Travel Archives - Anna S. E. Lundberg

Mini-road trip to Bath (via Castle Combe and Lacock)

10 February, 2017 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

When my friend initially suggested a weekend away, my mind immediately went to warmer climes – could we go to Spain, Portugal… maybe the Canary Islands? Mostly through lack of decision-making capabilities and the postponing of any organisation at all, we eventually ended up with just one night away, and in England. We quickly booked an Airbnb (all hotels in the city were full on booking.com) and off we went with little idea of what to expect. After our little trip, though, I’ve come away with a newfound appreciation for mini-trips and above all for staying in the country!

I’ve always wanted to go to Bath. In fact, I did go there for a weekend many years ago to visit my sister, who was studying a semester there as part of her masters, but she had already done the touristy things so many times that the only thing I remember from that visit was going to buy some fudge! Most famous of course are the Roman baths, but Bath is also known for its link to Jane Austen – so the two of these things were definitely enough of a draw for me to come back and see the sights!

Before getting to Bath, though, we made a little stop along the way in Castle Combe. Voted the prettiest village in England, it wasn’t exactly at its best when we arrived in the rain but it was still well worth the stop and it really is very picturesque. This is also where scenes from War Horse were filmed, with Steven Spielberg bringing in 300 extras and 30 horses for the filming.

Baked goods in Caste Combe — What better indication of going back in time than this little bakery where sales are made on trust (you simply take what you want and leave the money)…

The Old Rectory Team Room — The Old Rectory Tea Room, one of the few places that was even open when we arrived for Friday lunch!

Castle Combe war memorial — The effects of the war must have been particularly felt in such a small village. The names on the war memorial read:
Ernest Young
Harry Melsom
Rowland Pullin
Arthur King
Eustace Watkins
Fred Purbrick
Richard Neate
Stanley James

I found the city of Bath itself to be a beautiful place, a World Heritage Site set against the hills of Somerset and with a dominant Georgian architecture seen throughout.

The Circus is a ring of townhouses (‘circus’, as I’ve learned, comes from the Latin for ring or oval), one of the great examples of Georgian architecture and a Grade 1 listed building. Fun fact courtesy of Wikipedia: it’s the same diameter as that of Stone Henge.

The Royal Crescent, a row of 30 terraced houses, is another Grade 1 listed building with an impressive Georgian stone facade.

It’s impossible not to think of Venice when you see this and, indeed, Pulteney Bridge was designed using early drawings for the famous Rialto Bridge.

Bath Abbey with its characteristic Gothic architectural design. My friend and I were so inspired by the architecture we saw that we’ve both just signed up to an online architecture course at Harvard!

The baths themselves were constructed by the Romans around 70AD, built on England’s only hot springs. There was a caldarium (hot bath), a tepidarium (warm bath) and a frigidarium (cold bath) alongside a Sacred Spring and Temple. Confusingly, for me, there is a mix of the Roman ruins within the museum and the later buildings and statues that exist above street level, which are rather from the 19^th century – though of course that’s just common sense, that the building could not have been in such good condition if it had been 2,000 years old!

The Roman Baths, Bath — The baths would have originally have had a roof on top, making the room echo like a modern swimming hall.

Julius Caesar at the baths — Julius Caesar looks on from above (though, of course, this statue dates from long after the Romans, from the 19th century)

The Sacred Spring, Bath — The steam rises from the Sacred Spring, dedicated to the goddess Minerva; this one was not for bathing.

On the way back from Bath, we made a second little stop in another quaint though slightly larger village (we counted four pubs!). Lacock (pronounced lay-cock rather than the more French “la coque” that I wanted to call it) has also been seen in Hollywood, appearing in Harry Potter (the Abbey provided classrooms for Hogwarts in the very first film, while the village itself provided Slughorn’s house in the Half-blood Prince) as well as in Downton Abbey and the BBC’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Lacock Abbey, founded in the early 13th century

The practical bit

Castle Combe

Find out more about this little village on the website. It’s about half an hour from Bath.
We had lunch at the Old Rectory Tearoom, where you can also choose to have afternoon tea or cake (okay, we had some cake too – each portion was two slices!!).

