Pretty Portland...

Even though we were rather frazzled after such a long time on and off planes and crossing time zones, we ventured into Portland downtown area yesterday afternoon to have a look around.

Everything is new and different.

Houses up to the footpaths and people sitting out front watching the world go by, traffic lights that seem to take an age to allow for pedestrians, which everyone seems to ignore (except us in fear for our lives!), bagels for lunch with so many options for fillings and spreads we don't know what to choose, money that all looks the same and tiny coins.

It's that jetlag phase where everything seems slightly off balance and decisions take longer than normal.


Portland is pretty. We walked into town and found ourselves in downtown Portland precinct in about 20 minutes. It's what I would expect from a New England town, lots of weatherboard buildings and lots of tourists. Also, it's quite arty. So many galleries and little specialty shops. Very cool.

Found a gorgeous paper shop that was hard to resist, and had to walk past the Museum of Art, with plans to return today with more energy and clearer heads. Wandered down past lots of shops to the waters edge. Where seagulls squalked, tourists checked the deals for whale watching and evening cruises, and waterfront diners ate lobster sandwiches.

What can I say, it's a good place to be.

And now it's Friday morning and we have both had 11 hours of solid sleep, we are ready to head out again and get to it... once it's light that is (it's just on 5am, so probably a bit early yet!)

Oh yes, I did get that swim in the hotel pool. We hoped it would wake us up so we could last another few hours... we lasted about 20 more minutes. But the swim was just perfect.