevator up to a glass observation pod built directly behind the turbine’s rotating blades. Unfortunately, the turbine wasn’t operating during our visit and so we never got to experience the thrill of its blades whirling by less than three metres away. In fact, $25 for nothing more than a view was one tourist expense we simply couldn’t justify.


We finished our day by getting off our tour bus in the trendy, gentrified neighbouthodd of Gastown. The area gets its name from a 1860s gold prospector, "Gassy Jack" Deighton, who opened a popular tavern for locals. He's since been imortalised in bronze and stands on the corner of Gastown's main throughfare. Gastown is also famous for a giant steam clock that chimes on the hour, its stram whistles driven by water heated in a nearby boiler. However, despite its antique look the four-face clock is actually a modern addition, erected in 1977 by Raymond Saunders, a Canadian engineer. His clocks have since gone on to be erected in numerous cities worldwide.

Views of Vancouver

As wander around Vancouver, every so often a photo opportunity presents itself for no other reason that the resulting image simply looks good. I've posted a few of these moments here.


Above is the popular Japadog hot-dog stand on Burrand Street. It sells Japanese influenced hot-dogs - think seaweed flakes, wasabi mayo and teriyaki sauce and you have the essence of this delicious local institution. On our first day in town people were patiently queuing for half a block to sample its wares.


Above is the original Olympic flame cauldron from this year's Winter Olympics. When the games ended, the cauldron was relocated to this harbour-front location. When we came across it, the afternoon sun was low in the sky, giving its glass surface a glowing, iridescent sheen.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Since 1889 an impressive suspension bridge has stretched across the Capilano River on the outskirts of northern Vancouver. It was built by George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer and land developer, to enable him to reach his favourite fishing spot on the opposing face of the Capilano canyon. He'd already built an periliously balanced wooden cabin as a weekend retreat on one side of the canyon's edge. Today his bridge is a popular tourist attraction. And who wouldn’t want to give it a go? At least that’s what we told ourselves as we joined the crowd wobbling its way across the 137-metre long span that hangs a death-defying 70 metres above the gorge below.


The original bridge was built using hemp rope and cedar planks before being replaced by a cable bridge in 1903. Today’s bridge is made of reinforced steel safely anchored in 13 tons of concrete on either side of the canyon walls. They say the current model could support the weight of two fully-loaded jumbo jets. While that may be so it still wobbles like crazy! Poor Garry had to work particularly hard at suppressing his morbid fear of heights as we made our way across the bridge.


The view itself is almost worth conquering your fears. The bridge spans a picturesque canyon whose rocky slopes are smothered in towering, impossibly straight Douglas Fir trees, while down below a small stream rushes headlong to the coast over polished and flood-battered, bleached granite rocks – all of which look particularly solid and uninviting. On the opposite side two spectacular walking trails take you through a peaceful, native forest of fir and cedar trees.


This is no ordinary forest. We’re talking about 1300 year old trees, towering more than 200 feet above the forest floor. It’s a majestic sight. Dabbled sunlight filtering its way down through a sea of sturdy brown tree trunks. The size of these trees really only become apparent when you venture up into the canopy on a series of walkway suspended between the trees, almost 100 feet above the ground. It’s an unnerving experience to look down and see how high you are before looking up and seeing just how much more of the tree remains towering above you. These trees are tall!

Oh Canada!

We've arrived without incident in Vancouver (sadly that's not the view from our hotel room in the photo above, but a picture of the Vancouver Lookout, perched 130 metres above the harbour foreshore). Landing at Vancouver airport in and of itself was the perfect start to our vacation. As we passed over the Canadian Rockies the pilot rotated into a leisurely descent path that flew parallel to the snow-capped peaks until landing. Even better, we've arrived as a week of glorious weather unfolds. Blue skies and temperatures in the mid-20s are forecast for the week ahead.

On our first afternoon in town we took a walk down to the waterfront and the cruise ship terminal. This'll be our departure point for Alaska four days from now. I can honestly say that Vancouver is located on one of the most stunning harbours you'll ever see. We then hit the jackpot food-wise last night after stumbling across a Japanese style tapas bar called Hapa Izakaya in the trendy Yaletown district.

Today we're off to hit the sales. We're hoping to pick up some discounted winter gear for our December snow tour through the Swiss Alps and Antarctic Christmas vacation. I'd also like to find some hiking boots to get me through the next few weeks. We'll focus on Vancouver's tourist highlights tomorrow.

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20 hours and counting...

We've started packing our bags for this Summer's grand excursion. After the winter from hell we're looking forward to enjoying the wilderness of Alaska. To our Antipodean family and friends, we'll see you three weeks from now. Hooray. It's vacation time!

