The Cruise Port Of Vancouver, Canada

Gateway to Alaska cruising and a departure port for cruises to Hawaii this port has much to offer visitors.

Cruising North To Alaska?

Vancouver is a major embarkation port and a gateway for many of Alaska’s cruises.

A popular gateway for many Alaska cruises, Vancouver is a great destination on its own. While it may owe much of its popularity in the cruise industry to some old and archaic U.S. law called the Jones Act and The Passenger Vessel Services Act, it deserves to be recognized as a great destination city as well. Vancouver is the largest western Canadian city with a large natural harbor and a thriving economy. Famous for a number of nearby wine regions, it has a great natural beauty and a vibrant city atmosphere.

The issue with the Jones Act/The Passenger Vessel Services Act prohibits cruise lines from picking up passengers in one U.S. port and allowing them to disembark in another U.S. port. Vancouver, Canada allows the cruise lines to avoid the problem of picking up passengers from a U.S. port.

Downtown Vancouve

Where Your Ship Dock

The cruise pier in Vancouver is called Canada Place and it is centrally located with a nice cruise terminal. Canada Place is also a convention center and community event venue so take the time to discover what’s going on inside. Just walking out of the terminal finds you in downtown with a tourist office within a couple of blocks of the pier. Only a few blocks walk to the southwest is Gastown, a popular historic district with lots of restaurants and clubs. A few blocks farther south is Vancouver’s Chinatown, which is home to a large Asian population replete with markets and excellent Chinese restaurants.

Wheelchair Accessibility

Disembarking – This port provides a modern cruise terminal with built-in provisions for passengers using wheelchairs like ramps and elevators.

Port City Characteristics – This port has a well developed wheelchair friendly infrastructure. The port area is flat or has few inclines. Intersection crosswalks have few issues with curbs or other wheelchair obstacles.

Transportation

Taxi – Taxis are common and fares average about $10 for trips within the central city. A taxi trip to the airport should cast about $30.

Gastown Steam Clock

Rapid Transit – The Canada Line is Vancouver’s rapid transit rail connecting Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to downtown Vancouver in about 30 minutes. Trains leave every few minutes and run from 5 am till after midnight. Fares run about $3.00 per trip.

For detailed information on getting from Vancouver airport to Canada Place click HERE.

Bicycles – Vancouver is a very walkable city and you will discover that many locals commute on bicycles. There are a number of rental locations not far from Canada Place. Spokes Rentals is only four blocks down the waterfront (1798 W Georgia Street).

Money – A Canadian dollar is currently about US$0.80 and unlike the Eastern Canadian cities Vancouver businesses will often insist on cash being in Canadian currency. Credit cards are welcome and ATM machines are plentiful. If you spending a day or two in Vancouver a good way to pick of Canadian currency is to use an ATM.

Cruises depart by sailing under Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge

Local Sights

Gastown and Chinatown, as mentioned above are not far from Canada Place and are a must visit. Because of the large Chinese population there are a number of restaurants featuring authentic Chinese cuisine with great dim sum. Gastown is located not far from the cruise terminal and is the old historic section of Vancouver. A great entertainment district wit lots of restaurants, bars and shops.

Entrance to Vancouver’s China Town

Vancouver Aquarium located in Stanly Park down the waterfront to the northeast about a mile from Canada Place. It is Canada’s largest and a great attraction especially if you are traveling with children.

Science World with its iconic dome was originally built for Expo ’86, and is home to a number of interactive exhibits as well as one of the world’s largest OMNIMAX theaters. It is located less than a mile and a half from Canada Place.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is a ways out of town but people from all over the world come here to experience this bridge and the natural beauty of the area. It is located in the Capilano area.

A Flash Mob In Vienna

A Short Story

A Surprise on a Wednesday Afternoon

On a trip across Europe we spent some time in Austria. While walking thru Vienna’s center of town near St. Stevens Cathedral we became aware groups of young people, dressed in black coming into the square from a number of directions. It seemed odd and appeared something was going on. As several boom boxes began to play music they began to dance…

After only a few minutes it was over and the group drifted away in all directions just like they had come.

Walking away we realized it was our very first “flash mob” experience and it seemed our day had gotten a little brighter.

Love Locks Become An Epidemic

A Statement of Love Goes Viral

Wurzburg, Germany

We weren’t aware of love locks before about a decade or so ago but now as we travel we come across collections of padlocks attached to bridges, fences and other public structures everywhere. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what was going on by all the couples names engraved on the locks. In the last five years or so it is becoming difficult to not notice these collections, they’re popping up everywhere.

For goodness sake it’s even hit our small Florida town. The weren’t there a year ago but just last month as we walked through the lake front park, there they were!

