Portland (Oregon) - From the Rose Garden to the smallest park in the world

Sunday, June 24th

We wake up at 8:30 am and - miracle of miracles! - there's no rain. We even see blue sky behind the clouds! So we grab breakfast and head out. We first go to Washington Park, which is a bit out of the way. We miss the bus shuttle from the tram stop and stand around for fifteen minutes as the sky darkens threateningly above us. But the bus comes on time and drops us off at the International Rose Test Garden. The garden is part of the park and has a history of over 100 years. It was actually created to cultivate new varieties of roses, as Portland was already called the City of Roses (wasn't that Molde in Norway??). Around the turn of the century, there were many streets lined with roses. Today, there are around 8,000 rose bushes of over 500 different varieties in this Rose Test Garden.

The area we visit is manageable and you can walk freely along the flower beds and stick your nose in every bloom.

There's a wonderful fragrance everywhere and we have great photo opportunities, although many flowers have suffered from the rain. June is the peak of rose bloom, so we're here at the right time.

We spend about an hour taking photos of flowers and perennials and enjoying the view from this hill over the city and the Mount Hood in the distance, which is once again hiding its peak in the clouds.

Opposite the Rose Garden is the Japanese Garden, which we decide to skip since it charges $9.50 admission (the Rose Garden was free). So we wait for the shuttle bus and find ourselves unplanned at Jeld-Wen Field, the soccer field of the Portland Timbers. The atmosphere in and around the stadium is electric, as Portland is playing against Seattle today.

A sandwich vendor tells us that the people in Portland are crazy about soccer. They're really more European than other Americans...

We take a tram to Pioneer Square and grab a coffee, then head south and transfer to a bus that takes us to another hill in the city where the Veterans OSHO Hospital is located. An old man with two hearing aids, who gets off the bus with us, tries to describe the way to the Aerial Tram and tells us to go to the hospital. It seems very strange at first, but turns out to be correct. We ride the elevator up to the second floor and walk through corridors and follow signs through a glass walkway into another building of the hospital. After more turns and corners, we actually end up at the "mountain station" of the Aerial Tram, whose lower end is located next to a parking lot and a bus station on the Willamette River.

For the hospital employees, this is the usual way to get to work. But our super-informed hotel lady gave us the tip to ride the tram from top to bottom, because it's free that way. It costs $4 to ride from bottom to top.

Mount St. Helens from the mountain station of the Aerial Tram/Portland

We enjoy the view under a sky that's turning bluer. To the left is the city and you can see the maze of highways. Straight ahead, we can even make out Mount St. Helens. We take the cable car down and once again wait for a bus that only takes us to a tram station. We've definitely tried out all forms of transportation today.

In downtown, we walk through a few stores and find Portland to be a really nice, pleasant city. It seems laid-back and has a live and let live attitude - somehow really relaxed.

We follow the tip from the Lonely Planet and have dinner at Jake's Seafood. Once again, it's a rustic place with good food and several local beers. The Lonely Planet hasn't always been a good guide, but in this case, it was right on.

Scallops - my favorite

We roll out the door around 6:00 pm, completely stuffed, and drive down to the water. Here, we are now looking for Mills End Park - the world's smallest park, also listed in the Guinness Book of Records, measuring only 61 square CENTIMETERS. But when we find it, it looks more like a flower pot in the middle of a pedestrian crossing.

Mills End Park - behind the post, not the grassy area behind it....

This "park" was created about 100 years ago by a businessman who always saw a busy street from his window. Today, he would probably rarely see his park amidst the street and cars.

One of the many food trucks

It starts raining - after a brief drizzle in the Rose Garden, this is only the second time today that it gets wet. Nevertheless, we decide against the planned walk along the river and take the tram back to the hotel, where we arrive quite early and spend the evening just relaxing.