Seattle, home of Amazon and Starbucks

Good to be back in the US, in its most rainy city, founded in 1851. Here, a gum wall is one of the major sights besides the not so stunning Space Needle, the Aquarium and its waterfront with snowy mountains in the distance. Clearly it was lucky to have one sunny day to do the free walking tour and the underground tour walking on underground sidewalks that some time ago were the normal streets.

How comes that Seattle has an underground without having a metro? Back then the city decided to build streets one level higher due to flooding issues. Still, sidewalks and shop fronts stayed on normal sea level protected by the walls around them. Hard to imagine that the underground today was the place people went shopping until complete new parts of the city were built upon (they could only be reached through ladders). It was still used in order to ban unwanted people, bars and parts of red light district down there and some are still used today whereas normal life takes place one level higher.

Last but not least, an important reminder to myself: never eat Chowder soup with sea food ever again!Read more