Winter Garden Park

The practice isn’t new but was virtually unheard of outside of a few cities, mostly in Eastern Europe, until recent years. Early in the twenty-first century the practice has exploded worldwide. A love lock is a padlock which lovers lock to a bridge, fence, gate or monument to symbolize their undying love. In recent years the lovers’ names or initials, and the date, are engraved on the padlock, and its key is thrown away, usually into the river under the bridge, to symbolize the couples undying love for each other.

This simple and romantic practice seems innocent enough, but more and more it’s being treated by authorities as litter or vandalism, and there can be serious costs associated with damage caused and their removal. But we’ve also learned that there are places where authorities are embracing lovelock places as a tourist attraction.

Paris

A little research will find that love padlocks date back at least 100 years to a Serbian tale of World War I. It involves the bridge Most Ljubavi or the Bridge of Love in the town of Vrnjačka Banja*. A local schoolmistress named Nada, who was from Vrnjačka Banja, fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. He went off to war in Greece, where he fell in love with a woman from Corfu. Heart broken Nada broke off their engagement and after some time died from heartbreak. As the tragic love story circulated, young women from Vrnjačka Banja wanted to protect their love and started writing down their names, with the names of their loves, on padlocks and attached them to the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.

Savannah, Georgia
Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin

In Dublin there is a famous pedestrian bridge called the Ha’penny Bridge. It is one of the more famous symbols of Dublin. Nearly 200 years old (1816) it is a protected structure, but in recent years Dublin City Council have had to remove thousands of padlocks from the bridge on a regular basis. They are considered unsightly and are causing damage by chipping paint and adding considerable weight to the historic bridge. Engineers have estimated that at some point, if not removed, they could cause the bridge to collapse.

Today the key to many an Irish heart now sits at the bottom of the River Liffey where couples in love have thrown them after securing their love locks to Dublin’s historic Ha’penny Bridge. Today there is a group dedicated to breaking that bond. Shortly after the lovers have left, an expert lock-picking group arrives to tear these bonds of love apart and stop the locks from making the bridge structurally unsafe.

River walk Wurzburg, Germany

“It’s a fairly constant churn,” said Seán Nicholls, who set up the group when he was on his way to a professional lock-picking meeting. “I was heading to the meeting one day and I walked over the Ha’penny Bridge and noticed all the locks. In my mind it was defacing a city treasure. That’s kind of where the idea came from,” he said.

Dublin City Council embraced the group in the aftermath of a love-lock situation in Paris where the locks caused a section of the Pont des Arts bridge to collapse. The bridge in Paris had become famous for “love locks,” but the locks became too heavy and a two-meter segment of the bridge and railing buckled under the pressure of so many romantic symbols falling into the Seine.

Just this summer we were in Liverpool and along the waterfront – surprise! We found them in a cliffside park in Lima, Peru. From Amsterdam to Zurich and even in Asia it’s no longer a surprise to come across these obtrusive symbols of undying love.

Just recently the practice has come to America and is growing in Savannah, Boston, St. Louis and a number of other cities. Not to walk away from a business opportunity many locksmiths are now offering professional engraving on their padlocks and a number of manufacturers are offering heart shaped padlocks, likely to cause the new tradition to grow and spread even more.

Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin
Savannah

Are LOVELOCKS legal or prohibited?

Montevideo, Uruguay
  • Mt. Huangshan, China – Adding love locks? Legal: Encouraged
  • Brooklyn Bridge, New York – Adding love locks? Legal: No
  • Hohenzollern Bridge, Germany – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • Seoul Tower Seoul, South Korea – Adding love locks? Legal: Encouraged
  • Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, Boston United States – Adding love locks.?Legal: No
  • Butchers Bridge, Slovenia – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • Penang, Malysia – Adding love locks? Legal: Encouraged
  • Tamuning, Guam – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • Vrnjacka Banja in Serbia* – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • The Distillery District, Toronto, Canada – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • Ponte Milvio Bridge, Rome – Adding love locks? Legal: No
  • The Flame of Liberty, Paris – Adding love locks? Legal: No
  • Stab Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, St. Louis – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • Fountain of Locks, Montevideo, Uruguay – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes
  • The Casa Di Guilietta, Verona, Italy** – Adding love locks? Legal: Yes

*This bridge “Most Ljubavi” is a pedestrian bridge known as the Bridge of Love in the town of Vrnjačka Banja and is the location where the legend of the love locks began.

**The Casa Di Guilietta is a particularly popular location for adding love locks as it is supposed to have been the home of Juliet Capulet from Shakespear’s Romeo And Juliet.

Are there any love locks near you? Let us know where and we’ll add the locations.

