Monday 12 May 2025
Our hotel is the Mark
Spencer, right in the middle of downtown and another brick building built
around 1900. It is basic but clean and comfortable. The plan today, since we only
have a couple of days in Portland, is to do a loop on the tram (streetcar),
south then east across the river, north to the top and west again and south
back to the hotel. A good plan. It starts off with breakfast at Cheryl's.
Shazza, Flashy calls it. Well, Cheryl's is an American diner with a Mexican twist.
Amazing menu and good filter coffee. Lady P says the cappuccino is also good.
They have a monster coffee machine. The staff is large and mostly Hispanic. We
look for ICE officers, but all is OK. A stress free breakfast of a shared Portuguese rice dish
is excellent. I don’t get it either - Portuguese?.
The best laid plans
fail when the streetcar stops for road works and a bus is needed. We don’t
quite get it and end up on a loop up north and back south and give up. Saw a
lot of north west and south west Portland which is a lovely, green, tree lined
city. A good walk about and an excellent pizza at Mucca for lunch, then back to
our hotel for a free wine tasting. This is free in the lobby for guests each night from 5 to 6 pm. In fact,
the gay bloke on reception just pours gigantic glasses and minces about, but hey, it’s
free and the wine is ok. Dinner is crackers and truffle cheese, gin and tonic
in our room.
Tuesday 13 May 2025
Determined to do the
circumnavigate of the city on public transport, today we have a plan. Firstly,
brekky at Chazzas. This time we don’t share. Hueveros Rancheros for Lady P and
good ‘ol southern biscuits and gravy for Flashy. He actually had country fried
chicken, sausage gravy and biscuits with a sunny side up egg. Delicious. A bit
like cement in your tummy for the day. The biscuits are supposed to be like a
savoury scone, only a bit lighter and fluffy. They were just soft white buns
cut in half. Bloody disappointing in an otherwise reasonable dish. Americano
coffee (a long black) comes from a giant filter machine and is, as my mate the
Major says, surprisingly delicious. Now sustained, the adventure starts.
We did manage to
catch the B line streetcar, counterclockwise across the river and all the way back
to the north west. A train to Washington Park and the Portland Zoo was the
first stop. A cool day, overcast but dry. The gardens in the Park and roses in
the Rose Garden were delightful and the little stops for drinks were good,
particularly when we were in the Alphabet District on the way home. The suburb
was reminiscent of Adelaide and parts of Melbourne. Lots of trees and flash
houses, nice streets and bars and restaurants. The only thing that we noticed
was the presence of the homeless. A bit sad, really.
Lady P is starving. At
5.00 pm she needs food. Should have had a snack at the bars we stopped at. Anyway,
early in the evening now, on the way home, we stop for Thai food. We crave
spice, you see. Well, we sure got that. Very spicy food indeed. Tingling lips
and running noses. That’s us, not the staff! Now sated, we head for our hotel;
a GnT in the room and an early night.
Portland has been a
nice experience but a bit short. What is interesting here and also back in
Denver, is the use of red bricks in commercial and government buildings. I saw
one today that was 30 stories high and brick façade. An almost impossible
build. More on brick skyscrapers later. But they are impressive.
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