Hamlet

The other day I said that Seattle is like Croydon in S.E. London. Actually it’s probably more like Hamburg Germany, only lighter and sunnier, at least at the moment (summer). Although Seattle has the envious international reputation as being always grey and under the rain my neighbour informs me this is in fact a deliberate lie put about by Seattleites to stop everyone coming here; though In fact everyone may already be here, this morning I met a man from Brighton though I am still no closer to finding a Henry.

So Hamburg? It’s the water you see, not the rain. The longer you are here the more you notice it, and the boats: not tankers so much but ferries and yachts. However the place is so crowded, firstly with places but also islands and even the boats in the marina are stacked in shelves. It becomes difficult to build a geographical concept of the place. There is Puget Sound firstly, with Seattle on the Western shore, but then west again are two lakes, Union and the much larger Washington. Communities on the far side of Washington seem so distant as to be separate but it’s probably a bit like Croydon and central London.

The Troll, from now on known as Caliban, lies underneath the bridge that carries the highway north, high above the area of Fremont situated at the north-western end of lake Union; it’s an area that has a reputation for being quirky. Certainly it’s a fun place with a cute Sunday arts market, a lot of bars and restaurants and a weekend crowd that howls, but it also has, this week at least, a man who is improbably balancing stones at the side of the road for small change. It also has a giant statue of Lenin AND a Cold War era Rocket fuselage on the end of a shoe shop.

The Lenin statue originally came from Czechoslovakia and after the fall of communism it was bought by a Washington resident, cut into three pieces and shipped back to Seattle; probably not in his hand luggage, as at 16 feet tall it must weigh tons. The first time you see it the effect of a striding Lenin in republican U.S.A is startling and when you think about the number of Lenin statues that were destroyed the thing seems almost ghostly. Don’t you think?

The best thing however, in my opinion, is the Fremont Bridge that crosses the canal dug at the start of the twentieth century to connect lake Union with the seawater of Puget Sound. Lying in the shadow of Caliban’s Highway Bridge, It’s a beautiful cantilever construction that can take four lanes of cars, and has extra space for pedestrians and cyclists. It was opened in 1917 and Wikipedia informs me that local residents chose the blue and orange colours in 1985. I don’t think it has been painted since as today there is a pleasing fadedness to it, and that coupled with the choice of blue, which is very metropolitan- police-box-Tardis, gives the whole thing a 1950’s feel. This is enhanced by the clangs and peels of the bells as it stops traffic, opens and lets a yacht pass, something that apparently happens at least 30 times a day and seemingly every time I am cycling over it. This makes it the official “most frequently opened drawbridge in the United States.”

Now this piece Hamlet is clearly all about ghosts and gravediggers isn’t it, but I am sure that in the original productions a drawbridge also figured frequently and if that was not enough for a link to Hamlet as the title for this post then I am sure the ghostly presence of Lenin is. And if not, by lucky coincidence tonight (July 19th) at the Fremont open air movies, one of best established in the city, they are showing Ghostbusters and I am off there now as it’s almost sunset; and I’ll cover graveyards next.

www.fremontoutdoormovies.com