TUESDAY 14 - FRIDAY 17 JUNE 2016
I have always found cities to be a really important and enlightening part of any travel experience.
The tired old argument that cities are cities no matter where you go is generally a lot of tosh.
How for instance can anyone reasonably argue that Portland and Berlin are basically the same just because they are cities?
Or San Francisco and Darwin?
Or Los Angeles and Jerusalem?
I could go on.
What generally pisses me off to the contrary are those who spend their travel time city-hopping for a few days here and there and then claim to have really "done" a place.
That's all fair enough if you're travelling for work, but otherwise....
IMHO, cities are most definitely worth spending time in and exploring even though they can be crowded, expensive and generally overwhelming, which are all valid enough arguments for decrying big city experiences and in some cases, avoiding them altogether.
And admittedly over time, I have found myself much less attracted to and involved in the everyday fabric of city life, which has probably been as a result of me living and working in more remote parts of my home country in the past few years.
Still, I will never waive the opportunity to visit a great city of the world.
What has changed, if anything is my game plan as I approach.
Once I have decided I want to go, time allowed, costs and ultimately research leading up to arrival are the tools of my trade in order to make the most out of what I hope will be highly rewarding if only limited experiences in a given place.
Time off the bike is the best excuse to hit the pavement and explore on the hoof.
Of the 6 cities I will visit on this tour, Seattle is the 4th and here is a blow-by-blow account of what's been happening since moving downtown on Monday.
TUESDAY 14 JUNE 2016
As soon as I set foot on the sidewalk just after midday on Tuesday, I was glad I'd brought a sweater.
A cold southerly was wreaking its way through the city blocks with a certain belligerence that suggested that only a fool would believe that summer was really here.
Big black clouds also banked up in a queue to the west of Seattle with what looked purely like malicious intent.
Possibly not a great day for photography in this context, but I was hardly going to let it stop me getting about.
The day's main objective was actually to get another repair done - this time to the canvas cover for the new trailer - which had duly split a section of its stitching on the night I stayed at Lake Sylvia.
I had sourced an outlet in the Ballard area called Mac's Upholstery who I hoped could do the job.
First stop for the day though was the nearby Pike Place Markets, Seattle's world-famous (it really is world-famous this one....) marketplace.
Whilst I didn't buy anything, I poked around here for about an hour battling the crowds and feeling just a little numb at the end of it all.
It is a great place to take some photos however and given the ordinary weather outside, I took full advantage....
 |
SOME OF THE COLOUR AND ACTION @ PIKES PLACE MARKET |
I was able to find Mac's pretty readily once I was dispatched and presented my repair job immediately.
Somewhat to my surprise, the job was completed in situ and I was back in action within 15 minutes and once again free of charge!
 |
THE GOOD FOLK @ MAC'S UPHOLSTERY ARE AMONGST SEVERAL PEOPLE ALONG THE WAY WHO HAVE PROVIDED ME WITH REPAIRS FOR LITTLE OR NO CHARGE |
The Ballard area of Seattle is one of the hipper precincts and is full of pubs, eateries, cinemas and record stores.
It also the location the Ballard Locks, which has become one of Seattle's more famous tourist attractions.
The locks were built in the early 1900's to give vessels passage in and out of the Puget Sound due to the fact the saltwater Sound is several meters lower than the freshwater lake system that feeds it.
It is a gravity-fed system that has functioned successfully for over a century.
The surrounding area also features botanical gardens and a "fish ladder" which allows the public to watch native salmon transitioning between salt and freshwater environs which are required throughout different stages of the fishes life cycle.
 |
BALLARD LOCKS |
I made a dash in that direction before the skies were due to burst and got most of the way there and back in time for a dinner stop at the 8.oz Burger in Market St.
 |
THE GOLDEN GARDENS |
I stopped first via the Hertz rental depot in Pike St and was suitably taken with the adjacent Washington State Convention Center.