The city of Bath

The Roman baths are definitely a highlight. If you want the modern-day equivalent, visit the Thermae Bath Spa, Britain’s original natural thermal spa.
Bath Abbey is stunning from the outside and if you’re interested in visiting the interior as well there is a suggested £4 donation that they take on entry.

As far as Jane Austen goes, we ended up not doing anything at all. If you do end up in Bath, though, there are plenty of things to be done – especially in 2017, the 200^th anniversary of her death:

You can in fact stay in Jane’s family house from the early 1800s, in a self-catering apartment at 4 Sydney Place
There’s the Jane Austen Centre, a small museum that also offers walking tours around the city
You can visit the Assembly Rooms, where there would have been many evening balls where young ladies would hope to dance with eligible bachelors

Lacock

Lacock is part of the National Trust – read more on their website. The parking is just a short walk from the village. You can stay in one of the old houses (it was open for a free visit when we were there) or have coffee and cake in one of the tea rooms.

Adventure is out there! (+ news about The Adventure Travel Show 2017)

6 January, 2017 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

*Make sure you read to the end as there’s a special offer for those of you who are in the London area!*

There’s something about the idea of adventure. Going off into the unknown, having new experiences, sometimes facing a little bit of risk or danger and always coming away with memorable moments.

When I broke away from my comfortable life in Geneva in 2013, the very first step was an adventure, a sabbatical of three months of solo travel across South America. My slogan I posted everywhere as I headed off was ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE! If you’ve seen Pixar’s film Up (the first five minutes have me in tears every time), you’ll recognise this as the call of the young Carl and Ellie as they dreamed of becoming adventurers, and the inspiration for Carl in his old age to seek out Paradise Falls. Off I went in search of my own Paradise Falls, and I’ve been having new adventures ever since.

Adventure brings to mind explorers like Ranulph Fiennes getting frostbite as he crossed Antarctica on foot, or Sir Edmund Hillary conquering the summit of Mount Everest; not to mention older legendary figures like Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake and Marco Polo. Today, we have TV personalities like Bear Grylls teaching wilderness survival skills; people like my friend Dave Cornthwaite who leads a community of people who want to Say Yes More to a life of adventure and fulfilment; and, hurrah, more and more women including Anna McNuff who was recently named one of ‘the 50 best travellers of our time’ alongside Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama.

Adventure no longer has to mean the heavily funded expeditions of the past and we’ve now seen the rise of the concept of micro-adventures, with Al Humphreys for example recommending simply taking a bivvy bag and going out onto a nearby hilltop for a little wild sleep, and companies like Secret Adventures cropping up to encourage people to go on a mini-adventure away from the office and the city. There are probably countless other more low-key adventurers who are just quietly getting on with their adventures out there in the world.

Adventure means time away from the daily grind, breathing in the fresh air, getting close to nature; it involves learning more about ourselves and the people we meet along the way; and it often allows for reflecting on what’s really important.

Of course if you’ve seen the Pixar film Up – and I don’t want to ruin it for you if you haven’t, so go and watch it right now – the ultimate message is that adventures are what make up your life, your good times and your bad, with the people you choose to spend it with. It’s not about the expensive flight ticket to a far-away land or even ticking off those bucket list experiences. Adventure is out there – but it’s up to you to know it when you find it.

If you’re up for an adventurous 2017, I’d recommend you visit the Adventure Travel Show in London. I’ve been attending this for a couple of years now and these days I know a lot of the people on stage, which makes it extra special. Read my posts after attending the last couple of years of the travel show:
Adventure is Out There: Insights from the Adventure Travel Show 2016
Adventure is Out There! Ranulph Fiennes and travel companies galore at the Adventure Travel Show 2015

The Adventure Travel Show
Uncover Your Journey of a Lifetime
21-22 January 2017, Olympia, London

The Adventure Travel Show, celebrating its 21st year, is a world of extraordinary discoveries all under one roof. It is the UK’s leading event for people who like to travel outside the mainstream – whether it be on small-group adventures, exclusive expeditions or epic journeys.

The Adventure Travel Show is packed with inspirational and essential travel advice, specialist seminars and the best adventure speaker line-up of 2017, including explorers, adventurers, tour leaders and guidebook writers who will help you uncover your perfect adventure. Plus, the biggest collection of specialist travel operators all under one roof will be on hand to offer guidance on everything, from walking and trekking to exploratory journeys, safaris, overland trips, life-changing volunteering projects and much, much more.

