Author: John Cruse

After our day visiting the Amish we left Springfield to drive the comparatively short 100 miles to St Louis, Missouri. On the way we intended to visit the famous Chain of Rocks Bridge which is just down the river (approx 12 miles) from St Louis and was part of the original Route 66.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge is no longer open to traffic but is a cycling and walking route across the Mississippi river. The state border between Illinois and Missouri runs down the centre of the river so the bridge spans both states. We set the SatNav as best we could as the bridge did not come up as a point of interest but when we arrived we crossed the river on the new bridge and could see the old bridge but could not find how to access it at either end. After driving up and down the riverside road a couple of times on the Missouri side we pulled into a gas station (as they call it in America) and asked some locals how we could access the bridge. Although helpful they seemed to have no idea, even though they worked in sight of the bridge, but one customer thought you could access it just before you crossed the new bridge. We drove off back towards the new bridge and found no such access so ended up again on the Illinois side of the bridge where we took a chance on taking the first right turn and again, by chance, found the way to Chouteau Island where the eastern end of the old bridge is. After all that effort it was disappointing to find that the bridge was closed (notwithstanding the sign below) which also seemed to surpise the local people who turned up to take a walk.

We drove the remaining 12 miles to our hotel in St Louis and thought we would check out the downtown area so went for a short walk to the Gateway Arch National Park (the smallest National Park in the USA and the only one in a city). This was a good move as we were able to book for the next day our tickets at the Arch visitor centre for a boat ride down the Mississippi river and a timed ticket to go up to the top of the Arch on what they call the “Tram”.

The next day dawned and we boarded the boat, the Tom Sawyer, for our 1 hour trip on the Mississippi river. The running commentary told us about the industrial history of the city and its waterside and how that had evolved over the years particularly since the railways came to St Louis in the mid 19th century due to the construction of the Eads Bridge which carries cars and trains, although now only local metro trains. The river is still heavily used to transport fuel, soya and corn in barges down to the Gulf of Mexico where it is transferred to bigger ships for export.

We then went up to the top of the Arch on the Tram. The Tram comprises 8 small pods that hold 4/5 people each and are specially designed to climb the Arch like a lift but have to deal with the curved shape of the Arch. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top and 3 minutes to get back down. The views from the top on a good day, that we were lucky enought to have, are worth the trip and it is estimated you can see for 30 miles.

After the top of the Arch we saw the 45 minute film put together by the National Park Services, which manages the Gateway Arch National Park, about the building of the Arch in the 1960s, which was designed by architect, Eero Saarinen. The film is worth seeing as it gives a concise view of the challenges of building a structure of its shape.

Next we leave for Springfield, Missouri and the next leg of Route 66.

Copyright: Words and pictures John Cruse 2022

An early start this morning as we had to pick up the car by 9am at O’Hare airport which was a good one hour in the traffic. It is worth mentioning that the conventional taxi is not easy to get in downtown Chicago these days, as many just don’t want to get stuck in airport traffic, and therfore Uber or Lyft are the best options. The valet parking man at the front of our hotel very kindly got us a Lyft cab on his account for which I paid him cash.

Another post Covid change that has occurred with hire cars in the United States is that the rental companies will now not rent you a Satnav so either you take your own or use Google maps. Luckily we found this out before going so took our own Garmin loaded with the North American maps.

Even with the Satnav we eventually found our way out of the airport and onto Interstate 55 South that goes towards St Louis with Springfield being the first major city on the way. It was roughly 200 miles to Springfield. Our guide book told us that we could go off the Interstate and drive on parts of the old Route 66 going through towns like Joliet and Wilmington, which we did, but this only proved to be partially successful as we hit a diversion and due to lack of road signs could not find the old road so reverted to the Satnav and found the I55 again.

For those who have not driven in the US, they have some very nice rest areas on the side of the Interstate roads where travellers can use the rest rooms (as they are called in the US), buy snacks from vending machines or picnic at tables and chairs provided (photos below). The one we stopped at even had a small Route 66 display and it was nice to have a break and sit in the sunshine. It was up to 31 degrees centigrade today so the weather has taken a turn for the better.

We reached Springfield at about 2.30pm and found the Abraham Lincoln Doubletree hotel. For those who may not be aware, Springfield’s claim to fame is that 16th US President Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield and bought his one and only house here in 1844 which he left in 1861 when he becane President. He never returned as he was assinated in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a southern confederacy sympathiser.

