Vancouver Sep 14 2026

This article is part of the series “2026-09: Canada”.

6 September

I am standing on the SkyTrain Expo Line that brings me to Waterfront station in central Vancouver. SkyTrain is fully automated and so I can stand at the front looking at the mountains to the right and the skyscrapers in the front.

At Waterfront I change to the Canada Line in the direction of the airport. It crosses the Fraser River on which tree trunks are floating, waiting to be transported.

Then I am at Vancouver Airport again. Yesterday I arrived here myself, today I am fetching my wife Annika. It takes some time before she is through the passport control and collects her luggage, then she is finally here, nineteen hours late. Our four-week Canadian holiday can begin.

As I was the day before, Annika is pretty tired from the flight but we don’t have any jet lag, although we travelled across nine time zones. We take the same trains back to Burnaby, enter bus 119 and arrive at our private host’s home.

After having a chat and leaving Annika’s luggage behind we go for a walk to Deer Lake, which is nearby. It is a beautiful lake in a park in the south of Burnaby which you can walk around. There are many signs that we are no longer in Scandinavia anymore: the many skyscrapers in the background, the bear and coyote warning signs but most of all: the huge trees.

After an afternoon nap we are looking for a restaurant. We were told that the local asian ones are all excellent. We choose the “Singapore Hawker” because it is crowded. We have to wait a while until we are seated. The interior is simple but the food is excellent. I ordered “G6. Nyonya Eggplant – Tender wok-fried eggplant and minced pork, enhanced with dried shrimp.” Have I ever eaten eggplant so tasty as it was here? I cannot remember.

7 September

Today Annika and I want to explore central Vancouver with Stanley Park. Again we take the SkyTrain into town, walk a bit and find a bicycle rental shop, where we hire two excellent bicycles for exploring.

There is a cycle path by the seaside that we follow to Stanley Park which lies on a peninsula north of the centre. Our first stop is at a group of totem poles.

We continue around, pass the Brockton Point Lighthouse and watch the seagulls carrying starfish in their beaks. They look like the birds’ versions of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.

We also spot some birds. A woodpecker, probably a pileated woodpecker. Then, also in the forest, a barred owl and finally at the beach a great blue heron. All beautiful birds of their kind.

At the end of Stanley Park there are several sandy beaches. Time for a swim – our first swim ever in the Pacific Ocean.

Now I am getting pretty hungry. We took Granville Bridge over False Creek and get some food at the Granville Park Public Market which was quite crowded. We cycled a bit more but I got tired and so we turned back, this time using the Burrard Street Bridge. After about thirty kilometres of cycling we were back at the rental shop to bring back the bikes.

In my option the bicycle is the perfect vehicle to explore Vancouver.

8 September

It is time to pick up our rental car at the airport. We’ll have it for three weeks to travel around in western Canada but today we’ll just make a day trip. We get a VW Tiguan with all-wheel drive and I am glad that Annika is driving this day, she handles big cities better than me. Our first stop is Richmond, a city near the airport where we buy some essentials and eat lunch, then we head off north to visit Whistler. In my view, Whistler is just a town and a ski resort, the journey there is very beautiful. We stop twice at designated tourist attractions. The first one is the Shannon Falls Provincial Park. The waterfall is beautiful, but what impresses us much more is the giant trees in the park. I’ve never been in a forest like this before.

We make another stop at the Brandywine Falls Provincial Park. First we take the short walk to the platform from which you can see the water falling down about 70 metres, then we take a small hike to a lake nearby. I’m a bit nervous, there are black bears and grizzly bears living in these forests as well as coyotes and cougars (though sightings of the latter are uncommon).

When we drive back the same way to our accommodation in Burnaby, it starts to get dark and when Annika parks the car in front of the house, it is dark.

Norddeich/Norden Sep 12 2024

Annika and I were in Norddeich, the coastal district of Norden (“north”) in East Friesland, Germany the last days. The word “Norden” definitely qualifies that place for getting an article in my blog way-up-north.

