To market, to market to catch …… Christmas Cheer 🎄🎄

No visit to Vancouver is complete without a trip to Granville Island ….. home of huge markets, food stall and little artisan shops and workshops tucked down little alleys and lanes around the sprawling complex. We’ve visited before and some of us will probably visit again as there is much to see, do and buy. After a cruise around the food and produce stalls, and a quick chowder brunch, we went our separate ways to explore what took our fancy ….which seems to be different things for the girls and me. They did the ladies shops and I visited the artisan stalls and the boat marina with chandlers and workshops and huge sheds with people working on their boats out of the water for Winter. The industrial activity, rain showers, cold and overcast sky made it quite clear that we were a long way from Oz, that we were visitors in a very foreign place.

Clam chowder for brunch. Just one of many food delights on offer.

Fooling around with a shot of the little boat houses on False Creek, trying to capture the weather and Winter ambiance.

It was fascinating watching the men at work on their boats out of the water for Winter.
I guess maintenance is the key when you go to sea.

The quaint little ferries that ply False Creek. Very handy.

Our old “digs at Stamps’s Landing.  Wonderful spot!

We went home on one of the quaint little putt-putt ferries that ply False Creek. It was quite familiar going via Stamp’s Landing where we stayed with Mike and Wendy during our last visit in a very quirky, but comfortable and well located apartment over the marina.

Erin had organised us some tickets to the very popular Vancouver Christmas markets, so after a rest and change into heavier gear, off we headed into town on the metro which is just a short walk form her apartment. The weather forecast was a bit grim (4 degrees and sleet flurries) so we dressed in anticipation of  inclement weather ….but it was not to be an issue. In fact, with all the body heat from the crowds, and the rain/sleet holding off, it was quite mild ….for Vancouver 🥴

Erin had organised passes to these Christmas markets as part of the theme of the trip …. Wendy’s White Whistler Christmas. 

The crowds weren’t bad at the beginning and, as always in Canada, everyone was really polite and happy and nice.
Wendy even made friends with the lady who sold her a flash new tartan collar for Doogie! 

The Christmas carols and songs were blaring, the gluhwein was flowing and after a while
their legs were wobbling! 

We all know that they are “cheap drunks” and those small cups lasted along time!

It’s hard not to get “photobombed” in these circumstances 😂

An inside out pancake and a Funnel Cake with cinnamon and apple to round off the night.
Festive and yummy indeed!

We enjoyed a good few hours there, immersed in the Christmasyness (I made that up) of it all and “pigging out” on the food and hot drinks that go with the Christmas markets experience.

It had been a long day (two markets in one day is a feat in anyone’s language) and we have a mini party planned for tomorrow to meet some of Erin’s friends, so off home to prepare for the next event, tired but happy ….and sated!