Seattle

Never again!! 44 hours on one train is way too long. Nevertheless, it saved us about 300 pounds in air travel and 2 nights accommodation so it's not all bad. We finally got to the Green Tortoise Hostel at about 11am on 27th September in desperate need of a shower. I think they could smell us coming before they saw us. At least there was free Internet as well as tea and coffee which we could use as we were not allowed to check in until midday. This by far is the best hostel that we have stayed in so far. In addition to the free Internet, tea and coffee they have a large screen T.V with free movies (limited but a number of classics), free breakfast and three times a week they even cook everyone dinner. The first night they cooked a feast of meatballs in a tomato sauce with salad and pasta. The bathrooms are very modern and clean. All this took us rather by surprise after the lonely planet described this hostel as run down and the grottier hostel option in town.

The only slightly weird thing about this hostel was the fact that we were sharing a dorm room , sleeping six, whilst sleeping in a double bed together. In our dorm there was one other double bed and two singles. We had wondered at the start whether we had walked into some sort of swingers hostel, but we have been safe so far. Joking aside they do give you the option to have a little privacy with some curtains that attach to the double bunk above you. For the 20 pounds a night that we are paying for both of us this has been the best find so far!

The train journey between Chicago and Seattle was pretty good in terms of the scenery. We went through about 6 different states and the land changed from urban to woodland to the great plains (flat land for hours and hours) to the Rocky mountains before finally hitting Seattle 2 days later. It's the only rain journey that we have been on the has taken us through two changes of time zones. There was snow on the peaks in the Rockies and it made for some great photos with the train winding its way round the cliff edge (photos to come). The seats are surprisingly comfy and nearly tilt back to a fully horizontal position which helped us get some sleep through the night. Still, it was nothing like the real thing and we are both looking forward to a proper bed tonight.

Of great amusement to us both was the rather bizarre train spotters that were aboard the train. Who would pick to do this journey out of choice and what sort of hobby is that? We had to take a picture of one of them to show you. He is the man in the green T-shirt at the right hand side of the photo.

In total we spent 3 days in Seattle. We have explored the town center, which took us all of about three hours, visited the Seattle needle, took a ferry trip to a local island for views back across Seattle and a day trip out to see some local waterfalls. The weather has been a lot colder than what we have become used to. In fact the weather in England has been hotter than what we have had over the past couple of days. We have both noticed the difference in people here they are a lot friendlier than what we have experienced so far.