Visiting „Foodie Town“ Seattle

Seattle for sure is a culinary heaven in a scenic location. Fish and seafood in abundance, coffee, beer, wine and very creative restaurant chefs. On our 2-day-postfam tour (organized by GoWest) we had a chance to experience what Seattle has to offer, not only in regard to food and drinks but also in regard to culture and art. The colorful group consisted of 14 people, 6 from China, two from France, one each from El Salvator, India, Great Britain and America.

Seattle didn’t live up to its reputation yesterday, fortunately, the weather was just gorgeous: dark blue skies, sunshine and up to 60 F!!! Haven’t seen the „Emerald City“ at the Puget Sound in the sun before. Second highlight was the hotel, a Pan Pacific in Seattle downtown. Wished we could have stayed for a week instead of 9 or 10 hours at night!

The program was nicely organized and highly interesting. We started after pick-up in our Tacoma congress hotel with a superb lunch in the Brave Horse Tavern (of course, including local brews), continued with one of these - frankly, a bit hyped – „Duck Tours“, where you dip into the water after having toured the land. We were cruising on Lake Union and admired the famous (and horrendously expensive) houseboats. "Sleepless in Seattle" was filmed here.

Pike Place Market is one of the biggest markets in the U.S., a combination of food (fish, meats, veggies/fruit etc.), speciality shops and souvenir/handicraft/kitsch. On our "Savor Seattle Food Tour" we stopped at a couple of stores and restaurants in the market area and tasted different things: salmon, clam chowder and bisque, mini donuts, peperoni & „landjagers“ at a butcher’s store, „handmade“ cheese and mac&cheese, Deli Sandwiches and crabcakes …

A sunset ride on the Ferris Wheel at the Pier was followed by a dinner cruise. Though nobody in the group was really interested in the buffet anymore (probably more in the wines), it was a great boat trip in the Pudget Sound. Night skyline of Seattle was spectacular.

At 7:30 am we had to leave our luxurious hotel room to get a tour and breakfast (salmon eggs benedict) at the Chihuly Museum. That’s one of the greatest museums we’ve ever seen, exhibitions not only indoors but also in a glasshouse and in a garden area. Gorgeous glass work in huge dimensions and amazing colors. Dale Chihuly (72), the glass artist, was born in Tacoma but lives in Seattle. He also seems to be an avid collector of a lot of different things, like valuable Pendleton blankets and Curtis photos but also of more profane items like pocketknives, bottle openers, porcellan figurines, accordeons etc. These collections are presented in the museum’s café.

On the observation deck of the Space Needle we would have prefered yesterday’s weather but, nevertheless, the view up there is great. The EMP Museum (Experience Music Project) at the basis of the Space Needle is apparently the fullflilling of a dream of Paul Allen, the founder of Microsoft. He not only commissioned famous architect Frank Gehry to build it, but also provided it with an event stage, with studio space for visitors to play different music instruments and with a great collection of musical items of all kinds and memorabilia of pop icons like Jimmy Hendrix, Nirvana and other famous groups of the 1990ies when the Seattle Grunge became famous. Allen also seems to be into Science Fiction and a collection of items of different kinds is shown as well.

Museum of Flight - Boeings birthplace. Huge collection of airplanes outdoors and indoors, but even more interesting is the historical exhibition in the „Red Barn“ where William E. Boeing founded the company in the early 20th century. After lunch there we tried to get on Airforce One, but because of our tight itinerary and the long lines in front of the plane we decided to inspect the Concorde instead. Wondering why they skipped operation completely, would be nice to only fly 4 or 5 hours to the U.S. instead of 10 or more.

Tour concluded at 5 pm at a hotel close to the Airport. We've spent two great days in Seattle!