Many streets of Norddeich have the theme “north” in their names. Am Nordkap (At the North Cape), Nordlandstraße (Northland street), Nordlichtstraße (Northern Light Street). Guess what, I like the names! Partly from my Scandinavian point of view, partly because I am from Northern Germany and therefore a “Nordlicht” (a nickname for people from Northern Germany) by myself.

Some photos from Tuesday, 10 September, the day of our arrival:

Yesterday on Wednesday, 11 September Annika and I rented e-bikes and took a cycle tour to Greetsiel. The weather was quite nasty for early September: strong gusty winds, hailstorms, cloudbursts and even a thunderstorm. And all that at temperatures around 10–11 °C. Kudos for the e-bikes! Without electrical motor support we wouldn’t have managed it against the wind.

It’s a long way to travel to Norden from our places. Round about 2800 km from Tromsø, my “work home” and still 1900 km from Obbola, my “home home”. But I think, I’ll visit Norddeich again some other time.

Vitskärsudden – a short cycle tour with holiday feelings May 5 2020

Moving in into our house yesterday felt more like starting a holiday. More like having hired a cabin by the sea for a week. And so it still felt, when I made a short bicycle tour this morning. All motifs shown below lie max 1.5 km from our house.

I love the diversity of landscapes you can find here within a short distance. And I like all of them. The last image however is a bit special: It shows the shallow bay right behind our house. Here I’ll plan to have my kayak somewhere.

Cycling home Aug 29 2019

At time I have a project which is located at Solbacken, Skellefteå’s shopping centre outside the city. Normally I take the car because the public transport is quite poor. Yesterday however I took the bicycle. On the way there I chose the straight way. That’s 16.8 km, which took me 54 minutes.

On the way back I chose a longer and slower route. As forecasted the weather was warm and sunny, round 26 °C.

In short:

+++ unlock the bicycle +++ pass the recycling yard (Yuck, it stinks!) +++ follow the forest road +++ gaze at the first autumn colours +++ notice the crossing ski track +++ slow down on b-bum-bumpy passages +++ feel a bit lost +++ look at the map +++ realise that I’ve come longer than thought +++ pass the go-kart ground +++ follow the asphalt road leading away +++ know the sandy shortcut +++ approach the stugområde (area with summer cottages) +++ observe the largeness of some these cottages +++ spot a bathing place +++ take a bath in the Baltic Sea +++ drink +++ continue the gravel road +++ cycle along the small, winding forest path +++ pass Harrbäckssand +++ do not take a bath there (too shallow and too muddy) +++ follow my lengthening shadow +++ push the bike down the bumpy, sandy slope +++ follow the forest path +++ see the barbecue hut +++ realise that I’m in Skelleftehamn and almost home +++ taking a final “spurt” +++ home +++

This way was only 3 km longer, but took more than 30 extra minutes to cycle due to the bumpy roads. Beautiful anyway, but not the route I’ll choose regularly.

Just started the tour back – recycling yard

A broader gravel road – partly leading steeply downhills

Taking a bath (the camera is waterproof)

Barbecue place in Skelleftehamn – a quite ugly place

Almost home – I already can see my green house

Almost like summer Oct 14 2018

The weather forecast was right: today it was warm and sunny. Really warm considering that it is mid-October and that it snowed last week. 20 °C we had in Skelleftehamn today! Probably the last opportunity to bicycle in a T-shirt this year.

I followed a way through the forest that I already knew but hardly recognised: The illuminated ski track between Skelleftehamn and Ursviken. (That’s what it looks like in winter.)

After a while I left this path and walked the bike along a trail marked with red crosses. Red crosses mean, that it’s a winter way and following such in summer may send you into swamps, bogs or even lakes. Although the ground was wet I was lucky. Some makeshift bridges, probably made by snowmobile drivers helped me over some boggy passages and soon I was on the other side of the lake with the creative name “Sjön” (The lake).

