Travelgal on the move

Shepard Fairey’s work in Seattle.

What a lovely launch site for a cruise to Alaska’s famed Inside Passage. Seattle! This is a cool American city and only having two nights and one day before embarking on our cruise we had to make hay while the sun was shining. I had been told it rains a lot there. No. Not on our watch.

It was a Saturday and our hotel was two minutes’ walk to Pike Place Market located on the Seattle waterfront. This historic public market lures visitors in to taste, smell and see the local delights.

The seafood on display and being purchased out of the stalls at a rapid rate is stupendous – bold crustaceans sit atop piles of glistening crushed ice, and the royalty of Alaskan edible aquatic gems – salmon – stretches  languidly across the ice with shellfish, mussels, lobsters and crab deferring politely to the salmon steaks and indeed the entire beast – handsome fish it is.

Half a day spent there when we could have been trawling museums, art galleries, shops and the Needle. But hey, sometimes travel is slow and spent in a particular happy place sipping good coffee and walking off jet lag. And a stroll around the waterfront part of town offers up some pretty cool street and wall art. Most impressed to have a big and bold Shepard Fairey painting on a wall next to our hotel.

What was surprising at the market was the abundance of fresh cut flowers – rows and rows of buckets full of colourful blooms. Lovely. Also tiny shops with shelves of canned salmon of all persuasions and jars of salmon in oil- great for late night snacking in the hotel.

There are many food outlets and the line up at Starbucks surprised me as I think the chain has lost its lustre in the US and elsewhere. But no. This is the original, first pour Starbucks in the world and to purchase a mug there is a fine trophy souvenir.

Seattle has many ‘firsts’ and opposite our hotel was the first Amazon warehouse (see below) for the start up business in the world. Eerily derelict at the moment, let’s hope it will house something innovative in the future. And another first was the first Nordstrom shop in the US. CLassy stuff indeed.

And particularly Seattlish, in the evening having dinner at our hotel’s restaurant, I had my back to the window on the street when my partner indicated with a nod to turn around. The corner had the red light and traffic slowed and on the inside lane, they pedalled to a stop, many, many naked people riding push bikes.

Just another Saturday night in Seattle going for a bike ride with friends.

What to do and see in Seattle (that I didn’t do):

Seattle’s Original Guided Harbour Cruise (one hour);

Chef Guided Food Tour of Pike Place Market (I did my own, stopping at every food stall – research);

Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass combination ticket;

Coach trip out from the city to enjoy the site of the working factory of Boeing. Love planes, flight, anything that stays up in the air for a long time? This is the tour;

National Nordic Museum is home to  Nordic Journeys showing how  Nordic

life and culture has evolved over 12,000 years. No, this isn’t about ABBA. (Seattle’s Nordic influence is most evident in the Ballard neighbourhood, shaped from the past by Scandinavian immigrants who worked the fishing and logging industries.)

Fave find: Three Girls Bakery which was the first business licensed  to women in Seattle in 1912.  The historic bakery is still serving buttery pastries and splendid bread.`

Stay at: State Hotel near the market. Ben Paris restaurant has a good menu and a fab brekkie menu served in the lobby is fun.

@thestatehotelseattle