The Adventure Travel Show – it’s where your adventure begins…

I’m happy to be able to offer you tickets at £6 (that’s £4 off the full door price) with the voucher ONESTEPOUTSIDE when booking tickets online at www.adventureshow.com or when calling 0871 230 7159. (Calls cost 13p per minute plus network extras).

Look out in particular for the all-female panel, Women at the Edge, which includes Justine Gosling whom I met on one of my paddle adventures on the Thames; one of my favourites of the 2016 show, Sean Conway; and, of course, Yes Man Dave Cornthwaite.

5 Highlights of My Time in Denver

5 August, 2016 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

My trip to the US this summer ended with a final two weeks in Denver, where the plan as usual was to work but also try to see a bit of the area. As I soon discovered when I arrived, Denver is known as the ‘mile-high city’ since it’s located at an elevation of exactly one mile (1,610 metres) above sea level. I’ve always had an image of Colorado being a very green state, and Denver is clearly an ever-more popular city, now one of the fastest-growing in the country alongside other fashionable destinations like Austin and Portland. The only thing I’m missing in this city, based on what I experienced on this short stay, is the ocean!

So here, in addition of course to attending my cousin’s wedding up in Estes Park and getting complimented by Uber drivers, are 5 highlights of my time in Denver, Colorado:

Enjoying the weather – and the views

Denver skyline — The view from my balcony – not too shabby! We made plans to tear down the apartment building that sadly blocked a large chunk of the view, although I’m afraid the investment required was a little over budget…

I was told repeatedly by the different people I met during my time there that Denver has 300 days of annual sunshine, and although that’s turned out to be a myth* I get the impression that they get a pretty good deal, with four distinct seasons including both a cold winter and a hot summer. The weather was great while I was there, and even when it rained it was warm and the clouds quickly blew over. I would go out in the evening in a vest top and skirt and didn’t even need to bring a jacket, something that is incredibly rare even on my latest beach holidays. The city is located with the Rocky Mountains to the west and the High Plains to the east. One of the highlights was definitely the balcony (and the rooftop pool) at my airbnb, which was on the 10^th floor of one of the few tall buildings in Capitol Hill and offered stunning 360 views across to the mountains, which looked to me like a fake Hollywood backdrop.

*According to this article, the first reference to these “300 days of sunshine” was by a railroad company that wanted to attract people from the East. The true figures are more likely around 115 clear days, 130 partly cloudy, and 120 cloudy days.

Visiting Molly Brown’s house

Molly Brown Museum — Margaret Brown’s house was going to be torn down in 1972 but funds were raised to restore the house and the museum is now one of the states’ most visited sites.

In looking for famous sights to visit in the city, I was surprised to discover a museum dedicated to Molly Brown. You’ll likely recognise the name Molly Brown (although she was actually named Margaret Brown throughout her lifetime) from Titanic, in which the role was played by Kathy Bates. In the film, the real-life character befriends the fictional Jack and tries to get her lifeboat to return to the sinking ship to save more of the drowning passengers; I found the rest of her true story is equally impressive. Born in Hannibal, Missouri, she moved to the silver mining town of Leadville in Colorado in order to find a rich husband. Instead she fell in love with a foreman and they were married six months later – but when the Colorado Silver Boom ended and many others went bankrupt, James Joseph Brown’s geology knowledge led to the world’s largest gold strike to date, and the couple became wealthy as a result and moved to Denver where they bought the mansion that I’ve now visited.

Margaret Brown was a formidable woman, playing an important role in issues such as improving the rights of miners and their families, votes for women, and education and juvenile justice for children. She was fluent in five languages, drove a truck for the French Red Cross during the First World War, and was awarded the French Legion of Honour. Her husband JJ Brown grew frustrated with her activities outside the home and in 1909 they were legally separated. At the time of her death she was studying acting with Sarah Bernhardt…

Taking Banjo Billy’s bus tour

Banjo Billy bus — Banjo Billy’s bus is not like other tour buses, including the interior where we all sat on sofas and armchairs.

