northwoods2

[quote name='Urban trekker']"Is this possible??

Rent a bike to ride around Stanley Park, eat lunch somewhere in the park (suggestions please for where), then continue on bike along sea wall to Granville Bridge and lock up bike and walk around the Granville Market and then bike it back to the bike store near entrance to Stanley Park. How much riding in miles would this be and how much time to do all of this?"

Yes it is possible but I wouldn't recommend riding over the Granville bridge - of our three downtown bridges it is the least bike friendly - either ride over the Burrard Bridge or better yet take the Aqua Ferry from the foot of Hornby St across to Granville Island - It has a ferry built to take bikes and it docks right at the market - $5.00 a round trip or $3.00 one way.
There are several bike lockups racks by the market in high traffic areas - I lock mind up there and have never had a problem.

After lunch you could ride back over the Burrard Bridge or return on the ferry and then take the Hornby St bike lane all the way back to the waterfront and then along the seawall to your bike rental place.

As for mileage - it is about 6 miles around the park and another 2 or 3 to Granville Island depending on your route and about the same back to your rental place.

it is hard for me to give a time because if it is a nice sunny day and you are a photo fanatic like me it could take a while - the speed limit on the Seawall is 15 KM or 10 miles per hour.

Hope this helps and free feel to ask more question - I live two blocks from the ferry right on the Hornby bike route and cycle this route at least once a week for recreation.

As for lunch - there are the Parks Board concessions and a number of higher end restaurants in the park but they are adjacent to the main Park drive which is above the bike route.

Cheers

Dennis[/QUOTE]

Urban trekker - we are staying at the Executive Hotel Vintage Park and would like to bike. Can you recommend a bike rental shop?

I have looked online and the prices are quite varied.
Bayshore - $16.80 for 4 hours (would require transportation from hotel)
Bicycle Sports Pacific - $30 for half day (looks very close to hotel)

It seems to make sense to use BSP but at twice the cost it might be worth going over to Bayshore. We are renting 4 adult bikes.

We plan to bike in the morning and then head to our ship early afternoon.

What do you recommend?

We last left off in Antarctica , headed now for Puerto Madryn . 2 sea days (Considering the fact that we have only gotten off the ship in Ushuaia , we have been on the ship for 10 days.)

 

 

Once in Puerto Madryn , we were met by Felicity , the naturalist who would be accompanying us on our visit to the Peninsula Valdes. We headed in our van to the nature center , where we bought some water , looked at the nice exhibits and then we went on our away to Punta Norte. Punta Norte is the home of sea lions and the giant elephant seals. However , February isn´t the best month to view the elephant seals. We saw a few , along with lots of baby seals. Our favorite part of this portion of the trip was the friendly armadillo which lives in the parking area.

 

 

 

We also saw several herds of guanacos during the trip.

 

 

After visiting Punta Norte , we drove to the Estancia San Lorenzo , which has a famous Patagonian barbecue and a penguin rookery . Because of issues of a flakey travel company , with which I had done my reservations ( far ahead of time I might add) , we almost didn´t get into the rookery and we did not get to have lunch.

 

The rookery was fascinating . Our naturalist gave us amazing details about the penguins. They were so close , we could have just picked one up. The landscape of this area of Patagonia is arid , with low brush , no trees and high winds. There are many sheep being raised in this area. It is rather barren , but ruggedly beautiful in its own way.

 

 

 

 

My family with the penguins.

 

 

It was an interesting day , which required some patience , as a bus broke down on the only road leading out of the rookery. We were forced to wait quite a while to get out , spoiling our plans to visit the city of Puerto Madryn and to have lunch. However , the interaction with the penguins made up for all this.

 

Last day.. Montevideo coming next.

 

 

 

Brazilgirl - who did you book your tour with?

Was it a private tour for just your family?