Alan is napping so I'm starting to writing the blog. Alan will give his "oohs" and "ahhs" in red.
We slept in this morning pretty late, not getting up until 10.45am. It was our first really long sleep in for the trip and we needed it.
The forecast for Whistler today was rain, rain, rain so we were more than surprised when we got up and discovered, although it was overcast, there had not yet been any rain.
We left the room about 11.45am and headed over to where they sell the lift tickets. As mentioned in yesterday's blog, the Whistler season ended yesterday but Blackcomb Mountain still had one gondola running and when you reached the top of that, there were a few chairlifts. The lady at the ticket booth told us we could get a sightseeing only ticket for the cut price of $C20 each which would take us up the gondola. She said we could also go up the chairlift but that it was freezing and very windy and wouldn't recommend it. So we bought our ticket and before boarding the gondola, we were given the same warning by the woman at the gate to stay away from the chairlifts.
We had no waiting at the gondola (and why would we, there is no one here) and took the 10 minutes or so ride to the top. It was a lovely view, although not much to do there as the sightseeing section is fairly small as you are limited to where you can stand so as not to get run over by a skiier or snowboarder.
Deciding to throw caution to the wind, we went and got on the chairlift. Sarah was very hesitant, but I convinced her that we might as well go up further. Kind of scary for those of us who don't like heights and although it was a little cold it wasn't that windy and within about 8 minutes we were at the top. We were greeted by an Australian. Where was he from Alan? Mooloolooba, somewhere up around the Sunshine Coast. It was actually quite pleasant up there and we weren't really feeling the cold. Whenever we took off our sunglasses we were almost blinded by the whiteness of the snow. And it wasn't even sunny today.
There is a much greater area to move around up there for us non skiers. The view was spectacular and I'm not sure whether our photos do justice to the sheer beauty of the mountains and the quality of the snow. There was another chairlift we could take to go further up but it required us walking down a very steep incline, which probably wouldn't have been so bad but the trek back up would have been another matter. It was quite a long walk through the snow to get to the next chairlift and the walk back would have been very difficult indeed.
After spending almost 90 minutes on the mountain, watching the rain clouds roll in, we bid it farewell, not wishing to get caught on the chairlift in the rain. On the chairlift on the way down it started to get really, really cold. The wind was blowing and the temperature was dropping by the second. We were very happy to get off the chairlift and into the relative warmth of the gondola.
Once back on the ground in the Village we went looking for the bakery we had heard so much about. We stopped by the hotel lobby to take a photograph of the large moose on the wall and asked for directions. The Australian girl from the Gold Coast was working again and said she had just been there for lunch but seemed to have great difficulty giving us directions. There was even a map but she still couldn't seem to locate it. She's been working here for 6 months and for anyone who has ever been here, the place isn't that big. Whistler Village is actually tiny. You could walk around the entire place in 10 minutes. After we walked for 10 minutes around the Village without success, we asked at the information booth and discovered it was in the last little side street we had yet to check. As it turns out, the bakery was only a 30 second walk from the hotel and we discovered that we can actually see it from our balcony, just across the laneway.
We both had crepes for lunch; ham and swiss cheese following by lemon and sugar. Ah, that was really nice. They were better than really nice. They were awesome. Just what we needed after a days exercise on the ski slopes.
After our lunch, we got in the car and took a drive down to where they held the Whistler part of the Olympic Games, hoping to get a glimpse of the ski jump but, alas, the area was closed off and is now a construction zone. We assume, like with the sliding track here near the Village, it is being pulled down. As we were only a few kms away from Brandywine Falls, we decided to stop by and this time, unlike yesterday, take the 15 minute walk to the falls. You know you are not in Japan when they say 15 minutes walk and it takes you just over 5 minutes to get there. In Japan it would have said 2 minutes, but actually taken you half an hour. It is a 70 metre waterfall and quite impressive.
We then returned to the hotel to get some much needed washing done. There is hardly anyone else staying in our hotel so we comandeered both washing machines on the two levels below us. Unfortunately the drying process is taking forever and we might be up all night feeding the machine with $1 coins.
For dinner we went and walked around the Village not really sure what we wanted. We ended up at the Irish Pub and had 2 for 1 fish and chips. Gotta be happy with that. There was a live band playing there while we ate. Not sure, but it could have been U2.
Tomorrow we bid Whistler a sad farewell as we make a very long drive to Sun Peaks. It is really just a stopover night as we drive on to Jasper the next day. Not too sure what sort of blog information we will have tomorrow but here's hoping we see something good to report on the drive.
We've decided that maybe we need to learn how to ski because it looks like so much fun. I'll be fine, but Sarah will have problems galore given how clumsy and accident prone she is. Oh and Sarah wants to move here to live. I don't mind it for a couple of days holiday, but there's no way I want to live somewhere cold.
I am not the accident prone one. Injuries suffered from Sarah while we have been together 0
Injuries suffered by Alan - 4
One last thing I should mention is the water here. My hair has never been so soft or shiny. I think I need to bottle a lot of it and bring it home.
