More of Seattle

Having  spent further time in Seattle and talked to quite a few people, the clear conclusion is that one's  affection for a place grows with time. True the planners here in my (humble) opinion badly decided to build two dual carriageways  stacked on top of one another on the habour side of the city which make walking next to the sea here quite unpleasant compared with almost anywhere else by the sea I have ever visited, yet walking parallel with the sea uphill a little, the atmosphere is scintillating.

Visiting the catholic Cathedral which was quite a long steep uphill walk and then the City catholic church which is downhill, was a reminder of how much we all have in   common. The lady receptionist  in the  church had a neighbour who had just flown over to England and whose son is about to run in the Dublin marathon so we had quite a lot to talk about. she told us too about the homes for the less well off  in the building above the church.

After  chatting to a Sri Lankan at a cheap but (to British minds anyway) very unusual  restaurant we decided to walk to the market area. At that moment some 6 or 7 people flew by on the sidewalk riding  double wheeled monocycle type machines that were like those which I think someone like Sinclair invented a few years back. Walking by the monorail station which we had exited from a day previously, was a reminder of the mix of the very new and the old.

 The Americans including Canadians do in my view however need to tame their motor car use. 

Previously we had joined a group for a walk through what is left of the original  Seattle buildings following their great fire of the 1880s. The  underground remains were fascinating as was the commentary of the  person who took us through them.

Interesting to note the official time for this blog post is put at Friday 26th October 2012 whereas in reality the date and time here are Thursday 25th October at 9pm