On Monday, I decided to head downtown again to see if there was anything happening at the Westin Hotel. The International Client Services team was preparing to move in to the hotel over the weekend and they were also moving 325 cars from the lot in Richmond up to the hotel in Vancouver. These are the vehicles that we will be driving. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the hotel, I found that there really wasn't anything that I could do to help out and the training sessions that I need to complete will not be starting there until Wednesday.
I decided to do some more sightseeing in Vancouver. I walked back to the Waterfront Station where I got off the train in the morning and then headed up Granville Street. I looked around the huge Sears and Bay stores and then back out to Granville. This portion of the street has been closed to traffic and has a really neat art installation. There are about 20 "trees" in the street with each one covered in lanterns. The lanterns have been coloured by children in Canada and Tokyo and there are 2010 of them covering the branches.
At this point, I saw a group of people in red and white jackets. As they came closer, I could see that they were a group of Russian athletes (at least, based on their apparent level of fitness and their young age, I have to assume that they were athletes). Alas, I did not have my camera out so missed this photo opportunity.
My accreditation gets me free access to all of the local transportation including the bus, seabus, skytrain (local commuter train with frequent service), and the West Coast Express (a longer range commuter train with limited service). It does make it easy to get on and off to do tourist things. I hopped back on the bus to Granville Island but missed my stop, not realizing just how small the island is. I found myself quite a bit further along Granville Street than I had intended but just walked back down the hill to the island. Granville Island is a former industrial area that now houses a wonderful public market and all sorts of artsy shops and studios. At one end of the island there is a little hill with a nice view along False Creek. As you look across the water in the photo below, you can just see the Telus Science World globe-shaped building (right in the centre). To the right of that, not really visible in the photo below, is the Olympic Village and to the left, again not visible in the photo, are GM Place, home of the Olympic hockey games, and BC Place, home of the opening and closing ceremonies.
After exploring the market and shops on the Island, I took the Olympic line straight to the Olympic Village. My accreditation also gives me access to all venues and I thought that I would have a look around before most of the athletes and delegates arrived. The buildings are new and quite funky. They will make a very nice waterfront neighbourhood once they are converted after the games. There were very few people walking around the village, most of them being volunteers. However, I did see a few police officers with very familiar uniforms. There are police officers from all branches of the service all across Canada and I happened to find three OPP. They were from Muskoka, Killaloe (this seems to be a theme this trip with this officer and my Killaloe Sunrise Beavertail), and one from Smiths Falls. I also figured out that at least one group of athletes seems to have arrived at the Village already.
After exploring the Village, it was time to head back to the Waterfront station to catch the West Coast Express and head for home.
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