I continued to the right, already heading home but with some detours.

Detour 1: A short walk up the mountain Örberget. Despite of its incredible height of more than 40 meters – that’s almost 10 meters higher than the gravel road – you have a view of the Baltic Sea. The rocks were quite wet, probably because they were much colder than the air so that the moisture condensed on the surface.

Detour 2: Down to the cabins by the bay Djupviken. The photo may be silly, but it’s a reminiscence of the kayak tour last week where I carried the kayak cross the road at the very same place.

Soon I was home again where the thermometer showed temperatures betwwen 19 °C and 20 °C. Two hours later I was at the local beach, ready for a bath. After the air felt like summer and the beach looked like autumn I expected the water to feel like winter. It was cold but warmer than expected: 9 °C. Refreshing!

Opening the bicycle saison in Skellefteå May 14 2018

Today it was the first day where I used the bicycle from home to Skellefteå. That’s about 19 km per direction and I want to use the bicycle at least twice a week on my way to the job. Let’s see if I can do it. At least a first beginning is made.

Skelleftehamn – Skellefteå:

The peninsula Kallholmen in Skelleftehamn

Stackgrönnan – here’s the ice bath in wintertime

“Strandpromenaden” – beach promenade in Skellefteå

Skellefteå – Skelleftehamn:

Tour rules: Use a complete different way back to Skelleftehamn.

Photo rules: Take only photos from the bike, cycling or standing. Do not crop any photo. Use only basic corrections.

Some thoughts about e-bikes May 12 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-05: Gotland”.

It was interesting to try out e-bikes for two days. Even though they have advantages I have to admit that I didn’t become a fan of riding e-bike, at least not on the model we used.

The e-bikes we rented have three gears and a motor, that supports cycling in three levels. The motor has a range of 50 km and the supported speed is limited to 24 km/h. The motor switches off as soon one stops pedalling. An e-bike is not a moped that moves by its own.

Pros and cons of our e-bikes:

Pros:

the feeling of freedom. We chose many side paths just to have a look. If we would be tired we could use the motor.
you get good support when you cycle against the wind
you get very good support when the road goes up
you can accelerate faster in many cases
the range is larger than 50 km since you don’t use the motor the whole time

Cons:

Our bikes only had three gears. Too little for the terrain on Gotland when cycling without motor
The bikes are heavy and hard to carry over obstacles. One is bound to good ways
Each “motor gear” is made for a certain speed. It’s hard to vary that speed
For this reason it’s hard to drive next to each other
It’s hard to find a rhythm. The harder you pedal the less support you get
It feels strange however to pedal without using any strength
When you’re speed is round 24 km/h, the motor will switch on and off due to the speed limit
And last not least: the training effect of course is almost zero

I played a lot with the different combinations of gear and motor support and sometimes my lazy self was glad about the motor. My bicycle self however was glad when I switched off the motor and used the e-bike just as an ordinary bicycle, even though three gears were too few.

Next week I want to start cycling to work. That’s 2×19 kilometres a day. I guess I will curse when cycling against the wind. But hey, that’s part of the story when you use a bicycle.

Three bicycle tours on Gotland – Wednesday May 11 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-05: Gotland”.

A bicycle tour in seven scenes

1. To Ihre by bus

It’s Wednesday. As yesterday we’ve planned a bicycle tour, this time north from Visby again. Today we want to try to take the bus and cycle back. We have to get up early, the bus leaves at 7:55. As we hoped, the bus driver will transport our bikes. The way however is a bit unexpected: Two bus drivers lift the heavy bikes on a transport rack attached to the back of the bus. It doesn’t look very stable. The bus driver however observes the back camera to check the bikes and it works, we arrive in Ihre without any problems.

