Matthew Tuffin Blog

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Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Arriving in Portland we had no idea what to expect, the train station got fairly deserted pretty quickly. We made the decision since all the taxis had left pretty quickly after we arrived to wheel the suitcases 10 mins walk up the street to the hotel. This gave the chance to scout the place out on the way, a city that looks very clean with very few cars on the road but to my shock a lot of cyclists.

Whether Portland has adopted a very green view of life or not that many people can afford cars I don’t know, with mostly the younger generation cycling down the street, in cycle lanes or in your typical shared paths that ran along the river. 

Having read so much about it on the internet and various tv shows I had watched (Man v Food for example) we checked out the famous Voodoo Donuts. This is a place where you can get the tastiest and strangest donuts you will ever chow down on. While the bacon and maple donut was calling me I decided to grab the Voodoo Donut Doll. A donut in the shape of a doll filled with strawberry jam and covered in chocolate and a bread stick sticking out to represent the voodoo pin to inflict pain.  Pain was far from what this donut tasted like when it went down.

Eating our donuts next to the river we head further down the river and discovered an old steam tug boat the SR Portland that had been turned into a museum for people to have a look around on.  The tug boat was used to pull the bigger ships down the river to the destination to pick up grain and other such raw materials and then tug them back out into the ocean. This particular steam tug boat was used in the film Maverick starring Mel Gibson with the boat being used promptly as the back drop and many of the outside scenes on the back deck.

Just before lunch we head to catch one of the cities light rail trains. Trains that run on tracks built into the cities roads. Heading for the Oregon Zoo we were pleasantly surprised to get off in a large park called Washington Park surrounded by tracks and trees for miles around us. In the zoo we got a good glimpse of many of the animals from the North West region including the bald headed eagle and the black bear.

After the park we quickly checked out the Forestry Centre, a building devoted to teaching and learning of forests from around the world. After which we headed up for a walk around Vietnam Memorial a green bowl with a path that winds around the outside.