Seattle, The Emerald City

Welcome to Seattle

Seattle is a place I’ve never visited before, in fact I’ve never been to the state of Washington either. So a new adventure really does beckon!

I’ve got three days here – well the first night and two full days exploring on foot before I pick up a car and start the driving part of the road trip.

“Back To The USA” *

I set off from home for a later flight than I normally take, a 16:20 hours departure to Seattle. I’m quite early at Heathrow because I decided to have lunch in The Concorde Room. May as well…

The Concorde Room at Heathrow T5

The Room is as calming as ever. Then after lunch, I make my way to the C gates and soon after I’m settling down in First again. The service is good as usual although my main course of lamb is overcooked. A couple of hours into the flight I strike up a conversation with the chap on my left, which will have some very interesting consequences in a couple of days…

We are delayed on take-off and land 35 minutes late. Immigration is empty however. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport bizarrely requires passengers to collect hold luggage before being processed. This means that as I’ve only got hand luggage as usual, I sail through and Passport Control with no delay whatsoever.

It’s a bit of a trek to the Link Light Rail system that will take me into the city. 40 minutes later though I’m navigating downtown Seattle in the dark but I eventually find my hotel, The Mayflower Park Hotel. It’s just a couple of minutes from the Westlake station of the LLR, inside the Westlake Center. It seems a nice hotel and after check-in and sorting a few things out in my room, I head back down to the bar, Oliver’s Lounge.

Link Light Rail ticket

Having dozed a little on the plane, I’m still very awake at what is 5.30 am on my body clock. I soon strike up a conversation with the guy on my right, Todd. Apart from every fourth word or so being “fuck”, he’s good to talk to. He quickly warns me about the streets around the hotel as being full of homeless people and drug addicts. He seems genuinely scared. His biggest concern is that if a homeless junkie attacks him – he says he can ‘handle’ himself – and he defends himself, he might do them harm – or even kill them he says – and then he’ll get prosecuted for murder when it wasn’t his fault. In his words…

Oliver’s Lounge napkin

He’s also very concerned about what’s happening to the USA. Everyday people he believes are still, for the most part, rational, sensible and “in the middle”. He strongly thinks it’s the politicians who are screwing the country up, with increasingly polarised views where compromise has all but disappeared. From what I read and hear about the good ole US of A these days, I can’t say I don’t disagree.

I enjoyed talking to him, we got on and had similar views. It was a nice start to this trip’s many bar stools to come! Todd heads off to bed and after one more nightcap, so do I. I still don’t feel tired and I’ve been up nearly 24 hours.

As mentioned, I’m spending two days exploring Seattle without a car. Research indicated most attractions and places of interest are walk-able plus there’s a good bus system apparently.

Click on the links below to read about the next two days in Seattle:

Day One – Harbor Cruise and Space Needle

Day Two – Underground Tour, Pike Place Market and… a surprise concert

* Back In The USA by Chuck Berry