Well, every tourist planning a trip tp Vancouver can cancel their flights and just hang around doing laundry or whatever. The City of Vancouver is removing the beloved Gastown steam clock from its corner at Water and Cambie Streets for eight whole weeks while it goes under repairs.
Surely, every Asian and European tourist will sulk in disappointment when they discover the discoloured square of sidewalk at Water and Cambie Streets, the exact location their Lonely Planet travel guides claimed the enchanting steam clock is supposed to be.
What attractions then, in this vast and wondrous city, shall they huddle together in front of, blocking pedestrian traffic, while strangers take awkward photos they’ll probably only look at once and then completely forget about? The Gassy Jack Statue? The Stanley Park totem poles? Pfffffff.
Granted, these tourists could hunt the clock down at the fabrication shop at Manitoba Yards, where workers will work to repair the mechanical moving parts that have, according to a press release, “worn over the last 37 years and can no longer be reliably maintained.”
Surely these tourists, pissed right off they'll miss a chance to bask in the benevolent shadow of our legendary tourist attraction, will approve of our local government’s efforts to ensure a long and fruitful life for the steam clock, so that generations of future of travelers can all amass at the base to take they’re own awkward photos.
Even if they're not, locals might find these eight weeks a merciful reprieve from the hordes of German visitors, allowing them to walk a straight path along Water Street, possibly for the first time in a decade.
Anyway, the clock will returned by early December, just in time for the Christmas season.
