The tip of the Space Needle is jabbing into the clouds. Seattle’s landmark looks like knitting needles, and one imagines them knitting a sturdy blanket of cloud in the sky: one that is thick and grey. How appropriate to Seattle. And it’s raining.
‘Rain City’ is the nickname of Seattle on the wind-blown northwestern Pacific coast of the United States.
Even though Seattle’s proud defenders often insist that there is a lot more rain in the heartland city of Cleveland or in Miami, there is clearly a reason that moss and evergreens thrive in Seattle.
In fact, almost 100cm of rainfall comes down each year, and Seattle wouldn’t be what it is without water. Clever travellers make sure to pack rain gear, even in the summer.
Tour captain Lou Scannon is just now buttoning his rain jacket up, for the fine mist has now given way to a steady downpour. But a genuine Seattle-ite says there is no such thing as poor weather, only the wrong clothing. Wetness is fun.
Around Lou’s neck hangs a glaring yellow whistle shaped like a duck’s bill. Atop his head is a bicycle helmet. And his tour-mobile rolls atop six wheels. It has large round headlights and the front is shaped like a ship’s bow.
It’s actually a former ‘DUKW’ amphibious military transporter which soldiers used to dub a “duck” — and it is perhaps the best way to explore Seattle’s soul.
First stop is Pioneer Square, featuring the Smith Tower made of granite. Built in 1914, at 159m it was at the time the world’s fourth-tallest skyscraper. Today, next to the Columbia Center towering 286m, or the Space Needle (184m), the Smith Tower looks small.
A trip up to the 35th floor of the Smith Tower in the brass lift operated by a uniformed elevator boy takes you to a lookout platform. In good weather, it offers a view of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains and Mount Rainer.
Heavy raindrops are pounding the roof of the Duck as it rolls past the Seattle Art Museum, where the most famous artwork is the 15m tall sculpture at the entrance: ‘Hammering Man’. It’s one of a series of sculptures created by US artist Jonathan Borofsky as a tribute to the labour movement.
“Starbucks at starboard,” Lou suddenly calls out, gesturing with his right arm. “Grand!” is the reply of the passengers every time they pass one of the coffee shops. Seattle is the headquarters of the Starbucks chain which now counts thousands of shops worldwide, including 80 in the city itself.
In Seattle, a “grand” is a medium-sized coffee. A small cup is called “tall”. In today’s non-stop rainy weather, people seem to be opting for the “venti” - the 0.75-litre size. Seeing how people try to wait out a rainshower inside some dry place, one fathoms why the coffee-shop idea was a lucrative one.
The Duck is bouncing along over the cobblestone pavement of Pike Place Market, founded in 1907.
Here they hand out for free long, narrow plastic bags — for your wet umbrellas. It’s a picturesque market with fruit and vegetable stands and fish shops where the mongers, to the joy of picture-snapping tourists, are flinging the fish onto the scales.
To see such living marine creatures such as sharks, squid and otters, people head to the Seattle Aquarium at Harbor Pier 59, or else to the Ballard Locks canal sluice gates, where engineers built cascading steps for the salmon.
From behind thick glass windows, people can watch the fascinating scene as the salmon battle their way up the steps through the greenish water.
Duck skipper Lou Scannon now heads out to Lake Union, a glacial lake in the middle of the city. Lou takes off his bicycle helmet and dons a sailor’s cap, for the Duck is about to set out into the water, the passengers hoping that it really is seaworthy. And, it really is.
The lake features some 500 of the chic, floating apartments like the one where the film classic Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks was shot. Just recently the flat was sold for $2.5mn.
This would be mere pocket money for Bill Gates. The world’s second-wealthiest man was born and raised in Seattle, and one wonders whether he would have spent his youth indoors, tinkering with computers and programmes, if the weather would have been sunnier and warmer.
Duck captain Lou now puts his bike helmet back on, steps on the fuel and charges back up ramp and onto land again, heading back to the Space Needle. Bidding farewell, perhaps it was only a Freudian slip when he said, “The weather - er, I mean the water - wasn’t so bad, was it?” — DPA