I tend to steer clear of those awful sightseeing tours on double-decker buses but this one was recommended to me by my airbnb host. The bus itself is pretty unusual, the tour guide a lot more energetic and fun, and the information we got more interesting than a typical city tour. I particularly enjoyed learning about the early history of Denver, which started with the discovery of a small amount of gold at Cherry Creek in 1858; the girls’ school next to the Brown Palace Hotel that became a brothel; and the Teapot Dome Scandal (which I had actually read about in my research on President Warren Harding, 1921-23, as part of learning all the US presidents from 1901 through to the present day during my recent road trip). We also learned important facts about the blue bear and demon-eyed horse statues (they cost $425,000 and $800,000 respectively, while the latter fell on its creator and killed him); the “wickedest street in America” (Colfax Avenue); and the ratio of pot dispensaries to Starbucks (it’s 2:1, FYI).

Whiskey and wine. And cider. And beer.

Stranahan's whiskey distillery — I feel like I learned a lot on the whiskey distillery tour, and even more on the Infinite Monkey Theorem wine tour. Very educational!

For some reason my time in Denver involved a lot of tasting of alcohol. It all started with a flight of cider at Stem Ciders (warning for the coffee one: it tastes as advertised but I’d steer clear of that particular flavour). I then moved on to Stranahan’s whiskey distillery, where they offer free tours but of course you may enjoy going next door to the bar and sampling a full-size Diamond Peak or some kind of cocktail. There I got the recommendation to visit Infinite Monkey Theorem, a winery started by an Englishman, Ben Parsons, and which produces wine by the barrel, bottle, and can (!!) as well as housing a lively bar. I completed this tour of Denver drinks with a visit on my last night to LowDown Brewery, which has pretty good food as well as the possibility to sample the different craft beers.

If you want something a bit less alcoholic, then there are also plenty of nice little coffee bars – my local ones included Pablo’s Coffee on 6^th and Washington as well as the hipster-filled Thump Coffee on East 13^th Avenue.

Running in the city

There’s plenty to do in Washington Park other than running, with volleyball courts, flower gardens, and lakes with paddle boarding and other activities.

These days a list of my highlights is never complete without a mention of my running. It’s such a great way to see the city, especially once you’ve built up to the longer runs. My shorter weekday runs would venture into Cheesman Park*, which was formerly a cemetery and still houses the remains of what may be thousands of dead bodies. On my longer runs, I’d go along the Cherry Creek Trail and down to Washington Park.

*For the record, there are plenty of Pokestops in Cheesman. Although running becomes somewhat less effective when you keep having to stop to collect the balls…

Botanic Gardens, Denver — The Denver Botanic Gardens are also worth a visit. I loved the Japanese sections as well as this Monet-inspired waterlily pond.

Although I didn’t make it to all of these, there were plenty of outdoor activities going on throughout the summer. Jazz in the Park in City Park, ‘Meet in the Street’ on 16th Street Mall, various concerts at Red Rock Amphitheater, outdoor movies, walking tours, and, of course, camping up in the Rockies.

Ten-Day US Road Trip: Mount Rushmore, Little Bighorn, Yellowstone and Salt Lake City

22 July, 2016 By Anna S E Lundberg 1 Comment

You may remember my blog posts from last year about an epic road trip that I took with my aunt from Los Angeles up to San Francisco and Napa, across to Yosemite and Death Valley and down through the Grand Canyon. Well, once in a lifetime that may have been but we decided to do a second one this year. My cousin was getting married in Estes Park at the entrance to the Rocky Mountains, just outside of Denver, and so this was our anchor for planning the route.

Now I can’t mention Estes Park without saying something about the Stanley Hotel. Opened in 1909, in 1971 it hosted Stephen King and his wife in Room 217. They were the only guests and his experience of the echoing halls inspired him to write The Shining. Though the hotel didn’t serve as the location for Kubrick’s iconic film, that film plays on continuous loop on all the guest room televisions. If you’re interested in seeing evidence of paranormal activity on site, you can join a ghost tour where you’ll be astounded by lollipops being knocked over by the various spirits who inhabit the building.

For the first time, I put together a little video of our trip – I almost get tears in my eyes each time I watch it as I remember everything we’ve seen in such a short space of time (reflected in the fact that I’m squeezing it all into one blog post!). Country roads, take me home!

