Iain writes:-

The day dawned warm and sunny, 15C at 0700 and it just got hotter, highs of up to 28C. Fully prepared with sunscreen, water and electrolytes (as well as mandatory jelly babies and at least two types of chocolate) we kicked off our public art tour at Waterfront Station with a war memorial for the 1,100 CPR employees who were killed in the First World War - read more here. Building foyers and outdoor public art downtown were next - we’ll look around more downtown art on foot later in the year.

Our route then took us east, along the Dunsmuir Viaduct, past the site of Hogan’s Alley and then the resurrected Union Street Cafe, Pastels de Nata anyone? We had a minor diversion to look at the Russian area, Orthodox church and a community hall before crossing the Militant Mothers of Raymur Bridge.

A key point on our trip was “Peaceable Kingdom”, which revealed itself to us in easy stages, emerging from behind hoardings in response to the gentle prodding of riders. The route was a bit complicated but with able assistance from New Garmin User Tamsin we managed to find our way to 37th Avenue Bike Route, the most bike themed bike route in Vancouver, the excitingly named Bicycle Wheel and the more evocative Big Bike were top hits.

Coffee stop was on Cambie at Simple Love, a patient server dealt with the late morning influx with calmness and precision. Across the road we found “Eighteen pairs of Blue and White Shoes” not to mention “Nine Hundred Oranges.” Unfortunately we missed “Whereness”, this will need to be for another time and place.

A steady ride took us to Marine Gateway - I’d always seen this as a tricky pedestrian crossing on the way to the Canada Line Bridge - or even The Hole in the Fence. Turns out there is quite a bit of art tucked away in what one might term the breezeway, classy place with an Irish Pub, later, later. We couldn’t find “Ebb and Flow”, it’s a light feature and perhaps the glaring noonday light wasn’t best suited to the piece. One for next time

Seven thousand pounds of weathering steel was next, in the shape of a W. This also gave some of the riders the opportunity to entertain their cinematic fantasies. Moberly Park was the setting for lunch, in the shade, and shortly afterwards we abandoned the ride due to the heat and headed for the pub.

Ride’s End was Luppolo on Adanac, a busy place with the majority of customers having arrived by bike. After pizza we stopped briefly at Paneficio Studios to have a look at new works by Mia Weinberg and possibly the world’s classiest mini library. After this we went our separate ways at the end of a long, hot, interesting day. We’ll do another one in Richmond and then Burnaby sometime in the future.

See the route here from Iain’s Garmin 1040Solar