Sunday, Monday, Tuesday June 7, 8 and 9, 2015

As usual with a big city it was difficult to find a warmshowers host. Initially we had asked to stay for Saturday and/or Sunday. We received a response from Laura who could offer us Saturday but not Sunday – she had other cyclists coming in on Sunday. My next bunch of requests I asked for Sunday and/or Monday realizing that their was so much to see in Portland that we would need two full days, the day we arrived (Saturday) would be a travelling day.

David and Lauren responded saying we could stay Sunday and Monday and as long as we needed. I asked if we could have Saturday as well, that would mean that we didn’t have to pack and move. No problem, was David’s response. That was David – no problem. He was such a joy to meet. More about Lauren and David later.

I called Laura and told her we no longer needed her to host us, she immediately offered for us to come over for a meal as she wanted to meet us and also for her newbie touring cyclists to meet us. We accepted her offer for Sunday evening BBQ.

This was what we found all the time with the people in Portland they were incredibly kind and helpful. Todd had tried to find us a place to stay even though, he was on vacation.

The people in Portland are wonderful.

We had a lot to get done in Portland. One of them was to replace our broken down equipment. Our cycling sandals were falling to bits, Ralf’s handle bar bag was no longer waterproof, with zips that no longer closed properly and he resorted to using a Walmart bag to keep it dry, my cycling jersey I bought in Spain was past its use by date. This was going to be an expensive stopover in Portland. However, Portland has hundreds of bike shops ok a slight exaggeration but it has a lot. It also is the headquarters of Keen Sandal (our cycling sandals are Keen’s), Showerspass (our jackets and water reservoir are showerspass), it has a large REI. We were going to damage the credit card in Portland.

On Sunday our plan was to take the bus into downtown and replenish our worn out stuff and then on Monday go to the rose garden and do the tourist stuff.

We had breakfast and chatted to Lauren and David for a while and then headed downtown on the bus, a little later than anticipated.

We wanted to go to the Keen Store, the REI and a couple of bike shops and then head to Laura’s for dinner.

Our Sunday shopping for cycling sandals was not very successful, in fact we were a little disappointed. I managed to buy a new cycling jersey and gloves. Although, we visited three bike shops in the downtown core, they didn’t have what we needed.

I did chat to a lovely young woman who had a great Raleigh bicycle made in Nottingham with one of the old original metal emblems. It even had an old Brooks saddle.

We were heading to the bus stop when I spotted an old car in a warehouse which I knew Ralf would be interested in, the owner invited me in for a chat and Ralf followed. The car I had spotted was an old Cadillac. Ralf asked for permission to take a photo. Unfortunately he said no, they weren’t his cars. He had millions of dollars of cars in this warehouse. He took us around and chatted to us about the cars – Cadillacs, Bentley, porsches, a 1932 French car. It was amazing. This volksy was not in the warehouse.

We were late for dinner but Lauren and Stephen waited for us to arrive. I chatted with Lauren and Stephen about their trips, especially about their trip through Croatia and down to Montenegro, somewhere we want to go. Ralf chatted to the other touring cyclists, (Robyn and Mike) they had flown in from Philadephia and are cycling across the country.

On Sunday we decided to cycle around Portland. Portland is reputed to be the best cycling city in the US. I would totally agree. More on Portland later.

We went to more bike shops and finally got everything we needed. New shoes, new bag and a great experience cycling around Portland.

We had dinner with Lauren and David. David was five when his family escaped from Vietnam. They were on the last helicopters that left Vietnam. Lauren said they had recently watched a documentary which had live footage of the air-lift, they were trying to spot David’s family. David’s father was a colonel in the South Vietnamese army and would not have survived very long under the North Vietnamese regime. Can’t imagine the parents fear of losing a child in the mayhem of getting onto the flight.

We talked about how it was for him to arrive in the US, sponsored by a church group in Minnesota. He said it was traumatic but the what was more traumatic was opening his front door in the winter and seeing snow. What a great sense of humour and an incredible attitude. We talked about the homeless in Portland. David’s opinion was that if you want to find work you can find work. His father instilled in him a strong work ethic, you work for your family.

One of the funny stories Lauren shared was after they had been dating for six years her friends were telling her to give him an ultimatum. She said that David had a plan, but forgot to share it with her. David said I had to have enough money to buy you a house and provide for you, before marrying you.

They were a lovely couple and we really enjoyed staying with them.

Portland:

I have worked with urban planning consultants for 16 years and one of the things I got from working in that environment was how do we make cities livable. I “googled” livability and here is one definition: There are five fundamental aspects of great, livable cities: robust and complete neighborhoods, accessibility and sustainable mobility, a diverse and resilient local economy, vibrant public spaces, and affordability.

In my opinion Portland has the five fundamental aspects – most of the neighbourhoods we cycled through, had independent “downtown” areas with local shops, coffee shops, open spaces, places to meet and easy to get around by walking, public transit, bicycles and cars. The problem, with having such a great city is that more people want to move to it and the housing prices go up – affordability.

This bridge will open in the fall of 2015 and will be the first bridge in Oregon, not to allow motorcars on the bridge.  Light rail, buses, pedestrians and cyclists – (accessibility and sustainable mobility).

This weekend in Portland, was the Rose festival, Fleet week and Dragon boat festival. We missed the Rose Parade, (Saturday), we missed the ships (too busy shopping) ditto with the dragon boats.

There is so much to do in this city, every other week-end throughout the summer. On Monday we visited the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden.

Portland is known as the Rose City. The Rose Garden has 1,000 plantings with 600 varieties, in a 4.5 acres property, it was established in 1917. Can you imagine how many photos Ralf took!! Here are just a few.

The oldest Rose in the the garden was called the Grand Duchess (1943).  After the blaze of colour of the Rose Garden, we went to the peace and quiet of the Japanese Gardens.

Portland not only has lots of things happening within the City, it is close to the great outdoors, the coast is only an hour a way, the gorge is only an hour away, wineries are only an hour away.

Awesome City. Thank you David and Lauren for allowing us to stay with you so that we could experience your city.

We could live in Portland, maybe get one of these bikes to get around.