I then drifted down towards Pike Place Markets again before pushing on towards Beacon Hill with some top-shelf gelato on board from the Bottega Italiana in 1st Ave.
This must be the stuff they make in heaven as I never thought anything would possibly top my previous 50 Licks experience in Portland.
It probably didn't to be completely honest but it was pretty damn close.....
Beacon Hill is an elevated area just to the south of downtown where my research had suggested might be a good spot for some photos.
Perhaps you can be the judge....
Back in the downtown, photo ops abounded as I dropped down the hill and into Pioneer Square - this is "Old Seattle" and has some of the city's most historical buildings lining the streets.
 |
THE EMERALD CITY TROLLEY PULLS THROUGH PIONEER SQUARE |
 |
HISTORIC 1914 SMITH TOWER IN PIONEER SQUARE |
To my immediate dismay however, the display menu read "No Po' Boys after 5 pm due to availability of bread".
At 5.04 pm, I thought it would still be worth a shot and after consulting Old Mate in the kitchen, Marcela came back to me with better news - they could do me a Po' Boy, so I ordered one with fried Alligator, as you do.
It was well washed down with a house IPA and I went on my way a satisfied customer.
 |
DINNER TIME @ MARCELA'S IN PIONEER SQUARE |
My final stop on Wednesday may well prove to be the highlight of my time in Seattle.
For most of the afternoon, the weather looked to be flaking out for the worst and not in the best interests for a classic sunset viewing a bit later.
I tried not to read much into it as from experience, no matter what the weather is up to, there is normally SOMETHING on offer at the end of the day, even if it only lasts a few minutes.
I'd actually returned to the hostel for short while, as I'd already done more than a share of walking around town and by 8 pm, there seemed to be little improvement outside although I realised that if I was going, I needed to do so.
A 45-minute hike up the Queen Anne Ave to Kerry Park set me down for the show at about 8.50 and what sweet timing it was.
The park was as crowded as you'd imagine, as the prime sunset viewing area in the whole city.
Here are some of the results - and even if Mt Rainier was completely shrouded in cloud it was worth every moment.....
THURSDAY 16 JUNE 2016
I'd always intended to set aside a day of my stay in Seattle to run a day trip to Mt Rainier National Park.
Car hire was the obvious strategy to make the 3 hour trip in each direction and although there are day tours running out of Seattle, having my own transport gave me autonomy.
Of the various areas of the park to visit, I targeted Paradise which seemed to offer the best value for money.
My research had determined that the 5-mile Skyline loop was a do-able and scenic trail so this is where I headed.
On arrival at the Jackson Visitor Center just on midday, I was barely out of the car 5 minutes before it snowed.
And the news kind of didn't get any better from there.
Any of the trails that involved any extra elevation (Paradise already sits just over 5000 ft and the Skyline Trail was to add another 2000 to this...) were essentially off limits without snow shoes or a good compass - neither of which I possessed.
So, it was suggested that I consider a couple of shorter hikes at slightly lower altitudes and Nisqually Loop and Comet Falls were the pick of these.
I first wanted to check any sections of Skyline that were accessible from the visitors center - the east junction led up a short incline to Myrtle Falls and beyond this, I could see it was going to be tough going, trudging through deep snow.
Likewise to the north, the trail inclined even more steeply and hit the snow even sooner.
It was off-limits and I made that call early.
So a quick bite to eat and back into the car - the head of the Nisqually trail is only a few hundred yards from the visitors center.
The trail was surely open but with thick cloud shrouding the top of Mt Rainier, any vistas that it might have offered.were killed off then and there.
So to come all this way and have the main attraction unavailable was just a little disappointing.
I completed Nisqually in about 45 minutes and could at least see for myself that on a clear day, views of the Nisqually Glacier and Mt Rainier itself would be stupendous.
 |
PARADISE INN, MT RAINIER NP |
 |
THE BASE OF NISQUALLY GLACIER, MT RAINIER NP |
A little further down the hill, I made a stop at the heavily touristed Narada Falls and then a little further down again made an extended stop at about 4 pm to complete the Comet Falls trail.
 |
NARADA FALLS (AWAY FROM THE TOURISTS...) |
At days' end, it had all been about waterfalls although I had expected something quite different.
