The Streets Of Vancouver During the 2010 Winter Olympics

After Monday’s Victory Ceremony this ad said it all. Canada broke a streak of no home soil gold medals thanks to the brilliant performance of Alexandre Bilodeau. NIKE was all over this projection billboard along Robson Street that greeted people as they left BC Place. In addition to this ad, NIKE also had one for Moguls and Hockey. They’re featured in the gallery at the end of this post.

After the victory ceremony, Kelly and I decided to take a walk around Vancouver to see some of the Olympics inspired sights and sounds that were being offered to the public during the games. With Robson and Granville Street closed off, the streets were full of people from around the world.

One of Robson Street’s biggest attractions is the indoor skating rink. The venue was packed with tourists and throughout the night due to the live performances and events taking place there.

Directly behind it was the zip line attraction that allows brave souls to hook themselves to a steel wire and zip across Robson Street, high above the crowd. This was one of the most popular attractions as people start lining up at around 7AM in the morning just to be the first one on.

Taking a turn onto Granville Street there were a number of artistic displays including this row of trees made up of lanterns from the recent Lunar Festival.

Also on Granville Street was the Royal Canadian Mint Display which is normally the Segal School of Business. Here you can take your loonies and toonies and other Canadian coinage and change it up for Olympic editions. No doubt our Canadian one dollar coin (pictured above oversized) was embedded in many of the courses that have led to medals for our athletes.

Finally, the Olympic Cauldron was the last stop on our walk through Vancouver. This picture was taken before VANOC improved the viewing situation by moving the barriers forward and cutting a hole in the chain link fence so that people could actually get an unobstructed shot. And yes, Jor El wants his Fortress of Solitude back.

As the rain started to come down hard, Kelly and I decided to take a detour through Gas Town which is near Waterfront Station and just past  the German Fan Fest Beer Gardens where they were not only serving beer, but also delicacies from the uberland like grilled sausages. It’s weird how it takes a world class event to make you rediscover your own town. I definitely had a good time checking out the sights and sounds.

With the excellent weather this week (for walking around, not  so much for Winter Sports) and tickets to Friday’s victory ceremony, I’ll definitely be checking out some more of the sights and sounds (and hopefully some food too) from this one in a lifetime opportunity known as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. More pictures after the jump!