It's cleanup time in Vancouver as the city winds down from the two-week Olympic Games and thousands of Olympic athletes and spectators pack up to leave town.

Traffic was light on city streets Monday morning as the last revellers from Sunday night's impromptu street party stumbled home while the sun rose over downtown streets.

Many of the Olympic road closures remained in effect on Monday morning, including the Georgia and Dunsmuir Street viaducts, giving street cleaners some space to continue cleaning up the mess.

Out at the airport, about 39,000 passengers were expected to pass through on Monday, making it the busiest day in the airport's history, 13,000 passengers more than the airport's previous busiest day in 2008.

Olympic teams check in at Vancouver International Airport following the closing of the 2010 Winter Games on Sunday. (CBC)

As of 8 a.m. there were already lineups at the airport, but most flights were departing on time. Airport officials were asking all travellers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport, and to try to arrive about four hours before their expected departure time.

Airport officials said those waiting would be entertained by buskers and performers brought in to see them off.

Party continued till dawn

Police say upward of 150,000 people surged on downtown Vancouver streets after the men's hockey team won the Olympic gold on Sunday afternoon, and many stayed until the early hours of Monday morning.

Traffic was chaotic Sunday night as revellers choked downtown streets, and the Granville Street Bridge was closed briefly as the crowds jammed traffic and transit buses trying to get into the area.

Some fans used newspaper boxes to block one street as an impromptu street hockey game broke out. Police managed to move that game along, only to deal with other spontaneous celebrations such as an impromptu pre-dawn dance party at the corner of Robson and Burrard streets.

About 150,000 celebrating fans filled the streets of Vancouver on Sunday after the men's hockey team won the gold medal. (CBC)

Officers said the revellers were, for the most part, peaceful and patriotic, apart from a one incident in which two police officers suffered minor injuries breaking up a fight.

Const. Jana McGuinness credited the 2 p.m. closure of downtown liquor stores with the peaceful nature of the party on the streets.

"We really firmly believe that if we had not had the assistance of the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch and those private businesses and government stores closing early we would not have this wonderful festive atmosphere that we have," said McGuinness.

"We saw last weekend that the amount of liquor on the street on that first Friday night really changed the tone of the crowd and it was fairly tense down here. We have not had a repeat of that, so you know it's good news for sure," said McGuinness.

Transit was packed all night long, with the SeaBus ferrying passengers to the North Shore until 2:15 a.m. Buses and the SkyTrain Lines also worked into the early morning hours to move people out of the downtown core, and the Canada Line ran throughout the night without shutting down carrying departing visitors to the airport.

Protesters moved on

Meanwhile anti-Olympic activists made one last protest march through downtown Vancouver on Sunday, but their demonstration was largely drowned out by hockey fans, as Canada battled the United States on the ice.

Chants of "Homes, not games," were answered with comebacks of "Get a job," "Take a hike" and choruses of O Canada.

The demonstration continued through the night as protesters blocked all but one lane on Hastings Street, stopping traffic as they called for an end to homelessness.

Police and police dogs showed up 4:45 a.m. and asked the demonstrators to move back, and they complied.

With files from The Canadian Press