From entrepreneurs to entertainers, gourmet restaurants to music superstars, this west coast city is top of the pops.
There must be something in the water – in this case, wide, scenic Puget Sound – that inspires the good folk of Seattle, Washington, to become entrepreneurial, entertaining and, in some cases, downright eccentric. For it was there that Starbucks first started serving coffee, Boeing launched industry-changing aircraft, Jimi Hendrix and Grunge music first made their mark and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates lives and invites visitors into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitors Center.
The Holland America Eurodam cruises out of Seattle
That’s not to forget the Emerald City’s odd added attractions: Bill Speidel’s Underground Tours, which highlight, among other things, pioneer plumbing problems; the vendors of Pike Place Market, who delight tourists with their fish-tossing antics; the giant troll sculpture under a Fremont neighbourhood bridge; and the waterfront neighbourhood Gum Wall adorned with regularly updated rainbow-coloured, chewing-gum graffiti.
Let’s start where the city started – in Pioneer Square. In the 19th century, Seattle was a rip-roaring, lumber-producing, jerry-built frontier town. The timber dragged from hillsides down what became known as ‘skid row’ created mud slides; the plumbing was so inadequate, indeed explosive, that residents were sometimes catapulted from their toilet seats; and a catastrophic fire wiped out the central business area in 1889. The only option was a total rebuild 22 feet above the existing town, which was partly financed by the local ladies of easy virtue.
We learned this by joining Bill Speidel’s under-the-streets tour, emerging back into the square to find a bust of Native American Chief Seattle, numerous art galleries and the Central Saloon, popular with miners during the Gold Rush and now festooned with memorabilia of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and other musicians who performed there.
The landmark Space Needle is near the Frank Gehry-designed Museum of Pop Culture
To learn more about the music scene, we headed for the Museum of Pop Culture, set in a futuristic metal building designed by Frank Gehry and encompassing exhibitions about Hendrix and David Bowie as well as ones featuring everything from sci-fi to the Muppets puppets.
The breathtaking indoor and outdoor glass sculptures of local artist Dale Chihuly are permanently on display at the nearby Chihuly Garden and Glass, where we enjoyed a light lunch in Collections Café surrounded by the sculptor’s eclectic memorabilia. Both these attractions and the nearby interactive Pacific Science Center are towered over by the iconic 1962 World’s Fair landmark, the Space Needle. From its 520ft-high Observation Deck there are splendid views of the city; its renovated revolving SkyCity restaurant will reopen this spring.
Mike Kane, one of the seafood vendors at Pike Place Market
The best-known Seattle waterfront attraction is colourful Pike Place Market where we applauded the famous fish tossers, sampled local delicacies, cruised the funky shops and enjoyed great seafood in the neighbourhood restaurants.
Then it was time to watch frolicking sea otters in the Seattle Aquarium, take a Wings Over Washington virtual reality tour, enjoy the waterfront scenery from an enclosed gondola on the Seattle Great Wheel and cruise past the marinas and numerous cruise ships at anchor on an Argosy Cruises Harbor Tour.
So much to enjoy in only four days – so much more to come back again to savour.