Why it might be time to go home

I’ve published several blog posts about the state of the UK economy since the global recession unfolded. The burgeoning Government deficit is the current economic topic de jour. For several years now the UK Government’s been spending at least £159.2 billion more each year than it earns from tax receipts and other income; roughly 11.5% of GDP. As the Government borrows more and more to cover the shortfall, total government has passed a staggering £1000 billion, more than 68% of GDP. Effectively, the Government’s debt has grown almost 75% in little more than two years.

Reducing the annual budget deficit, and reining in national debt, has become a primary focus of the new coalition Government. It released an emergency budget in late-June, warning of an unprecedented level of austerity in the years ahead. Tomorrow, every major Government department is submitting draft proposals on how they might cut their budget by 25%, and in a worst case scenario, by 40%. As this morning, the Treasury had yet to receive a single submission.


As the extent of planned spending cuts starts to crystalise commentators predict a rising tide of public sector protests, strikes and disruption. Job losses affecting more than 600,000 public sector workers are anticipated over the next two years, while the quality of service is expected to fall. The UK isn’t going to be a fun place to be this winter.

This misery will be further compounded by rising taxes including a 2.5% increase in VAT (as GST is called here) from January, a 10% rise in capital gain tax and the loss of tax breaks for middle and high income earners. The welfare state is also under attack as benefits are cut, additional means-testing is introduced and a number of social services vanish. As the chart below shows, currently the UK's unemployment is alsmot twice that of Australia. It will surely rise in the months ahead.


In short, the UK's in for a depressing period of austerity. Contrast this bleak picture with that of news stories coming from Australia; stories of economic growth, falling Government debt, falling unemployment and booming exports receipts. The charts above say really it all. I know where I’d rather be. It’s time to go home.

UPDATE - July 23
According to official data released today, the UK economy grew by a faster-than-expected 1.1% in the second quarter of the year. The BBC, says this was the nation's "fastest quarterly expansion since 2006." The result is rather impressive when you compare it to the 0.3% growth reported in the first three months of this year. The last time the UK had growth of more 1.1% in any quarter was in 1999. Watch for politicians on all sides to claim credit for these surprising results in the days ahead.

Holiday reading

I've decided to head off on vacation next weekend armed with a pile of paperbacks. We'll be sitting on a cruise boat for eight days so it seemed appropriate to stock up with some light-hearted reading. This year's Amazon.com party pack includes:

• A couple of Christopher Brookmyre novels; A Snowball in Hell and Pandemonium. This Scottish author writes regular installments on the adventures of an investigative journalist and his eclectic associates. They inevitably find themselves in hot water, chasing terrorists and dodging bullets. I discovered him years ago at an airport bookstall in New Zealand.


• Three Bill Bryson non-fiction books; At Home, Troublesome Words and Icons of England. At Home sounds particularly interesting. Bryson's passion for trivia sees him weave a fascinating history of inventions and customs which make up everyday home life.


• A standard chick-lit novel by Irish author, Marian Keyes; The Brightest Star in the Sky. As is her style at least one leading character will be an alcoholic, while someone else has has an epiphany over popcorn and B-grade rental movies.


• Eating the Big Fish, a treatise on the secrets of companies who've built successful challenger brands (such as the classic"Avis. We try harder." marketing strategy that's become immortalised by almost every reputable MBA course). It's my token business reading research for the Summer.

Seven days to go and we'll be off to Heathrow.

All good things must come to an end

Regular readers may have noticed that Garry and I have been clocking up a considerable number of increasingly exotic holidays. Our travelling madness does have a reason. With less than five months left to run on our UK work permits we're packing in as much sight-seeing as possible. Come December our time in London will end and we'll be heading back to Australia for good.

However, we plan to go out with a bang. In the months ahead we have the most amazing travel schedule slotted into every spare day of annual leave we can muster. Highlights include:

• An eight-day cruise of the Alaskan panhandle, followed by a brief road tour up the George's Highway to Denali National Park in central Alaska.


• A three-day detour in Las Vegas while enroute to family and friends Down Under.


• A long weekend in Tauranga, New Zealand visiting my parents, before heading to Sydney, Australia for three days of work.


• A week in India for work as I'm making my way back to London. Garry's coming with me. While I'm slaving at the office he'll be enjoying a whirlwind tour of each city I visit; Mumbai and Delhi. We've also planned a three-day weekend that will see us soak up the sights of Udaipur and Agra. Watch for photos of us at the Taj Mahal.


• A long weekend in November (part of the last round-the-world ticket we've just bought) to Bucharest, Romania. I also have a buiness trip scheduled the same month to Malaysia.


• A five-week grand tour through South America as we relocate back to Australia. This trip will see us take a nine-day train journey through the snow-clad alps of Austria and Switzerland before flying to Chile. We love those round-the-world tickets!


• A cruise of Antarctica where we're scheduled to spend Christmas Day.


• A long weekend on Easter Island where we'll see in the second decade of the new millennium.


• A tour of the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. It's said to be the driest location on earth.