A few minutes walk from our hotel was the site managed by the National Park Service where the house of Abraham Lincoln and the houses of his neighbours have been restored to thier correct periodical condition and can be visited.

We then rounded the day off with a meal and, of course for the driver, a beer.

Tomorrow we are driving to Arthur, Illinois, to vist one of the oldest Amish communities in the United States.

Copyright: words and photos John Cruse 2022

We have finally arrived and resume our travels after a two year hiatus.

As the United States currently requires those entering the country to declare their Covid vaccination staus and have a negative result from a PCR test, we had to get tested and complete the attestation required by the US Authorities on the day before flying. This was fairly painless, once you get the hang of what’s required, but of course comes with a finacial cost that was not part of travelling pre the pandemnic. When we got to the airport, Terminal 5 at Heathrow was busy but not back to pre pandemnic levels as far as I could see.

After a good flight, we got a taxi to our hotel and then set out to find our bearings in Chicago. Chicago is located on the banks of one of the great lakes, Lake Michigan, which is the only great lake that is entirely within the United States. The other lakes, of course, stradle the border with Canada. Chicago is known for its skyscrapers that line the Chicago River which runs through the centre of town and originally ran into Lake Michigan until the flow was reversed to help deal with the sewage pollution problems in the 1880s. The waters from the river now finally empty into the Gulf of Mexico via many rivers including the Mississippi.

The river is crossed by many drawbridges, some of which are double deckers, the current ones were built in the first part of the 20th century for traffic and pedestrians to cross from the north to the south side of the city and, notwithstanding their age, these bridges are opened on Saturdays and Wednesdays to allow yachts and other vessels with tall masts to pass through and into Lake Michigan. We were lucky enough to witness this event and it did play havoc with the traffic but delighted the tourists. There had been bridges across the river prior to these current ones as far back as the 1830s which had been made of timber.

To get a different perspective on the river and buildings that sit along its banks, we went on an Architectural Boat Tour. The guide pointed out the various buildings, who designed and built them and for whom they were built, and gave some history on what was there before. This tour lasted 75 minutes and seemed to be very popular apart from the day we went on it when it rained heavily.

Luckily the sun came out the next day and we went on a Chicago Favourites Ultimate Food and Walking Tour that lasted for 3 hours. Along the way, our guide pointed out many of the tourist highlights of the city, like the Chicago Theatre and Millenium Park with the Anish Kapoor “Cloud Gate” (or as the local’s called it, the bean) and we made four food stops for Chicago deep pan pizza, hot dog, beef sandwich and brownie. They all tasted very nice, surprisingly.

That’s all we had time for in Chicago so we pick up the car now for the first leg of our Route 66 journey.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2022

Our second day in Sydney dawned and, after the excitment of the bridge climb, we were taking a backstage tour of the famous and much photographed UNESCO World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House in the morning with a Harbour Story Cruise in the afternoon.

The backstage tour starts at 7am as many areas visited are restricted later in the day when the performers and technical crews are at work. Performances had been cancelled and the Opera House had recently been closed due to the Coronavirus situation but lucklily for us, the backstage tour was still going ahead.

We were told on many ocassions since getting to Sydney that there were far fewer tourists than normal and only four of us took the backstage tour with two others who started the tour leaving after five minutes due to feeling unwell. Rather worrying in light of the current situation that they considered joining the tour if they felt unwell, particularly as one was a health professional.

The Opera House is on Bennelong Point, a former tram depot in the 1950s, and has an interesting history. There were times when the whole project to build it looked doomed. Bennelong Point, which is named after an aboriginal man and has significance to the Gadigal people, was an island in Sydney Harbour and in the early 19th century was made into a peninsula.

The Opera House was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon but was finally completed by an Australian architectural team headed up by Peter Hall and formally opened on 20 October 1973. Utzon won an international design competition in 1957 and the work commenced on 2 March 1959 with Utzon directing construction. The decision to build Utzon’s iconic design is often overshadowed by the circumstances that followed such as the time it took to complete the building, the spiralling cost and the resignation of Utzon before completion. Utzon has never returned to Australia to see the completed building.