“Like no place on earth”

Our trip started in Wyoming, driving north from Denver up through Cheyenne, the capital city. Although my post-trip online research has told me that Wyoming no longer officially has this slogan, the state motto ‘like no place on earth’ quite accurately summed up this part of the country. The area includes both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park but that’s not all its known for; Wyoming is also ‘the equality state’, having been the first to grant women the vote in 1869.

Another state that’s “like no place on earth” is Montana. For some reason I had imagined wide-open prairies and Native Americans, presumably thanks to films like Legends of the Fall and A River Runs Through It – and this is actually quite close to the reality, Montana being the fourth biggest state but ranking just 44^th in population of the 50 states. What I did not expect, however, was the proliferation of crystal meth, of which I was informed by a lot of billboards with various messages along the lines of “one shot and you’re hooked”. Lovely. Seeing how differently people out here live, together with the conversations I overheard throughout the trip about guns in particular, I got an unexpected insight into the voting patterns of the country.

Mount Rushmore

Now the reason for venturing into meth central was in fact this: ticking off #7 on my bucket list and visiting Mount Rushmore (“THERE IS NO COUNT RUSHMORE!”). It’s really not on the way to anything and as we’ve established the US is a very big country, so you can’t exactly just pop up to Mount Rushmore. Having come to Colorado for my cousin’s wedding, however, it felt like this was my big chance: the memorial is less than a six-hour drive from Denver. It was conceived precisely to bring tourists to the Black Hills region and it seems to have been successful!

Now, as is often the case, Mount Rushmore was smaller than I had expected (did you ever visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa?), at least from a distance. On the way there, I first saw the profile of a face carved into the mountain but it turned out in fact to be that of Crazy Horse. In an ambitious project that started in 1948, the intent has been to create a monument to represent a Native American hero; if it’s ever completed it will be the largest sculpture in the world. Over at the better funded Mount Rushmore, the four faces of the American presidents were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum to represent the founding (George Washington, 1789-1797), growth (Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809), preservation (Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865) and development (Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909) of the United States.

And the name, Mount Rushmore? Read this letter. Random…

The unexpected highlight for me was coming back in the evening, when all the visitors joined in with the national anthem as the monument was lit, and all past and present military personnel were individually honoured on stage. If you’d like a taster of what this was like, I recorded a video on my phone – it’s very dark, but you get at least an idea of the atmosphere. Just click on the ‘X’ to remove the ad at the bottom.

Little Bighorn

National Cemetery — 263 soldiers, including Custer, died at the Battle of Little Bighorn

Reading about Crazy Horse led us to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho won a victory against Lieutenant Colonel Custer and the 7^th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army (referred to in The Last Samurai, if you’ve seen that recently!). Although we hadn’t planned a stop there, I was happy to see that the site of ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ was on the way to our next stop, West Yellowstone.

Indian Memorial — A quote at the memorial reads, “Forty years ago I fought Custer till all were dead. I was then the enemy of the Whitemen. Now I am the friend and brother, living in peace together under the flag of our country.” – Two Moons, Northern Cheyenne.

Although that battle of 25^th-26^th June 1876 was a victory for the Native Americans, just a few years later they had surrendered. The site of the battlefield today includes a National Monument with the Custer National Cemetery as well as an Indian Memorial.

Yellowstone National Park

I’ve always loved Yosemite National Park but I have to say that I may well have a new favourite: Yellowstone. Its sheer scale and spectacular beauty was quite overwhelming, with every turn in the road offering a fresh perspective and a new type of landscape. The first national park in the US and possibly also the world, it encompasses sub-alpine forest, geothermal features including geysers (also ‘paint pots’ and ‘fumaroles’), mountains, lakes, rivers, canyons, waterfalls… and a range of wildlife including bears (we saw a black baby one), bison and elk (we saw several), deer (we saw many!). We saw most of it from our car so I’d definitely love to come back and have more of a natural experience of camping… but WOW, what we saw just took our breath away. We even timed our visit perfectly to the Old Faithful geyser just as it erupted (it does so approximately every 90 minutes – you can follow the latest estimates on its personal Twitter account!).

