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July's Pictures
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I was told by two different people (they were married to each other so as far as fact finding this isn't 100% conclusive as I suspect the Canadian in the relationship may have mentioned it to their non-Canadian partner who then relayed it to me) that this was the world's largest flag. Stopped at lights I could not resist so i grabbed my San Fran and snapped this one. Eager to find more details I started San Franning away on Chrome to find what it's particulars were and couldn't find it from an obvious Google search. Being a fair man I started digging deeper. So I searched for largest flag Canada... here I was getting somewhere, perhaps it was the biggest Cabadian flag in the world?... no. Looks like loads of people want that title and they don't all have to be hoisted up a flagpole, some were made out of people. So if it's not the biggest flag and not the biggest Canadian flag which I suspect rules it out as the biggest flag in Canada (my assumption is there are few people outside Canada who want to win the biggest Canadian flag prize) then what the heck is it?
Welcome to the biggest flagpole in the world in 1986. It was built for the Expo then and now sits in a car dealership in Surrey. I suspect it is no longer the biggest and that title is held by the North Koreans at 160 meters, but since I don't know how high this one is I can't go all McWherter on you and claim anything. When I get a computer at my fingertips then perhaps the matter might be settled, until then you will have to wonder.
| 0 comments have been left | 07:36 30 Jul 2011 | Tags: vancouver flag surrey flagpole biggest |
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The drive out was initially to Bridal Veil Falls and we got there fine but the small but impressive falls were ruined by the San Fran because you couldn't tell that there were falls let alone the difference between the sky and the falls so no pic of that I'm afraid, though the Nikon will have a pic.
So since we weren't completely shattered it was off to Fort Langley an 1827 trading post on the Fraser River trading furs and the like. Now if course it's a historic attraction full of people dressed in costume acting out their piece from coopers to weddings and dancing as well as a bit of gardening mixed in. All quite fun really but a little confusing when the first nation man was playing a colonial boss and the white woman was playing a first nation mother, I did finally get it though.
This pic is if the big house, the fort office and head trader's house
| 0 comments have been left | 04:19 28 Jul 2011 | Tags: vancouver langley house |
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If you like fish and canned fish for that matter then this is for you, canned salmon is this place's business. The whole 100 year history of the cannery is detailed with a guided tour. We even had a workshop where we learnt to make leather medicine pouches as the natives would have done. Of course if you don't like fish then tough, it's all they did. I say did because it closed in the 70's and reopened later as a museum which of course it is today.
The surroundings are pretty and full of small interesting shops. On one street there was a film crew set up and ut became apparent that some of the "public" were actors for the background, obviously they weren't filming when we were passing but it was obvious there was something going on that they were a part of.
| 0 comments have been left | 04:49 27 Jul 2011 | Tags: cannery vancouver clouds statue |
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It's white and it's got rocks in it. On a rather overcast and blowy day we descended on White Rock, not sure why it's called White Rock but it does have a huge white rock near it which might explain the name. It has a pier and contaminated water so the lone surfer or body boarder I think they were might have been risking their health but hey, there were TV cameras out for him so it was probably worth it.
Apart from the huge white rock there was very little else if interest, a few shops, ice-cream and restaurants but that's it. So after a brief walk it was off to crescent beach for more overcastness and a sit whilst the kids got soaking and sandy. Still the weather perked up and was really hot just as we were about to leave a good thing too after yesterday's baking.
Anyway the pic is of the start of the pier at White Rock if you couldn't have guessed. I'm surprised it came out so well, I thought that it would have been completely underexposed owing to the bright sky (relatively) combined with the poor camera on the San Fran
| 0 comments have been left | 05:34 26 Jul 2011 | Tags: pier vancouver overcast white rock |
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...Stanley park is where I'm standing. On a no rules day I was unprepared for how unruley the day was to become. After initially heading to Vancouver to see the city, this was as far as we got to the city on foot, after that it and after a few hours in Stanley Park the only other contact with the city wasa drive through Vancouver stopping at every junction at red lights or to wait for pedestrians to cross. Canada jas the same daft idea of throwing cars on green into pedestrians crossing. Mind you daft traffic signals are not the preseve of the Canadians.
Anyway Stanley Park is quite nice you gave the bustling port full of tankers and seaplanes and liners all around as well as a flotila of other small private boats racing around. The park contains walks and rides abd a nice fat two lane road that skirts the coast so if you've eaten far too many doughnuts then ther is no need to walk anywhere.
The picture is of downtown Vancouver from the park, a huge skyrise place with as yet nothing much to be seen when you get there, however that is from the point of view of the driver and to be honest I was mainly concentrating on not hitting anything and keeping in the right lane.
| 0 comments have been left | 16:30 25 Jul 2011 | Tags: vancouver skyline port stanley |
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Last weekend was a trip into London to have a walk around the Tower and a trip down the Thames which was interesting and any trip to London would not be complete without many trips on the underground which is sort of interesting but mainly a chore though it did include a trip on the DLR which is not very interesting at all really especially when we timed it right to coincide with line works so the DLR turned into a bus on Sunday. Staying just near the ExCeL Centre it was all rather new and clinical but comfortable nonetheless, but you couldn't help thinking that they had flattened a bit of London and walled it off so that straying either side of the area would mean that you would run into parts of what had escaped demolition that was less clean and clinical.
Anyway after walking for miles and miles and having rather tired tootsies it was time to force the family to walk some more to find 30 St Mary Axe or the Gherkin as it's known so after a wiggly walk though the streets (wiggly because we didn't know where we were going really and tiredness was setting in) the Gherkin was found a few snaps were taken and off again back towards the Thames to catch a boat back to Westminster Bridge to walk across the bridge to Waterloo to get on the Underground to catch the DLR to eventually stop walking. Anyway on the way back (not knowing where any of these buildings really are we stumbled upon the Lloyds building which is just yards from the Gherkin. On the underground back I fought the temptation at Canary Wharf station to insist on getting a picture of that too... wise move I think I would have had a rebellion on my hands. There are only so many buildings you can take your Wife and Daughter to before they fight back with clothes shops.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:30 14 Jul 2011 | Tags: lloyds building clouds london |
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It's been a sort of busy weekend really. Packed lots of dull stiff into it that really I won't bother you about... oh if you insist... washing clothes, cycling 20 miles, washing more clothes, eating too much, walking round Manchester during the Manchester International Festival... yeah I told you it was boring but you insisted. The festival looked more like a night festival really, or we were in the wrong place so we messed about a bit, bought books and ended up in Salford via Blackfriars. Walking along towards the bridge that links Salford to Bridge Street my Wife spotted a statue looking over the Irwell, interested to see what it was about we walked back into Manchester and onto Bridge Street and there's a small relatively hidden set of steps down to nothing in particular that overlooks the Irwell. When you step down to this place there is nowhere to go but what you might call seats but nothing else apart from this statue. Very weird really almost like it was all some sort of hidden statue never to be discovered. Not sure what Joseph Brotherton would make of it being Salford's first MP. To the right of him looks horribly like a tomb with his name and the usual details you would expect on such a stone because the statue has nothing on it at all. It's also weird because I suspect the statue is actually in Manchester if you assume that Salford's boundary is the Irwell... so perhaps not strange because he's looking out over Salford.
Either way it's a weird place to put a statue more or less hidden out of the way where I'm assuming Manchester's less that healthy night life like to spend their time by the looks of it.
| 0 comments have been left | 22:31 3 Jul 2011 | Tags: manchester statue tree |
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