City Break - Seattle with a Kiss

Seattle is maybe a place that many people wouldn't consider visiting as a tourist but in May 2007 I decided to have a look and spent a week there. Well its a trip i really enjoyed and managed to fill my time in with no problem at all.

It as the nickname "The Rainy City" but despite forcasts predicting rain and a few cloudy days I never saw a drop. 

I like walking to explore places and must warn people its very hilly, nothing is on the flat so your legs and lungs get a good workout. On the plus side the public transport (buses) are free around the City Centre so its just a matter of jumping on and off. If you want to go further afield its only around 2 dollars so very reasonable. Always a good idea to learn the local transport system when travelling alone as taxis are expensive with only one to pay. Even used the bus to get me to the airport at the end of my trip.

So what is there to do in Seattle -

Head towards the harbour area you can't miss Pike Place Market (indoor), its really old but interesting to find your way around. Its mainly fresh produce Fish plus fruit & veg but a few touristy type stalls aswell.

And if you fancy a coffee and you don't know Seattle is home to the origional Starbucks, just across the road from the market.



There is also a touristy area that can be walked or you can catch the monorail, its called Seattle Centre with a few things to see and do including a few rides and other attractions. The Space Needle is located here and no visit to the City would be right if you didn't take a ride to the top to look at the views out over Elliot Bay.






Also in this area is the Experience Music Project where you can have a go at playing instruments either jamming with others or on your own, not sure anyone will be signing me up for lead guitar though. Was great fun enjoyed it.

 Was also a lovely big food court, had lunch here on more than one occasion.

On another day got the bus to Woodfield park where there is a walking track around a lake. Its also home to a big Zoo so decided to visit.

Seattle like many other big cities has its fair share of beggars and one made me laugh. While others had boards in fron of them saying the usual stuff such as "4 kids to feed", "vietnam vet", etc this one read "Father Killed by Ninja, need money for Karate lesson", 10 out of 10 for effort, lol.

Of course Seattle is home to Boeings "Museum of Flight" which is a fantastic, never seen so many aircraft of all shapes and sizes, spent a good few hours there.
Its just outside the City so I took the bus as usual, it was quite an interesting journey through some rundown areas. Felt everyone except myself were crack heads, although nothing happend it was a bit intimidating i felt for someone travelling alone. Still well worth it I think.

Of course they had a concord aswell as one of the old Air Force One planes that you could go on.






Another day took a harbour cruise which gives you great views of the city. If my memory serves me right you could get all day cruises up to Vancouver Island and Whale Watching but didn't really have the time.


However I did go to a district to the north of the City called Magnolia and to a place called Discovery Park. Its virtually a large area of woods with a lot of walking trails and I spent the a enjoyable day exploring it. Some of the trails lead to Cliffs overlooking the Bay it was there that had a fantastic exerience, I was just having a sit down and rest when a massive Eagle flew really close to me before swooping down the cliffs, was a awesome sight but just couldn't get my camera out quick enough. Reckon it had a 5 to 6 foot wing span.




Another day i took the ferry across the bay to West Seattle where there is a good beach a few walking trail and some nice coffees, wasn't really beach weather though.

 Did go to a football match but have done a seperate post about that.


 As for other entertainment wasn't impressed with the local music scene, not near my hotel anyway. Was a few nice pubs to eat and one day spotted an English Pub advertising "Yorkshire Puddings" on their menu. The Pub was called "Elephant and Castle" was a nice place but what they served up as Yorksire Puddings would be grounds for divorce in these parts.

You are probably now wondering what the Kiss part of the title of this post is about. Well I was in the Pub sat at the bar minding my own buisness when a group of young ladies came in. After they had got their drinks i was aware they were looking at me, eventually a couple of them came over and asked if I would mind if their friend kissed me.
Was a gobsmacked but as a gentleman was happy to oblige.

They did explain it was her Hen Party and she had a number of challenges to do, one was to kiss a stranger, was nice to be the chosen one.

Football American Style

No this isn't a post about what they call American Football its about the game that we know that they refer to as Soccer. Well as a fan of the beautiful game (ok I support Leeds so some may argue)I thought on one of my trips over the pond I should take a match in, they are supposed to be an emerging nation.

This happend in Seattle in 2007 when I attended a Sounders Football match to see the local team play Portland Timbers and I can tell you it certainly wasn't like visiting a match in England. The stadium called Quest Field was awesome and although it holds 67,000  I would estimate only around 12,000 there, they only actually opened on side stand. To be fair it was their 2nd division the level just below the MLS.

As I got to the ground 3 coaches arrived carrying the Portland supporters and they were all singing and waving their flags I thought there could be a good atmosphere at the match. Some of them were wearing kilts, not quite sure why, can anyone enlighten me.

I got in the stadium and the first thing you notice is that you can get served at the various bars by staff that can actually speak English and add up, don't get that at Elland road. Then you go to the toilet and it is actually clean and you don't have to stand in line for your turn to go. The facilities are as good as I've seen anywhere.

Now thats the good things about football in America, I took my seat (you even get a drink holder) awaiting the 7pm kick off as advertised. 7pm came and went and they started playing opera over the PA system leaving me confused. 7.10pm came and loads of kids lined the tunnel awaiting the players, they eventually brought the players on o the pitch, not altogether but one at a time introducing them to the crowd telling you their weight, height, inside leg measurement, etc. Each player ran out with an escort of half a dozen of the kids and they all lined up in front of the fans in the stand.
It was about 7.30pm by the time everyone was out, ok we can start now I thought, but alas no along come four members of the local armed forces and took their place in front of the players and kids. The announcer then asked everbody to stand and take their hats off, they then played the American National Anthem.

The Match eventually got underway and was just getting going but after 2 minutes the announcer then started piping up doing adverts over the PA while the game went on. This was of course until after 6 minutes Seattle got their first corner when he started playing Queens "We will Rock You" while the move was completed. It was even better when they got a Free Kick when they played a bugle playing the Cavalry charge. These things happend all the match with the announcer mixing adverts with spells of commentary of what was actually happening on the pitch.
It really was annoying.

Part way through the first half Seattle scored when Portlands goalkeeper displayed his Dracula tendancies (doesn't like crosses) and I thought this would lead to display of passion from the home support, I looked around and all we got was a polite hand clap apart from a couple of hundred with flags towards the left corner trying to match the boisterious Portland fans in the other corner.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse as the game was going on the announcer decided it was quiz time and asked they fans a question saying the first two people to give the correct answer at the stall behind the stand would get a prize. About 2,000 people then went running out of the ground, what idiots.

This was bettered ten minutes later when the cheer leaders (did i mention them) started throwing minature footballs into the crowd and everyone started jumping trying to catch one, you could see naff all of the match which was still going on. They repeated this stunt in the 2nd half this time with tee shirts.

One of the highlights for me was when the young girl with her father who had been trying to explain the game to her, and pretending to be an expert asked him one hour into the match "Which team are we supporting".

Most of the supporters seemed to be up and down all match going backwards and forwards for more food varying from burgers, chips, popcorn, hot dogs, pizza, etc it was just one big food party, not sure how many were actually there for the match

The game itself wasn't bad and Seattle deserved their one nil win, they actually played some tidy football, but the American fans have a long way to go.