Todays Image • Teton Mountains

Grand Teton National Park is located in the northwestern Wyoming. The park covers an area of 310,000 acres centered on the Teton Range, a rugged 40-mile-long mountain range. In 1929, the park was established as a national park, and since then, it has become a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts.

The Teton Range was created by a localized geological uplift and faulting. Around 9 million years ago, the Earth’s crust began to stretch and thin in the region, causing the land to rise and form mountains. The Teton Fault, which runs along the eastern base of the range, is responsible for the steep eastern face of the mountains. Glaciers also played a significant role in shaping the range, carving out deep valleys and leaving behind moraines and other glacial features.

Join us as we visit historic treasures, natural wonders and vibrant cities set against backdrops that are endlessly changing and visually magnificent.

The Cruise Port Of Lerwick, The Shetland’s

Where Time Seems To Stands Still

Lerwick harbor

Located in the North Sea one hundred fifty miles north of Scotland is the Shetland Islands where modern opportunities and history meet. Most buildings in Lerwick, the major town in the archipelago, are made of local stone and have the appearance of being from a different era. Narrow alleys and streets don’t appear to have been made with automobiles in mind at all. The town owes its success to its location, finding shelter in the lee of the island of Bressay across the channel and its good harbor. The town takes its name from Norse meaning ‘mud-bay’ and was a safe harbor for Dutch fishermen in the seventeenth century. This town is a good base for exploring the Scandinavian history, beautiful seascapes and wildlife of the Shetland archipelago.

In the mid eighteenth century relations between the British and Dutch deteriorated and the British built Fort Charlotte in 1781 to protect what they believed was Scottish territory. After that the herring fishing brought a boom and a building explosion showed off the archipelago’s new wealth. In the twentieth century the North Sea oil bonanza again gave Lerwick, with its good port location, another economic boom.

Where Your Ship Docks

This is normally a tender port as large cruise ships cannot be accommodated at its piers. Wheelchair bound passengers will encounter challenges both in getting on tenders as well as disembarking at the pier. The tenders do tie up at a central harbor pier that is right in town.

Wheelchair Accessibility

Port Characteristics – This port has a moderate to steep geography where there are typically elevations and inclines to deal with. Otherwise wheelchair infrastructure is typical of western cities. The waterfront and near port area have moderate inclines in sidewalks but the city itself can be more difficult. There are narrow streets and numerous narrow passages with intersection crosswalks that may have curbs or other wheelchair obstacles.

Coat of Arms displayed in Lerwick

“Nemo me impune lacessit” is the motto on the Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Scotland and translates to “No one attacks me with impunity”, and has been loosely rendered in Scots as Wha daur meddle wi me? (in Scottish Gaelic Cha togar m’ fhearg gun dìoladh, ). It is also alternatively translated into English as No one can harm me unpunished.

Broch of Clickimin

The Broch of Clickimin is a large, well-preserved but restored broch (a broch is an Iron Age stone hollow-walled structure unique to Scotland) dating to the late Bronze Age and is located just a mile west of town.

Fort Charlotte

Transportation

If you’re staying in Lerwick, walking is a great option as the town is relatively small and easy to navigate. You can also rent a bike to explore the surrounding areas.

If you want to explore further afield, taking a bus or hiring a car are good options. The bus service in Shetland is operated by the company called “Stagecoach”, and it covers most of the main towns and villages. Hiring a car is the best option giving you more flexibility and allows you to explore the more remote areas of the island. The islands rental agencies include:

  • Bolts Car Hire: They have locations in Lerwick and at the Sumburgh Airport.
  • Star Rent-A-Car: They offer car rentals at the Sumburgh Airport.
  • Shetland Car Rentals: They offer car rentals at the Sumburgh Airport.
  • Thistle Car Rental: They have a location in Lerwick and offer delivery to the Sumburgh Airport.
  • Island Car Hire: They offer car rentals at the Tingwall Airport.

It’s always a good idea to compare prices and availability from different companies before making a reservation.

Local Currency

The Shetlands are part of Scotland so they use the British Pound. Credit cards are welcome and there are ATMs.

What To See

Fort Charlotte in the centre of Lerwick, Shetland, is a five-sided artillery fort, with bastions on each corner. The grounds and exterior battlements are open to the public and it offers good views of the towns harbor area. Today Fort Charlotte is managed by Historic Scotland, and is the base for Shetland’s Territorial Army. Visitors must call to get the keys to visit.

Broch of Mousa requires a boat ride but it is the best preserved example of an Iron Age round tower or broch. It is on the small island of Mousa in Shetland, Scotland and is the tallest broch still standing and amongst the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe.

The Shetland Islands are home to a large population of puffins, making them a good place for puffin-watching as well as other bird watching. Within the Shetland Islands there are a number of places to see puffins, with some requiring only a short hike.

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