The Crowds and the Sights!

I had another late shift today so I headed downtown early to wander around and see what was going on.

It was another beautiful day showing off Vancouver at its (winter?) best. This is the view from beside the International Broadcast Centre looking across Burrand Inlet at North Vancouver.

In front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Japanese cherry trees are in bloom.

Some guys are lucky enough to have a job cleaning the huge Canadian flag at West Georgia and Howe.

Granville Street is closed for some of its downtown blocks. One of the blocks displays an outdoor art exhibit as part of the Cultural Olympiad.

I'm not sure about this one.

Or this one.

This lantern forest which I have shown before illuminated at night has become a great attraction for kids because the plywood bases make a loud noise when kids jump on them.

Lots of pin traders have set up there wares on the benches between the artwork.

There is no snow in Vancouver so the entrance to the Pacific Centre was turned into a huge igloo to help represent the winter spirit.

However, the igloo looks rather strange beside the flowers available downtown.

Robson Square in the centre of the city is one of the hubs of Olympic activity. The square was designed by Arthur Erickson, one of Canada's foremost architects and was intended to be a west coast version of a public complex like Rockefeller Center. It was opened in 1983. Rather than a tall skyscraper, Erickson laid the building on its side and developed a square at one end with a subterranean skating rink under Robson Street. The rink and square was renovated for the Olympics

The free skating rink has been a huge hit with families and is always busy. It is also the location of a skating show by the Olympic mascots.

Buskers are found at the ends of the rink entertaining the crowds that sit on the stairs.

Twice nightly there is a show with fireworks, fire, lasers and music.

High above Robson Square there is a free zipline from one end of the square to the other. It is generally taking people about five hours in line to reach the front and enjoy their 30 second ride. It is busy all day long. One of my colleagues from the Venue Communications Centre (VCC) did it this week with her sons. She said the wait was definitely worth it.

There are huge crowds all day long at the Olympic cauldron. They have opened up the fence to make it easier to take pictures and opened an elevated viewing platform for group shots.

I guess there is no news happening in Alaska this weekend as I saw the satellite truck from KTUU Channel 2 in Anchorage on the streets of Vancouver.

Coca Cola sponsored an art project to have First Nations artists decorate the classic Coke bottle shape. The "bottles" are displayed all over town at different First Nations exhibits.














The crowds all over town are enormous. Even at noon today the SkyTrain was packed going into town. The SkyTrains and the SeaBus to North Vancouver have all set ridership records. Last Friday Vancouver achieved its goal of reducing the number of cars entering downtown by 30% over a normal Friday. Despite the crowds and the lineups, people are in a great, celebratory mood. The Vancouver police have reported a drop in disturbance and nuisance calls.

The people watching is great. It is generally easy to spot foreign visitors and athletes by their clothing. Everyone agrees that the Italian athletes are the best dressed.

After wandering around downtown from late morning to late afternoon I was tired by the time I checked in for work. At the Stadium Workforce Check-in I received my day nine gift. It was a nice silver-plated VANOC Team 2010 key chain from Birks (the Canadian equivalent of Tiffany's.) They were also having a contest at Check-in to guess the score of this weekend's Canada/U.S. hockey game.

As it was slow again this evening I spent part of my shift outside directing people again. I still find it great fun to interact with people from all over the world.

With just one more shift on Monday before my volunteering ends, I think I will have innocently created the best schedule. When we all first started working in the VCC we all faced a new environment, new jargon, new skills and new people. We also had the huge Opening Ceremonies to present. Now that we have all being doing our jobs for a while, we are good at solving problems and helping others on the radio who are also better at their jobs. It means that the VCC will probably continue to be quieter than it was. I think I am probably retiring at the best time.

The last hour and a half tonight after I returned from outside was very quiet as the Victory Ceremony was over, the crowd had egressed, and the 9 pm Germany/Finland hockey game had started. We watched the Canada/Denmark curling match and explained curling to our manager from Boston as only true Canadians could. We had a good time telling stories with lots of laughs. It made me think that those times around the table in the VCC are like a dinner party with friends--except that everyone is wearing a headset.

So with my wife arriving tomorrow, phase I of my Olympic experience (the solo part) that lasted 25 days is ending and phase two where I get to share the experience and attend some Olympic events begins. Stay tuned!

P.S. I thought you might like to see where I sit down each night and do my blogging. It just happens to be the same place that I read the newspapers and eat my meals when I am at the house. It has become my home base.

Thanks for all the blog comments and e-mail messages.