We slept in this morning pretty late, not getting up until 10.45am. It was our first really long sleep in for the trip and we needed it.
The forecast for Whistler today was rain, rain, rain so we were more than surprised when we got up and discovered, although it was overcast, there had not yet been any rain.
We left the room about 11.45am and headed over to where they sell the lift tickets. As mentioned in yesterday's blog, the Whistler season ended yesterday but Blackcomb Mountain still had one gondola running and when you reached the top of that, there were a few chairlifts. The lady at the ticket booth told us we could get a sightseeing only ticket for the cut price of $C20 each which would take us up the gondola. She said we could also go up the chairlift but that it was freezing and very windy and wouldn't recommend it. So we bought our ticket and before boarding the gondola, we were given the same warning by the woman at the gate to stay away from the chairlifts.
We had no waiting at the gondola (and why would we, there is no one here) and took the 10 minutes or so ride to the top. It was a lovely view, although not much to do there as the sightseeing section is fairly small as you are limited to where you can stand so as not to get run over by a skiier or snowboarder.
Deciding to throw caution to the wind, we went and got on the chairlift. Sarah was very hesitant, but I convinced her that we might as well go up further. Kind of scary for those of us who don't like heights and although it was a little cold it wasn't that windy and within about 8 minutes we were at the top. We were greeted by an Australian. Where was he from Alan? Mooloolooba, somewhere up around the Sunshine Coast. It was actually quite pleasant up there and we weren't really feeling the cold. Whenever we took off our sunglasses we were almost blinded by the whiteness of the snow. And it wasn't even sunny today.
There is a much greater area to move around up there for us non skiers. The view was spectacular and I'm not sure whether our photos do justice to the sheer beauty of the mountains and the quality of the snow. There was another chairlift we could take to go further up but it required us walking down a very steep incline, which probably wouldn't have been so bad but the trek back up would have been another matter. It was quite a long walk through the snow to get to the next chairlift and the walk back would have been very difficult indeed.
After spending almost 90 minutes on the mountain, watching the rain clouds roll in, we bid it farewell, not wishing to get caught on the chairlift in the rain. On the chairlift on the way down it started to get really, really cold. The wind was blowing and the temperature was dropping by the second. We were very happy to get off the chairlift and into the relative warmth of the gondola.
Once back on the ground in the Village we went looking for the bakery we had heard so much about. We stopped by the hotel lobby to take a photograph of the large moose on the wall and asked for directions. The Australian girl from the Gold Coast was working again and said she had just been there for lunch but seemed to have great difficulty giving us directions. There was even a map but she still couldn't seem to locate it. She's been working here for 6 months and for anyone who has ever been here, the place isn't that big. Whistler Village is actually tiny. You could walk around the entire place in 10 minutes. After we walked for 10 minutes around the Village without success, we asked at the information booth and discovered it was in the last little side street we had yet to check. As it turns out, the bakery was only a 30 second walk from the hotel and we discovered that we can actually see it from our balcony, just across the laneway.
We both had crepes for lunch; ham and swiss cheese following by lemon and sugar. Ah, that was really nice. They were better than really nice. They were awesome. Just what we needed after a days exercise on the ski slopes.
After our lunch, we got in the car and took a drive down to where they held the Whistler part of the Olympic Games, hoping to get a glimpse of the ski jump but, alas, the area was closed off and is now a construction zone. We assume, like with the sliding track here near the Village, it is being pulled down. As we were only a few kms away from Brandywine Falls, we decided to stop by and this time, unlike yesterday, take the 15 minute walk to the falls. You know you are not in Japan when they say 15 minutes walk and it takes you just over 5 minutes to get there. In Japan it would have said 2 minutes, but actually taken you half an hour. It is a 70 metre waterfall and quite impressive.
We then returned to the hotel to get some much needed washing done. There is hardly anyone else staying in our hotel so we comandeered both washing machines on the two levels below us. Unfortunately the drying process is taking forever and we might be up all night feeding the machine with $1 coins.
For dinner we went and walked around the Village not really sure what we wanted. We ended up at the Irish Pub and had 2 for 1 fish and chips. Gotta be happy with that. There was a live band playing there while we ate. Not sure, but it could have been U2.
Tomorrow we bid Whistler a sad farewell as we make a very long drive to Sun Peaks. It is really just a stopover night as we drive on to Jasper the next day. Not too sure what sort of blog information we will have tomorrow but here's hoping we see something good to report on the drive.
We've decided that maybe we need to learn how to ski because it looks like so much fun. I'll be fine, but Sarah will have problems galore given how clumsy and accident prone she is. Oh and Sarah wants to move here to live. I don't mind it for a couple of days holiday, but there's no way I want to live somewhere cold.
I am not the accident prone one. Injuries suffered from Sarah while we have been together 0
Injuries suffered by Alan - 4
One last thing I should mention is the water here. My hair has never been so soft or shiny. I think I need to bottle a lot of it and bring it home.
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