Shame is, there is nothing to be done about the weather and the trip back to Seattle was punctuated by a multitude of showers, some of them quite heavy.
With the convenience of 4 wheels, I made an end-of-day run back down to Ballard for a late-ish dinner at a well-known joint called the People's Pub, serving up of all things, a range of German fare.
With daylight up here extending beyond 10 pm, it's easy to forget how late it really is and I probably shouldn't have been eating and drinking half the pub out at nearly 11 pm.
I rolled out much closer to midnight than planned and although the day had been a bit of a let-down on one level, I had made a point of making it a full one.
FRIDAY 17 JUNE 2016
Friday was the final full day in Seattle and I left a couple of things until last.
I committed to mooching about for the morning once the car had been returned at 8 am and used the time to do some overdue laundry, catch up on some blogging and watch a bunch of idiot Croatian soccer fans throwing flares and fireworks onto the pitch during their teams' match with Czech Republic in the UEFA Cup finals.
It was around 1.30 when I finally activated to go and do some things.
First stop was Seattle's public library.
I have expressed bias towards public libraries in a previous posting so I won't go repeating myself here.
Seattle's public library however, sits above the pack.
Aside from being an architectural showpiece in the city center, it services Seattle's patrons not just by lending them books and providing free internet but is possibly the only library I have ever seen that has a coffee shop, gift shop, 200-seat amphitheater and elevator and escalator access to each of its 4 levels.
Whilst the 23rd century is yet to catch up to all of this, I wandered around happily for almost an hour snapping away both inside of the building and out.
The remaining part of the afternoon was all about elevation and timing.
I wanted to get to Seattle's highest vantage points before I left to make the most of the city's vistas and also hopefully take advantage of the late afternoon light for some great photography.
Both the Columbia Center and Space Needle feature highly on the list of Seattle's top 10 locations to visit - Columbia Center being Seattle's tallest building, the Space Needle its most famous.
I was going to get to both if things worked out in my favour.
Plan C was always Kerry Park for another sunset, but given that Rainier was still completely obscured by cloud, this seemed like a poor play.
I headed in the direction of the Seattle Center to the north of downtown.
This would also involve a quick stop at Glazer's Cameras in 8th Ave N before they closed to take care of a couple of minor technology issues.
A few blocks to the west is the Seattle Center, which sells itself as the city's premier tourist attraction as it is where the Space Needle is located along with the Pacific Science Museum, Chihuly Glass Gardens, IMAX theater and the very special rock music museum known as EMP.
 |
SPACE NEEDLE + CHIHULY GLASS |
I headed in this direction with plenty of time at my disposal and no more than a loose game plan.
Pottering around the Seattle Center precinct could literally take hours - it could also take you for hundreds of dollars if you were to indulge even half of everything it has to offer.
I was therefore keen to stick my nose into as many corners of the park that weren't going to cost me anything other than time - one of the reasons that photography is such a great hobby to have!
Inevitably, a ride up to the top of the Space Needle WAS going to cost although I found out at about 6.42 that it was $5 cheaper to go up after 7.
18 minutes waiting time.......no problems.
The views from the Needle were everything they were meant to be, even without Rainier being visible, although I had certainly made up my mind that the sunset, if there was to be one, was a dud.
So it was back down to street level and off to the Columbia Center.
 |
THE SCENE FROM THE TOP OF THE SPACE NEEDLE |
It was kind of a good thing to find out that the Columbia Center was meant to have been targeted on September 11 - the fact that it is still here is surely a positive omen.
I also found it to be somewhat superior to the Space Needle in that you are so much higher and there were so few less tourists.
It is also about half the price of admission.
The Sky View Observatory on the 73rd floor was where I headed to just after dark to see Seattle in all its nocturnal glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment