Waking and getting out of bed at 6am this morning was a tough shock to the system, but was shortly rewarded by a 10 minute trip to our transfer coach in an eventful mini bus journey. Passing our bags to the driver he promptly asked where Tim came from. On the reply of Ireland he started speaking to us in a broad Irish accent. When I said I came from London he started wittering away saying nothing in particular in a Hugh Grant-esque accent - my dulcet west country tones were obviously lost on him. When we got into the bus we learnt our vehicle for the journey was the Star Ship Enterprise; the drivers name was Obi Wan Kenobi (although in reality he looked like John Candy) and the in flight entertainment was from C-3PO! He then drove on to the Hilton to check for any additional passengers and in order to stay in the car he drove the mini-bus right up to the automatic doors, opening them and allowing a window in - inspired if a little unnerving.
The trip down to Vancouver was far more interesting than on the way up - granted by the fact it was daylight this time. The landscape went from snow capped mountains, to rivers and woodland to a large bay with what looked like exclusive houses. It was stunning scenery, although the road surrounding it is a permanent construction site due to ongoing improvements for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Two hours later we made it to Vancouver and our hotel, and an hour or so later into numerous bike shops. I'm sure as a woman I should enjoy shopping for five hours but I was shattered by the end of it - picking Primark t-shirts is nowhere near as mentally intensive. After walking from shop to shop we ventured into La Bicicletta Pro Bike Shop. The guy quickly started selling bikes to us and I came across a Marinoni tourer which he raved about. They have hand built steel frames with such a cute story behind them: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/FBeauchemin/About_1.htm
Sadly it was a nine week wait to get my desired paint job so my choices were left as Bianchi green or pea green. I have put one by for a trial ride tomorrow but I am now in a quandary as to which set up to go for. The Bianchi green has a more aggressive set-up using Ultegra equivalent Campag gearing, where as the pea green has mountain bike Shimano gearing of a bit lower quality than the Ultegra I guess. The advantage of the latter is of course that when carting all the extra weight of hair straighteners, make up, heels and not to mention the thighs, up a mountain I will not be out gears just thinking about it...
Tim on the other hand is in more of a quandary. It is likely he will go for the Cannondale touring 1, although a his and hers red Marinoni may pip this to the post.
Bike browsing finished for the day we went to MEC (mountain equipment co-operative) to sort out a tent and sleeping bags. As all who are acquainted with Tim will know, you have to browse first then return to buy exactly what you were looking at the following day (sort of like a self-imposed cooling off period) ;-) That said we had fun finding the lightest, smallest tents and sleeping bags possible - 1.4kg for the tent and 520g for the sleeping bags. As for the camping equipment I had never realised how many gadgets there were out there - origami plastic crockery..?
Vancouver itself is immense. The architecture in the areas we have been today is hard on the eyes and mind - think high rise apartments along the Thames - every where. The photo below is the only building we could find that we liked. The digging up of roads in Maida vale to replace Victorian water pipes pales into insignificance when you see the road disruption in this place. Oh and as for crossing the road Tim and I are clueless - I have surmised that all cyclist couriers in London must be Canadian drivers!
No comments:
Post a Comment