“Seattle was a pleasant surprise”

One thing that I never tire of reading is foreigners who come to America and share what they found. From Alexis de Tocqueville to the countless immigrant stories, to more recently Jonathan Raban and Stephen Fry there’s something charming about seeing an outsider’s perspective. While you don’t expect them to get everything right, a different set of eyes is interesting. And quite naturally, I especially love people coming to Seattle.

So I was glad Seattle Bike Blog linked to this piece about someone from England cycling around the world. It’s always a bit mystifying to think about people who only know us from TV.

I explored the sculpture park and talk a walk to the Space Needle, and followed bike lanes through the city. I was soon south of the downtown core and took a route along a lake where the road was closed to traffic every Sunday and was taken over by cyclists. It was a wonderful atmosphere. South of the city I picked up the Cedar River Trail and followed it south before camping down a side trail which resembled the Amazon rainforest, except for the busy highway overhead.