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City: another place that I’d been curious about but I would never travel to for its own sake. Of course I’ve always known it as the headquarters of the Mormons, something that has only been reinforced since watching Book of Mormon. Twice. As far as I can tell, everything portrayed in the musical is basically true (okay, except the actual story of Kevin, Arnold, and Uganda) and it was quite fascinating to learn more about their beliefs of Jesus coming to North America, Mormon and his son Moroni (“the all-American angel”) writing down their witness in the 4th century AD, Joseph Smith finding those golden plates, and Brigham Young founding the religion in Salt Lake City.

Sal Tlay Ka Siti, not just a story mama told
But a village in Ooh-tah, where the roofs are thatched with gold
If I could let myself believe, I know just where I’d be –
Right on the next bus to paradise: Sal Tlay Ka Siti

Now Salt Lake City is the location of the Mormon temple, and it does look exactly like it does in the musical set. I found it interesting, though, that only about half of the city’s population is Mormon and there is actually a strong counter-culture that means that it’s no problem at all to find places to drink coffee or alcohol… or do yoga! Since it was only a quick two-night stop, we did still focus our attention on Temple Square, which was the reason why I wanted to visit the city. We said, “Hello” to a lot of very friendly Mormon volunteers who were there to guide people around the area, all for free. Most in fact were women, both young students who were on their mission and older pensioners (rather hilariously, it was the latter who were tasked with showing us how the computers worked in the Family History Library).

The practical bit

I honestly wouldn’t recommend such a whirlwind tour of so many states, even though that’s often what I end up doing; but it did gave me a taster and I now know where I’d like to come back to (definitely Yellowstone for some proper camping as well as Jackson and, more surprisingly, Salt Lake City).

Driving distances, no stopping:

Denver – Mount Rushmore c. 370 miles (<6 hours)

Mount Rushmore – Little Bighorn c. 280 miles (<5 hours) – West Yellowstone c. 300 miles (4.5 hours)

West Yellowstone – Jackson Hole c. 130 miles (2.5 hours)

Jackson Hole – Salt Lake City c. 300 miles (4.5 hours)

Salt Lake City – Denver c. 530 miles (<8 hours)

A few of my favourite places to stay or eat:

Torrington, Wyoming: This was a ‘middle-of-a-nowhere’ petrol / lunch stop but I feel it deserves a mention because of the surprisingly modern coffee shop The Java Jar, where they served great coffee and very fresh salads and sandwiches. They even had Wi-Fi!

Broadus, Montana: Should you ever find yourself driving through Broadus, then keep on driving. Should you for some reason have to stop, then make your way to the bowling alley (you’ll know it by the naked baby doll tied to a post outside) where you can get a really yummy quesadilla.

Keystone, North Dakota: Our hotel recommended the Powder House Lodge Restaurant and we weren’t disappointed. I had the most delicious elk medallions sautéed with apples and my aunt had the one of the best (buffalo) filets she’d ever tasted. I also had a very tasty Moscow Mule in the Red Garter Saloon where there was live music and even a bit of dancing.

Jackson, Wyoming: Try Bin 22 for dinner and drinks (the restaurant is next door to the grocer’s where you can pick up a bottle of wine with no corkage), and The Bunnery, a popular breakfast spot for tourists and locals alike.

Salt Lake City, Utah: The Melting Point was a pretty amusing insight into what Americans think of fondue. Bearing little resemblance to what we do in Switzerland, this was a massive four-course extravaganza that nonetheless was worth it for the experience!

5 Highlights of Being (Not So) Sleepless in Seattle

8 July, 2016 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

I’ve always had a soft spot for the northwest of the US. Portland, Seattle, across the border to Vancouver… it’s been a region that I’ve wanted to visit for a while. I do love the ocean, and I guess I’ve imagined a really green area with lots of seafood and kayaking… In any case, I took the opportunity recently in combination with my cousin’s wedding in Denver, Colorado, to pop over to the west coast (yes, I know, it’s like flying to Lisbon and saying you might as well pop over to Warsaw…). I started my trip with three weeks booked in an airbnb in Seattle.