Checking the bicycles in the back camera

2. The beach at Irevik

This stone beach is one of the beaches, where you can find fossils, e.g. Rugosa. There are so many fossils that I find them though hardly looking. (I found fossils however on almost every beach in Gotland.) As a child I collected fossils and it would have been almost impossible to remove my from these beaches. Now I love to look at the white swans as well, but I have many stones in my pockets.

3. Lickershamn

Probably the highlight of the day: Lickershamn, a cute old fishing town where you can buy both smoked fish and ice cream (a good combination if not eaten simultaneously!). We sit outside, it is warm as if it were summer and we enjoy the smoked salmon pieces and the shrimp salad.

4. Raukar near Lickershamn

We saw them already on the way to the sea: The raukar near Lickershamn. A rauk or sea stack is a steep rock formation formed by wave erosion. Due to the post-glacial rebound these rauks are quite far away from the Baltic Sea that formed them.

5. Lickershamn fornborg

Quite near there lies a fornborg, an ancient refuge castle. If you are not into archeology it’s hard to find the leftovers from the iron age in the forest. So I decided to take a picture of the blue flowers that bloomed everywhere in the light pine forest.

6. Ungemiss gård

We pass a farm, now café and art atelier, too. A chicken comes closer curiously. We however want to reach the Krusmyntagården before the kitchen closes and do not take a longer break.

7. Krusmyntagården

We’ve been there two days ago; Krusmyntagården is a wonderful place with great food, even though Annika and I do not fall in love with the saffron pancakes, a speciality from Gotland. It’s really nice to sit outside, have an ice cream, a lemonade and relaxing.

Extra: Brissund bathing place

Next stop: the near sandy beach in Brissund. The water feels much colder than the day before and is hardly more than knee deep. Refreshing however since the air is so warm.

After the bath we head home, first along the main road, then along the beach promenade, then through the old town. The dinner (taken on the roof terrace of our apartment): green asparagus with ham and potatoes.

Three bicycle tours on Gotland – Tuesday May 11 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-05: Gotland”.

Today is Tuesday and the day starts as Monday did: with a breakfast on the roof terrace under a blue sky. The air is calm and warm and we want to make a bicycle tour again, this time with e-bikes. At the bike rental we hand back our normal bikes and get our e-bikes which we want to test for two days. Yesterday we cycled north, today we’ll head southwards.

Right south from Visby we leave the main road and enter the Södra Hällarna, a natural reserve.

The ground is dry and the vegetation looks more Mediterranean than Swedish. To the right there are cliffs by the sea.

With a normal bike we could follow the minor paths, but the e-bikes are too heavy to carry. We keep left and land on the main road again. The next stop is a bit special.

No, it’s not the tree houses, even though they look both interesting and beautiful. It’s this:

Here, in a amusement park in Kneippbyn stands the Villa Villekulla, the house of Pippi Longstocking! Everyone who knows the series from 1969 and the two films of 1970 also knows this house, that was used for the outdoor shots of the series and films.

The amusement park is closed – it is still off-season – but the door is open and we are able to creep in to take some photos. Pure children memories!

Some other nice spots nearby: Fridhem and Högklint.

Now we try to choose smaller ways for our bicycle tour but we do not succeed. South of Kneippbyn lies Tofta Skjutfält, a military training area and the ways that Google Maps proposes are blocked by fences or serious prohibition signs. So we stick to the main road, which is a bit boring. But at least there’re possibilities to get food, e.g. in the Suderby Herrgård.

We continue to Gnisvärd. On the way there we see the large stone ships, old graves from the later Bronze Age surrounded by stones in the form of a ship.

And much more is to see, from ancient rune stones to cozy cabins by the sea.

Later we follow a small path to Tofta Strand, a sandy beach. It’s more than 20 °C and it feels even warmer in the sun. Hardly imaginable that I photoed ice and snow less than a week ago. Annika and I take a bath. The water is still cold, but the sun warms us after the bath.

