Bridging Portland

As I mentioned in my last post but one, a feature of Portland you really can’t miss is the proliferation of bridges throughout the city centre. Its as if the Portlandians on the east and west sides of the Willamette River just can’t bear to be disconnected from each other.


On my second week in the city, we realised that the following weekend was the Portland Bridge Pedal and Stride. For half a day once a year the bridges are closed, so that cyclists and walkers can enjoy the atmosphere of traversing the river on routes usually the preserve of fast moving vehicles on multi-lane freeways. Not one to miss out on the chance once it had presented itself, Shirley (who had arrived the day before) and myself got up ludicrously early to get to the start point for 8am. We joined the crowds of walkers hiking over the Freemont Bridge, and had a great time ascending to our fantastic viewpoint over the city.
   
      
Slightly surreal scenes greeted us on arrival at the crest of the bridge, with bagpipes blaring away played by a group of 5 pipers, and Starbucks in the middle of the freeway. The free frapuccino sample went down well though, and we enjoyed the rest of our walk back to the finish line.
      
An added bonus was the free entry to ‘The Bite of Oregon’ that our bridge pass afforded us entry to. We were soon tucking into samples of food and wine from all over the state, and the yummy tucker set us up nicely for the rest of the day’s travelling around with Sheena to show Shirley a few of the cities’ sites. We got a nice view of Mount Hood from the top of the only volcano within a US cities’ limits, before grabbing some really great Mexican take out.
      

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