The building comprises multiple venues and the roof structure, often referred to as “shells”, is made from precast concrete panels. The shells appear white from a distance but, up close, you can see that they have many tiles, apparently over 1 million, some white and other matt cream.

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We visited all of the venues, the Concert Hall, the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Drama Theatre, Playhouse, Studio and Utzon Room, which are different sizes and used for different types of events. The Concert Hall was designed for orchestras and is home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It contains the 10,000 pipes Grand Organ and now also hosts other events such as comedy and the likes of Ed Sheeran. The Joan Sutherland Theatre is home to Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet.

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As the Opera House was closed for performances there were no sets on the stages but we did get to stand on each stage and get the performers’ view. There were a miriad of lifts, trap doors, lighting rigs, revolving stages some which were still used and other that had been built as part of the original design but not ever employed. In addition there were rehearsal rooms many with a Grand Piano.

We understood from our guide that the original intention of Utzon was for the opera and ballet to be in what is now the Concert Hall and the orchestral concerts to be in the Joan Sutherland Theatre but the acoustics worked better with opera in the Joan Sutherland and orchestral in the Concert Hall so Utzon original idea was changed.

It was a very interesting visit and definitely worth doing with the final section of the visit being a very nice breakfast in the Green Room.

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Unfortunately that was our last holiday event as we had been advised by our travel agent the night before to get the first flight home. It was evident that Sydney was closing down as businesses and restaurant closed, people worked from home and Tasmania, our next stop, was requiring all new non-essential persons entering the state to self isolate.

A real shame as we were looking forward to the Sydney Harbour Story Cruise and the Blue Mountains, and then Tasmania and Melbourne in coming days, but it does give us a strong reason to return to Australia, a country we liked a lot.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2020

We stepped off the train in Adelaide at 7.30 in the morning to very unseasonal weather for this time of year. Having experienced some unseasonal weather in Perth, we were hoping for wall to wall sunshine in Adelaide. We were told it had been +30 degrees centigrade the week before but had changed and was cold in the mornings and only around 23 degrees as best.

Not the best start, but after dropping our bags at the hotel, we went on an orientation tour with the Adelaide tourist board. This was free and was a 90 minutes walk around the CBD (commercial business district) of Adelaide. It was helpful as we were given information on such things as the free buses that do a loop around Adelaide and the main sights.

We learned that the city was built using a grid system of roads. The centre vertical axis road was named after our King William IV, and still is today. Each road either side of this main street has a different name as nobody should ‘cross the king’. The town is named after the King’s wife Adelaide.

The guide also threw in a bit of history of Adelaide advising that it was not a city founded on convict labour from England but populated, after its foundation by the British, by Lutherans escaping religious persecution in Europe.

When the British were looking to found the new British colony of South Australia in the mid 1830s, a Captain William Light was appointed Surveyor General of South Australia and was responsible for the positioning of Adelaide. One reason for its location spanning the River Torrens is the Adelaide hills to the north which ensured rainfall and the location not being prone to drought.

It is is small but nice city and we were particularly impressed by the suburbs north of the River Torrens with their pleasant housing, restaurants and quite clean streets. There is an interesting museum, botanical garden and the Adelaide Fringe was on which we understood to be popular.

After our first day exploring Adelaide we left early the next morning for the much publicised (due to the recent fires) Kangaroo Island and we will cover this in a separate post.

After spending two days at Kangaroo Island we spent our last day in Adelaide visiting the famous wine making region of the Barossa Valley which is north of the city on the other side of the Adelaide hills. The day consisted of visiting a dam, a typical Barossa Valley town and four wineries.

The Barossa Reservoir dam was not spectacular compared to today’s standards but was completed in 1902 and has surprising acoustic properties. Sounds at one end of the dam can be heard at the other end due to its curved shape with the sound waves reflecting off the wall as they travel 140 metres. A bit like the whispering gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The wine tasting was very enjoyable with roughly five wines being tasted at each winery.

At the second winery we had a very nice cheese board lunch to complement the wines. The only disappointing factor with visiting smaller wineries is that they often do not sell abroad and the cost of shipping would make the wines uneconomical. That said, it was still a nice day and a chance to see the countryside whilst enjoying one of Australia’s biggest exports.

Tomorrow we leave for a very early flight to Ayers Rock.

Our last full day dawned and we decided to visit an area outside the Old Town of Cartagena, called Getsemani.