Later: Annika and I are back in Visby and take a stop at Glassmagasinet, “Swedens biggest ice cream shop”. And they do have a huge amount of different sorts of ice cream, anything from dark chocolate with 78% cocoa to bright blue Smurf ice. The best thing is not the assortment, it’s the taste. The ice cream is real Italian ice cream and tastes fantastical! Attention: This place can be very crowded even off-season.

It’s seven a clock. We cycle to the beach, sit down on a breakwater and look at the sun going down. It will take almost two hours until it has sunken down at the western horizon. A rare experience when you live in Umeå or Skelleftehamn, where the Baltic Sea is in the east.

A last photo from our roof terrace. We won’t sit here for long. It has been a long day and we are tired. Soon we fall asleep. Tomorrow: Another cycle tour.

Three bicycle tours on Gotland – Monday May 11 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-05: Gotland”.

It is Monday. Yesterday Annika and I arrived in Visby, Gotland and planned to explore the island mostly by bicycle. It is warm and sunny already in the morning and we have breakfast on the roof terrace of our fantastic apartment, that we’ll have for a almost a week.

After that we pack our backpacks and walk through the old town of Visby to a bike rental outside the city walls.

It is almost 9 o’clock and the bike rental should open soon. There is however a small paper attached to the door, that the rental is closed today. Fortunately it’s not the only one in Visby. We walk again through the beautiful old town to another bike rental at the harbour.

This bike rental is open. Annika and I want to try out e-bikes, partly for curiosity, partly because of “holiday laziness”. Just this day all e-bikes have been rented to passengers of the large cruise ship that we saw on our way there. We decide to rent normal bikes and to reserve e-bikes for the next day. And off we go.

We ride along the sea. We pass the jetty were people use to bath even though the water is shallow.

Then we follow a bicycle path that leads to the beach promenade. It’s the first time in the year that I sit on a bike after the long winter and I enjoy the warmth of the sun. Just t-shirts, zip-off pants and sandals, that’s enough. We want to be as near to the coast as possible. And it is possible even though the path becomes smaller and smaller. We are cycling round stones and over tree roots crossing the narrow path. I have to stop for a photo of the marsh marigold flowers at the beach – one of my favourite flowers.

Sometime there are so many stones that we have to walk our bicycles. And suddenly the way goes up. Many stone steps lead up along a steep slope and we have to carry our bikes. Now we’re quite glad that we don’t have e-bikes which are certainly much heavier than ours.

Annika carrying the bike over the stone steps

A bit later: We have found better and larger ways, mostly minor roads and arrived in Själö hamn where we make a rest. We don’t have anything to eat with us, we trust in the open cafés along the roads. Själö hamn however has neither café nor kiosk. No problem, we just started the tour.

We continue northwards, partly on roads, partly along the beaches (walking the bikes) till we arrive at Krusmyntagården (spearmint farm). Here’s a restaurant and a shop where you can buy herbs and other products. We sit outside and eat the first ice cream of the day.

Annika rings Ingrid, a facebook friend. We make an appointment at the parking place of the Lummelundagrottan – a limestone cave – in an hour. This time we follow “real” roads and soon we arrive at the parking place where we wait for Ingrid . A bit later she arrives and we get to know each other in “real life”.

Ingrid shows us around Lummelunds bruk. In older times there was a water mill and the creek and pond are still left. The ground under the tree is covered with wood anemones and wild garlic.

A bit later we arrive at the huge main building of Lummelunds bruk. Beside of it there’s a tourist shop that among others sells local fossils. I already found two fossils at the beach and learned that it is solitary corals, called tomteluva (gnome hood) because of the form.

We return to the parking place and decide to drive to Krusmyntagården again, Ingrid by car, Annika and I by bike. There we sit outside, eat the delicious food of the restaurant and talk and talk and talk. What a fantastic afternoon: great food, great weather, and great company.

It is already in the evening when Annika and I say farewell to Ingrid and start cycling home. We follow the main road 149 that has a bicycle path. It’s still warm and sunny.

The next day we want to cycle again, this time south.

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