1. Day in Seattle

Our first day in Seattle starts with sunshine. Finally no more rain.

This time we are staying in the Greenwood district. This is quite far out and in the north of the city. Our host this time is an older lady. It feels just like being at grandma's house.

Since we live so far out, we decided to have breakfast directly in our accommodation. This saves a lot of time.

So we explored the district with our host and drove to the supermarket.

Also this one was bigger than it looked from the outside. Luckily we only had to go to the corner with the groceries.

After we arrived back at our accommodation, we had a quick breakfast and then we took the bus into Seattle.

The first stop for this day was the Seattle Center. This is a complex of several museums and the Space Needle (observation tower).

Since it was a wonderfully clear and cloudless day, we wanted to see the city from above first and queued up for a visit to the Space Needle.

In order to save money on other sights as well, we got the City Pass in Seattle. With this pass, admission to 5 attractions is free.

Finally, the ride up begins. The elevator of the Space Needle has glass doors. This already gave us a preview of the observation platform. The Space Needle is 184 m high, has a rotating glass floor in the lower part of the observation platform and was built for the World's Fair in 1962.

It was a magnificent view of the city and the mountain range behind it.

We also had a great view of the sleeping volcano Mount Rainier with its snow-white peak.

Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano and the centerpiece of Mount Rainier National Park, 87 km southeast of Seattle.

Even Flo with his fear of heights dared to step on the glass floor.

After we had solid ground under our feet again, we went straight to the 'Chihuly Garden and Glass' museum. The museum is another attraction of the Seattle CityPASS and is located right next to the Space Needle.

All exhibits are by the same artist, Dale Chihuly, most of them made of glass. The shapes and colors impressed us a lot. The exhibition was only opened in 2012. Before that, his works were exhibited sporadically all over the world.

After the great museum, we treated ourselves with one of Seattle's specialties: coffee! It's no wonder Starbucks was founded here.

We used the short break to gain new energy for a visit to MoPop. Again, it is right next to the Space Needle. MoPop stands for Museum of Pop Culture. There, things from the categories of science fiction, fantasy, horror and music are exhibited. Mostly props from movies or original instruments from musicians like Jimi Hendrix or Nirvana. The highlight for us was the interactive area with the musical instruments of a rock band. Here we became children again.

Since MoPop closes at 5pm, we hopped on the monorail to downtown. A non-stop 5-minute ride in the style of the 60s. The train shuttles back and forth between the Space Needle and downtown, without any other stops in between.

Once in the city, the water somehow magically attracted us and we ended up unplanned at the Pike Place Public Market and found the very first Starbucks café. Of course, we also had a coffee there. The first Starbucks mermaid looks a bit different than the one we know. The café itself still makes a great impression.

After a short walk, we chose 'The Brooklyn' as the conclusion for our eventful first day. There we had an excellent meal.