It was a very hot day, 32 degrees centigrade with 86% humidity, so after a hour or so walking around Getsemani, we decided to go back to the Old Town and retreat to the air conditioned atmosphere of the Fokelore Colombian Cafe that we had visited the previous day. The lady behind the counter, Maye, remembered us and, apart from discussing our travels in Colombia, wanted to practice her English which was very good.

After refreshment we moved on to the Cartegena Gold Museum (Museo del Oro), a smaller version of the one in Bogota, that was further reduced due to refurbishment but is still worth a visit. It contained items from Colombia’s indigenous peoples prior to Europeans arriving and the map shows that the gold items were found in many different parts of Colombia. Most of the artifacts in the Cartegena museum are from the Zenú people who inhabited the costal inland plains to the south of Cartegena and it was their elaborate work that attracted the Spanish conquistadores. The Spanish, including Cartegena’s founder Pedro de Heredia, led countless expedetions into Zenu territory to steal the gold by rading the villages and robbing the graves.

Cartegena is so different to the rest of Colombia, not just being at sea level and therefore having generally better weather, but it feels more like being in the Caribbean. The people generally have darker skin and our guide said that this was the natural influence of the West African slaves that were brought to the area many hundreds of years ago.

The old town of Cartegena has many good restaurants to suit all budgets and it was nice to be able to sit outside in the evening at one of the many small squares and enjoy the buzz of the town with a nice 28 degrees centigrade.

That said, if you only visited Cartegena, as the cruise ship people do, you would get an unrealistic view of Colombia as the other parts are very different. The tourist industry has no doubt suffered from the many years of internal conflict. Consequently, the people in the hotels and restaurants often do not speak English, as in other countries we have visited. This presented a good opportunity to test my Spanish which surprisingly came back quickly when I started using it again. That said do not be put off going to Colombia as the people are very friendly, the sights are worth seeing and the food is good.

We then went back to the hotel and got ready for the long trip home which started with a flight back to Bogota and then to London Heathrow.

Adiós Cartegena and Colombia.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2019

Arriving in Cartagena was a culture shock. We thought our plane had taken a detour and landed on a Caribbean island. It could not have been more different to the Colombia we have got to know. The temperature was much higher (29 degrees C) and the humidity was an oppressive 86%. When we got off the aeroplane it was like opening an oven. But of greatest surprise was the different culture.

This side of the country has a Caribbean feel, lots of bright colours, fun, music and dancing. Above all, the facial features of the people are different to the Spanish or indigenous tribal characteristics we have become familiar with during our journey, and the skin colour is darker. When I enquired of the guide about these obvious differences, he said: “It’s the result of slavery. The community is formed largely from the descendants of slaves.”

Further reading has revealed this is an aspect often avoided or glossed over, but it is a fundamental part of the area’s history and makes Cartagena what it is today. The town was a major slave trade port. Some sources consider at least a million African slaves entered the town and were sold at its Plaza de Los Coches. The slaves were to work in the gold and silver mines, ship building, churches, convents, the docks and in domestic work. Owning slaves was considered a symbol of wealth for the rich.

One person on their side, however, was a Spanish Jesuit priest named Pedro Claver (1580-1654). He dedicated his life to helping the slaves, particularly those in the worst condition, when they arrived at port having suffered dreadful conditions during their transportation.

A third of those transported are estimated to have died in transit. Claver would board the ships and tend the sick. There are mixed messages as to the further role he played. One resident I asked said he freed many slaves and asked families to welcome them into their homes as long as they were not treated as slaves. Other sources say there is no evidence of him freeing anyone and that Claver’s role was to convert as many to Christianity as he could. Maybe we will never know, but it is said he baptised 300,000 in his lifetime.

However, his role must have been a worthy one as he became the Patron Saint of Slaves. His skeletal remains are (somewhat surprisingly) on view at the Iglesia San Pedro Claver, in Cartagena.

We also visited the Museum of the Inquisition. The Inquisition ran for 201 years in Cartagena. The stories are too grim to report, but something we can thank Pope Francis for during his visit to Cartagena in 2017 was his insistence of removing much of the museum’s items of torture. Some people might be critical of this as it is a part of the history of this site, but the museum was a destination for primary school children, many of whom were badly affected by the contents. Probably many adults too. Words and images were certainly enough to tell the stories.