• Another brief stop-over in Tauranga, New Zealand before we finally hit the shores of Australia for good.

In between all of this globe-trotting we've also have a few London-based adventures scheduled. The first is a tour of Buckingham Palace. We brought a couple of open-dated tickets a few months ago and plan to use these in September. We've also booked a final television chat show production evening in early-September.

We're off to see Chatty Man, hosted by Alan Carr, a man who gives the term 'camp' a bad name. His show has risen through the ranks and increasingly attracts A-list celebrities. In recent weeks he's interviewed Grace Jones, the cast of Twilight and Kylie Minogue. I've secured front row seats for this event thanks to my humiliation on national television a few years ago.

Life back home in Australia could seem rather dull by comparison. Either that or we'll simply be glad to have some time to finally rest!

It really is Summer

London's endless Summer just keeps on coming. We've had another week of warm, and largely sunny, weather culminating in today's toasty 28°C high. Garry and I strolled up to Belsize Park for a leisurely, late lunch at a new cafe called Chez Bob. We sat by a set of french doors flung open to the street and dined in the refreshing outdoor shade, a chilled white wine in hand.

I later caught the tube into town for a quick haircut (the less said about the growing count of grey hairs the better). On the way home I got off at Camden Town and walked through the markets, along Regent's Canal and through Primrose Hill to home. Everyone was out and about; from punks with their spiky, bright-hued Mohawks to aging Indian women wearing orange gossamer sariis.

Back home our portable air-con unit has been getting a regular workout. With overnight temperatures hovering around 18-20°C we've been running it non-stop in a desperate attempt to keep the house cool enough to sleep in. After several years of little or no use its finally getting another solid workout. Next week cooler temperatures (and even a spot of rain) are expected to prevail as temperatures plunge to a low of 19°C on Tuesday afternoon.

In less than two weeks we'll be enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of a hotel in Vancouver. We're off for two week in Alaska; eight days of cruising and six days on the road touring the state's interior. We bought our cruise tickets more than a year ago at the height of the recession. At the time cruise operators were desperately off-loading cabins at incredible discounts. We secured our cabin for a remarkable 66% off the brochure price.

Copenhagen

Perhaps the most famous Danish citizen is Hans Christian Andersen. Born in 1805, he went on to write some of the world’s most renowned children’s tales including The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling. Over time his work has been translated and published into more than 150 languages.

When you visit Copenhagen, his memory is everywhere. The Danes it seems are very proud of their fellow countryman’s achievements. Perhaps the most notable memorial to his legacy is a small statue of the Little Mermaid. It sits forlornly on a rock sits on the shore of Copenhagen harbour. Every tourist inevitably pays homage to this statue at some point during a visit to the city. I certainly did during my first trip to Denmark twenty years ago.


Last weekend Garry and I were back in Copenhagen; my third visit, his first. On our first full day in town we ventured along the harbour foreshore to see Hans Christian Andersen’s mythical creature. Unfortunately, she’s on vacation. We discovered that the statue has been temporarily shipped to a pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. Instead of encountering the Little Mermaid, we came across a large video billboard broadcasting live images of the statue on display in China. It wasn’t the same as the real thing.

The rest of our weekend proved more somewhat more rewarding. We spent most of our first day walking around town, seeking out the city’s most popular sights. This included the impressive Town Hall, Stroget Street (said to be Europe’s longest outdoor pedestrian mall), Amalienborg Royal Palace, Rosenborg Castle and Nyhaven, the picturesque 17th Century canal district. Copenhagen is a relatively compact city and so it was relatively easy to see all of these sights in a single day.


We also stopped to walk up the brick-clad spiral ramp of the impressive Rundetårn , or Round Town. This is a cylindrical brick tower in the heart of the old town. Opened in 1642, it rises more than 35 metres above the street. It summit houses an old royal observatory, which itself is wrapped by an outdoor observation deck offering spectacular, uninterrupted views of Copenhagen. The view extends as far as the remote shores of southern Sweden.

We spent Saturday evening dining at Tivoli, the city’s 19th Century amusement park. This venue covers approximately 15 acres of land, sculpted into a series of artificial lakes, performance stages, fair rides and other amusements. It’s claimed that Tivoli is the world’s second oldest amusement park (the claim for the oldest lies with a park on the outskirts of Copenhagen). We later watched an entertaining live jazz band, and completed the evening watching a spectacular fireworks display. It’s hard to believe guests much like ourselves have been entertained here since 1843.


Our second day in town was spent enjoying a leisurely canal tour on a low-slung barge. The tour took us past many of the city’s stunning canals and into the heart of some of its oldest neighbourhoods. We then completed our weekend away with a tour of the National Museum. We expected to find plenty of exhibits about the Vikings, but were surprised to discover exhibits on a local history that stretches back five thousand years. All in all we enjoyed a relaxing weekend, blessed by warm weather and sunshine.