When I arrive in a new city by myself, I tend to spend a lot of time with my head down at my laptop, making lots of great progress on my different work projects – and this visit was no different. I’ve got lots of new materials up on the website, I’ve been busy with new coaching clients, and I’ve even co-authored a book that’s just been launched on Amazon. I did manage to enjoy my new location, though! Here are five of the highlights…

1. Staying in West Seattle

Seattle skyline — The top highlight was definitely the view of the city skyline from my window!

It’s always hard to decide on where you want to stay in a city that you’ve never visited. I did some research online about the different areas – for example, the Waterfront (tourists), Pioneer Square (nightlife), Capital Hill (gay) – but eventually settled for a little studio in West Seattle. This was across the bay from the city centre, so I wasn’t exactly in the thick of things, but it was just a short water taxi ride into town. My neighbourhood was really lovely, with an eclectic collection of different architecture styles, and there was plenty to do there with Alki Beach just down the hill, the famous Salty’s restaurant, paddle boarding and kayaking, and heading out for some beautiful runs along the oceanfront.

2. Being Sleepless in Seattle

Pike Place Market opened in 1901 and has more than 10 million visitors each year. I had an ‘oyster shooter’, watched salmon being thrown about, and ate an ahi tuna salad at one of the restaurants inside.

In my usual commitment to learning about a new location, I immediately set about watching Sleepless in Seattle on my first night in the city. The fashion may have changed (it was released in 1993) but the love story is timeless! There are plenty of movie locations to discover around town, and I did my best to seek them out: lunch at the Athenian Inn inside Pike Place Market, Seattle’s most popular tourist destination and the 33^rd most visited tourist attraction in the world (according to my other trusted source of information, Wikipedia); dinner at Dahlia Lounge, which has unfortunately moved since it was used in the film; the airport (exciting!); and Alki Beach Park.

3. Drinking lots of coffee

Original Starbucks — The coffee frappuccino tasted the same as it always does but it was fun to see where the global behemoth first started out with its first-ever coffee shop…

So I’d say that Seattle is the only place in the world where you are culturally justified in spending time at Starbucks, given that the city is in fact its birthplace. Just as Dahlia Lounge has moved since Sleepless in Seattle was filmed there, however, so too the first Starbucks café moved, the very first one being located at 2000 Western Avenue and this “Original Starbucks” now being found at Pike Place. Despite this, I definitely wasn’t the only person who had decided that it was worth visiting this ‘historic’ spot and I knew that I was in the right place when I saw the long queue outside.

Tip: If you haven’t read it, Howard Schultz’s Pour Your Heart into it: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time is an interesting read!

4. Touring a space shuttle

The weather wasn’t great the whole time I was in Seattle (apparently it’s known for its many rainy days) so one particularly grey afternoon seemed an appropriate time to head to a museum for a bit more culture. Seattle is famous not just for Starbucks but also for Boeing (and Microsoft as it happens), and the Museum of Flight is the largest private air and space museum in the world. It’s not a huge museum, although it has buildings on either side of the road, and I was pretty excited to discover that you can book onto a tour of the NASA space shuttle trainer crew compartment. There was also a great 3D film that told the story of human flight from the Wright brothers (and dreaming of it long before that) right into a future in which we’ve colonised Mars.

Tip: If you want to grab a bite to eat then I recommend Randy’s Restaurant just down the road, a diner decorated top to bottom with aircraft memorabilia. The food isn’t great but it’s fun and it’s better than the café at the museum!

5. Eating up in the Space Needle

My aunt and I ended my Seattle visit in style with a glass of prosecco and a three-course brunch in the Sky City restaurant.

I had a disappointing experience in London a few years ago when I paid a lot of money to go up in the Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe, and found a pretty mediocre view from the top; and as a result I was not that fussed about going up into the Seattle Space Needle, even though it’s one of the city’s top attractions. One review on Trip Advisor even advised heading to the Sky View Observatory instead for “spectacular views – much higher, cheaper and more peaceful than Space Needle”. When my aunt was passing through town, however, I managed to book us in for brunch in the Sky City restaurant, and this was a spectacular way to end my stay in Seattle before heading on up to Canada. The circular restaurant spins around inside the tower once every 47 minutes, giving you the view of everything from Lake Union to Frasier’s city apartment and the downtown city centre.

Tip: The restaurant was fully booked when I first called, and online booking didn’t bring up all the available times – so make sure you call ahead!