On a far brighter note, the port of Cartagena continues to be important today, especially financially. At least 2,500 day trippers pour into the old city each morning from a steady stream of cruise liners, keen to barter for cheap handicrafts or splash out for top quality emeralds. Colombia claims to have the finest in the world. As they do so the town’s colourful streets will not go unnoticed. Many of the houses are beautifully painted and form a photographer’s dream.

Each year the town has a flower competition. The winning building is exempt from paying tax for one year. We assumed this was probably a council tax rather than income tax, and think it would be a nice idea for the UK too.

Interesting doorways with their many different door knockers reveal inner courtyards of running water, fountains and plantings.

A trip to Colombia would have been incomplete without seeing Cartagena. It provided a very different view of the country, its people, climate and culture.

Copyright: Words and photos Sue Barnard 2019

As we drove through the Napa Valley from Mendocino on Day 14 we passed many small wineries so it would not be right to be in the Napa region of California and not go on a wine tour.

We were picked up from our hotel for the tour along with eight others, four of whom were from the UK. Our tour guide told us that we would visit four wineries and taste four wines at each. The wineries were Rutherford, Ghost Block, Cosentino and Fred Razi.

Along the way to the first winery she explained the history of wine making in the Napa Valley which started in the 19th century, the effect prohibition in the 1920s had on the industry and how many wineries were abandoned.

The catalyst that put the Napa Valley wines on the world map was the ‘Judgement of Paris of 1976’ where, in a blind tasting, Napa Valley wines were compared to French wines by a panel of predominantly French judges (9 of 11). The top wine, to the horror of the French judges, was the Napa Valley Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon.

90% of American wines come from California with, surprisingly, only 4% coming from the Napa Valley. This statistic is not so surprising when it was explained that the Napa Valley is only a small part of the wine growing area of California with regions such as Sonoma (which is next door) being much larger.

Now to the wines, we tasted four at each winery and starting with Rutherford.

It was interesting to hear that some of the wineries offered ‘estate bottled’ wines (ie grapes grown, produced and bottled all at the winery) with others buying grapes from other wineries.

The next was Ghost Block. Many of the wineries offered wines under different brand names some of which were the names of the owners’ sons or daughters.

We were told about the fermentation process, how the grape skins were used to make red wine, how French or American oak barrels were used to give the wine a different level of taste and how the length the wine stayed in these barrels made the characteristics of the wine.

The third was Cosentino.

One of our wine hosts said that white wines should be drunk within 1 to 2 years of the production date on the bottle. Red wines, however, mature in the bottle so could be drunk 5 to 6 years after the production date. That is if they last that long.

Our last stop was Fred Razi.

After visiting Fred Razi, it was decided to take another group shot and it is clear that 16 glasses of wine had taken it’s toll.

Day 16 and we make our last drive of the holiday from Napa to San Francisco for our flight back to Seattle. The 60 miles seemed easy compared to the 200 plus miles of other days but going into a major city did involve a lot more traffic, tolls and a 6 car crash (thankfully not involving us) so it took a bit longer than expected. Having spent the best part of 13 days and 1700 miles driving from Seattle to San Francisco, it only took 1 hour and a half flying back on Alaska Airlines.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Seattle and we are going underground. Find out more in our next posting.

We went on the Portland downtown walking tour today which started in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

As our guide said, Portland, the city of roses, is not very innovative in naming its places so, Pioneer Courthouse Square was in front of, you’ve guessed it, the Pioneer Courthouse.

The Square has been a controversial issue in Portland and had only finally been built in the 1980s with the help of public donations. Those donating had their names immortalised on the floor of the square in the bricks.

Unlike most cities in the United States, the blocks of Portland are small so walking from 1st to 10th is not too arduous. The centre of the downtown area was moved from beside the Willamette River, further south and at that time the sidewalks were altered so that they were wider. This gives Portland a feeling of not being crowded even though there were many locals and tourist in the downtown area. Compared to London, it was pleasant not having to dodge around people.

As part of a regeneration plan for the city, builders are charged a 2% levy to support the arts, which has resulted in many sculptures being erected on buildings and along the streets.

We visited the Portland Centre for performing arts, the Oregon Historical Society and the City Hall. In the middle of the downtown area near City Hall are park areas which were originally separated so that the women had a park and the men had a park for recreational purposes. The reason for this was that in 1800 there were 12 men to each woman so this gave the women a bit of breathing space from male harassment.

