Culture Days

This weekend, the focus in town was on the arts and culture, with a lot of events to showcase the various facets of the art world, as well as the environment around us.  I took a much needed day off on Friday, and we went to the open house at Ballet BC, to watch rehearsals for some of their upcoming performances.  We really had no idea what to expect, and it was very informal, a few dancers at a time going through their parts over and over, under the guidance of the director, in a small rehearsal space.  It was amazing seeing the power and grace of the dancers, VERY close-up!  As one of the dancers was leaving, she stopped and chatted with us for a bit, giving us some information about the shows, and it made it that much more interesting!

That afternoon, we went for a tour of the Hotel Vancouver, given by one of the concierges.  We got a top-to-bottom tour, literally - from the 15th floor former Panorama Roof restaurant (now sitting empty, waiting for its next reincarnation) and some offices and storage spaces on the two floors above it, to the boiler room 5 floors below ground.  Our guide was full of fascinating information, such as the housekeeper in the 6o's and 70's who rescued a lot of the old furniture as they were renovating to the style of the times, knowing that the furniture would one day again be valued.  Apparently, she found hiding spots throughout the hotel which remained secret, and sure enough, the pieces are now valuable antiques, furnishing the Royal Suite on the 14th floor.

Entrance to the Royal Suite

 

Panorama Roof

 

View from the big windows

 

Control room in the basement

Old boilers - HUGE!!

Some drawings from years past, piled up in the basement

Yesterday, we went on a couple of walking tours, with a very knowledgeable guide telling us about the public art that we see every day, but that we don't know much about.

This pixelated Orca at the Convention Centre represents the ocean and the high-tech industry in Vancouver.

As we finished off the second tour, we were stranded under a shelter along the seawall by a downpour, the likes of which we don't often see here!  It eased off after 10 minutes or so, and we carried on our way to the last event of our day, a look at the bee hives on the roof of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel.  They've got 4 hives which last year produced 400 lbs of honey!  Staggering when you think of the number of flowers the bees need to visit in order to collect all of that nectar!  Our guide was very entertaining and had enough information about the bees to fill the 45 minute session, and more.

The weekend for us had lots of variety, and eye-opening information about the city we live in!