Raining in Portland
Friday, December 2nd, 2005Got the train out of King st station – it ws delayed by about 30 minutes because apparently somebody forgot to refuel the train… we then missed our slot and hgot stuck behind a freight train for a few minutes – apparently they have priority on the lines – this doesn’t bode well for the more congested industrial heartlands around Pitsburg and Cleveland.
The train trip was great – I spent most of it in the ‘Bistro ar’ chewing the fat with a photographer and an architecture professor – it was great they loved the pictures of the library – so I’ve got another couple of contacts.
There was snow alongside the tracks from Tacoma to Vancouver – I finally got to see the Tacoma Narrows bridge – not the original, for obvious reasons and got a good view of the parallel span being built to expand the capacity of the deck.
Portland Union station was exactly whta I wanted a train station wo look like, i.e. with the dropped platform, having to cross the tracks and the whole turn-of the century charm that you get in places like Bakers street and St. Pancreas.
I met this girl in the station, she gave me a heads-up on the city – apparently there are hidden beavers and remenants of the cow parade to look out for – am also keen to get a look at the bridges and the highway. There are some hot springs that she recommended as well as a hidden bridge somewhere – she’d been there, loved it and bought the t-shirt (I have a photo to prove it) – apparently the bridge connects three islands with spans merging between all three – sounds cool, but the hot springs might be better.
Am going to get my bearings and try and get hold of Chris and Julie, then it’s sushi, sangrias and strippers — wahey!
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