Almanac Travel: 20 Photos from 3 Days in Seattle

 

From Portland it’s a nice four hour train ride up the west coast north to Seattle. Set on the water and similar to Hobart, we stayed in an area on the western side which is joined by a bridge not dissimilar to the Derwent.

 

 

Public transport isn’t great, just buses mainly but everything is fairly compact. There is a strong hippie element to the city. Marijuana is legal to buy just like Portland and the beautiful mountains and forests of Washington State attract plenty of people looking for an alternative lifestyle. The famous Space Needle is a good start to get an overview of Seattle and beyond. On a clear day you can see Mt Rainier.

 

 

At the base of The Space Needle is The Museum of Pop Culture. Tons of artefacts and photos to thrill the music and film lover such as the axe used in The Shining and legendary rock photographer Mick Rock’s work. I especially love this photo of a kid in England, late ’60s doing his best David Bowie impersonation. There’s also a spectacular sculpture made up of old guitars in the entry to the museum. The Seattle Seahawks in the NFL also have an impressive display.

 

 

Just north of the city is where the film Sleepless in Seattle was filmed. There’s more expansive water and large parklands to chill out. Under a bridge is a famous sculpture made from rock known as The Fremont Troll. Another excellent sculpture in Fremont is of Lenin with blood on his left hand. Fremont is quirky, laid back and right next to the Lenin statue you can get the most extraordinarily good sandwich.

 

 

Back towards the city is The Seattle Art Museum with its distinctive sculpture at the entrance. There happened to be a Yayoi Kusama exhibition on. Kusama is an artist we fell in love with in Japan and there was lots of fine contemporary art to see along with her exhibition as well as Aboriginal paintings on display.

 

 

For Lynda the visit to the Pike Street markets was quite emotional. The famous fish stall at the market is renowned for its fun culture and team work. They designed a leadership program called the FISH philosophy for any workplace. Lynda taught at Cowes Primary on Phillip Island for twenty years and they adopted the program with enormous results. She spoke to one of the Pike Street team who was genuinely keen to hear about its success from the other side of the world.

 

 

Where we stayed on the west side is virtually an island and there was an annual pirates day that attracted a few thousand people.

 

 

Finally one of the things I love in the US is the train stations. Early to mid 18th century architecture that evokes images of the old Wild West. These are taken from Portland and Seattle stations.

 

 

 

 

 

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