Seattle

Seattle – 10^th May

We were due to arrive in Seattle at noon but due to heavy winds during the night, we did not arrive until after 1.00pm. After the usual delay with U.S. immigration, we were not able to get off the ship until gone 2.00pm. Needless to say the cruisers were not happy queuing for an hour to get off the ship. However, we finally got ashore and boarded our coach for today’s excursion which was Seattle by Land and Sea.

The weather on our arrival was rather overcast and miserable and did not bode well for our trip, but as we got on board our boat the weather cleared and we had beautiful views of the city from the boat. We were even privileged to see Mount Rainier, which according to the locals is a very rare event in a city well known for its rain. The mountain appears to be floating in the sky. (see photos)

During the cruise around the bay we saw views of the Space Needle and the hotel the Beetles stayed at, where they famously went fishing from their bedroom window. We then passed the industrial end of town where Geoffrey viewed with interest the new container terminal, before returning to the quayside to reboard our coach. We then drive through the city seeing the headquarters of Amazon and other landmarks, before arriving at Pike Place Market, the country’s oldest public market. Here we decided to leave the tour and make our own way back to the ship.

The Market housed stalls selling flowers, especially exotic tulips (we understand Seattle is the second largest producer of tulips), fruit and vegetables, and crafts of many types. The market is well known for its fish of all shapes and sizes, including large salmon, huge prawns, enormous crabs and lobsters and ginormous crayfish – I think I have now run out of adjectives which describe the really fantastic fish on display.

Feeling in need of refreshments we went out of the market looked in at the first ever Starbucks (in the world) and went to the Hard Rock Café where we had a well earned drink before deciding to have a light snack?????????? as we would be too late to have a meal on the ship on our return.

After wandering around the town for a little while we caught the shuttle bus back to our ship………….. As it happens on our return we were advised that there had been a little industrial action taken by the waiters on board and the first dinner sitting had been cancelled, so we were glad that we had had the snack???? in town.