Portland, Oregon- days 7 to 9

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Traveled from Medford in California to Portland in Oregon on 17 July. Portland is a great city of about 600,00 people and easy to get around without a car. Light rail, buses and street cable cars are operated by a company called Tri Met and at $5 a day for an un-limited adult pass and frequencies of every 15 minutes weekdays and 30 minutes on week ends- it makes PT very attractive particularly as the network has a good coverage.

Cycling is also very well catered for and while the actual facilities are pretty similar to Canberra- on road cycle lanes very common in city- there is a much higher take up of cycling and it seems part of the city's culture.

Timber and the lumber industry is very important in NW America and we visited the world forestry center in Washington Gardens - very interesting and yes I bought another book. We visited both the Japanese and Chinese gardens, both of which were very good -

Portland is also home of Nike Sports wear and we visited the main shop in the down town area - I bought a new sports watch watch with a gps facility and will now be able to view how I run( or do not run) around the soccer field when I referee. There is no sales tax in Oregon so this was the place to buy up - I also visited a cycle accessories shop and bought some cycling gear - may need a new suit case also ( according to Cheryll)

I have included a few interesting photos with this blog and will update again in a few days - we arrived in Seattle today and are here for the next three days- life is tough touring!

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Photos

Cycle series -1: Cycle lane in Portland
cycle lanes are very common in Portland- good take up and a part of the City's culture

Japanese gardens
A most beautiful gardens set in Washington Park

A thing of beauty
A photo for all the roses in Australia reading this blog.

cycle series-2
closer detail of on road cycling lanes

Cycle series -3
this is the only location I could find where some separation of cycle facilities was built into a new develoment

Aerial taxi
this aerial taxi links the University to hospital over a distance of 3,300 feet

World Forestry center
This log is dated at 240 years and was 5 m in diameter