Finally, after months of preparation the time has come to visit Canada. At 10:15 am Alwin drops us at the Amsterdam Airport, after which we quickly check in. Our seats are in the middle of the Martinair's 767 Boeing. First we do some tax-free shopping before boarding the plane. At 12:25 PM the plane takes off and after a long flight with a little bit rough end we land at 12:55 PM local time on Vancouver International Airport (it's 09:55 PM in the Netherlands). Due to a small delay next to some totem poles we have to wait for about 30 minutes to get our "king" fullsize car at Alamo's car rentals. But is was worth while waiting, we got a nice white Buick Ultra with leather seats, cd player, climate control, cruise control and only 27,000 kilometres on the odometer. At the beginning we have to get used of the size of the car, but after a while the car is riding superb and we drive to our first hotel. The non-smoking room appears to be less non-smoking we expected so we changed it for another non-smoking room. Quickly we freshen up and go to the Subway for a delicious footlong. This is a kind of baguette with meat, sauce and salad and taste much better then the airplane food. To sample the atmosphere of of the city we walk to downtown Vancouver. You even find a huge underground mall where they sell all kind of things. We take a cup of coffee at our favourite Starbucks coffee shop and get some water for the next day. We are almost 22 hours awake, so it's time to sleep. By now it's 6 o'clock in the morning in the Netherlands! Before we go to sleep we quickly we make a plan of action for tomorrow. We decided to walk a lot (again!).