Around the downtown area are themed litter bins with even a litter bin that has a solar panel to help recycle the trash that is put in it. There were charging points for electric and hybrid cars which were free to charge if you paid to park there.

The area by the river is now the Tom McCall Waterfront Park with the original buildings (that were occupied when the river was used for commerce) having been knocked down. Between 1st Avenue and the waterfront park is Portland’s, and probably the world’s, smallest official National Park which is literally a few feet across called the Mill Ends Park.

Portland downtown is nice and worth visiting although it does seem to have a very high number of homeless people on the streets. The city also stretches across the river and the total population is circa 650,000.

For those who saw the recent BBC show by Louis Theroux about polyamory, our walking tour guide was surprised that Portland was such a hotspot and thought that this was more likely to be practiced down the coast in Los Angeles or San Francisco. We were kept well away from the strip clubs, mentioned yesterday, on this tour. In fact the town has a very pleasant look and feel about it. There is also quite a lot to do on the outskirts, but we must move on. Tomorrow we are on the road again on our way to Depoe Bay on the Pacific Coast.

We were up early this morning mainly due to the effects of -8 hours time difference.

As we are in the home town of the US aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, we had booked a Boeing Factory tour to the nearby Paine Field. The tour consists of firstly visiting the ‘Future of Flight’ building next to the Boeing facility and then going with a guide to the largest building by volume in the world, where four types of Boeing aircraft are assembled.

The ‘Future of Flight’ exhibition tracks Boeing’s roots from 1916 all the way through to their more recent space work.

We then went on the 11am tour with 49 other people in our coach and another coach with the same number. We did not expect that the Boeing Factory tour would be so popular with more than 100 people going on just the 11am tour in two groups. Tours ran through the day.

Unfortunately, for health and safety reasons, Boeing does not allow any personal items such a phones and cameras to be taken on the tour so no pictures.

We visited the B767 and B747 assembly lines first. To get there, we all got off the bus at one end of the assembly building and walked through part of the many miles of tunnels Boeing has underneath and then went up in a lift to a viewing gallery overlooking the assembly line.

The B747-8 and B767 aircraft are now only made in freighter configuration which is no doubt very useful for one of Seattle’s other major residents, Amazon.

We then got back on the coach to travel to the far end of the world’s biggest building by volume, to visit the B787 and B777 assembly lines. Our guide extolled the environmental virtues of the B787, Boeing’s aircraft made of composite materials rather than aluminium, and we saw some freighter versions of the B777 on the assembly line.

Our guide had mentioned that Boeing was currently testing the new B777x and we were lucky enough that it was on the Paine Field runway right outside the Future of Flight building when we got back from the tour.

I bet some of you are wondering what our Boeing guide said about the recently grounded B737 Max aircraft. For those unaware of the story, the ‘Max’ is a new version of the very successful B737 aircraft for which Boeing currently has hundreds of orders but tragically two have crashed over the last few years and the aircraft type is currently grounded by the US Federal Aviation Authority.

Our guide, right at the beginning, said that there may be some things he was not allowed to talk about, so he didn’t. The only thing he said about the Max was that it was not assembled at this facility but at Renton, nearby.

If you are in Seattle, the Boeing Factory tour is worth going on and we were informed that it started when the first aircraft was made in 1916.

In the afternoon we walked to Chihuly Gardens next to the Space Needle viewing platform. We had heard of Dale Chihuly because of his exhibition of glassworks currently running at Kew Gardens (until 27 October). As we were in Seattle it would be an opportunity to see some of his diverse fine artworks at his own venue. These are exhibited both inside the buildings and in the gardens. Highly complex procedures are used to create his works, and it is testament to his skill and creativity that his glass installations are exhibited in more than 200 museums worldwide. We will let a few photos do the talking.

And we could not go to these gardens without visiting the viewing decks of the Space Needle. Built in the 1960s, it was well worth the visit as it gave quite a different impression of Seattle. From the ground the view is of busy roads, high buildings and ongoing construction, but from the tower much water can be seen at Lake Union and Elliott Bay, and there is much more greenery than imagined at street level.

Tomorrow we go on the ‘Food Tour’ around Pikes Place Market to sample the best of Seattle’s cuisine.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse