I took a bus and MAX (light rail) to spend a day looking round Portland. I started off in Pioneer Courthouse Square which is known as ‘Portland’s Living Room’. It is a central plaza used for concerts, celebrations or as a meeting place. To one side is the Courthouse, the oldest federal building in the Pacific Northwest. I then caught the MAX to Washington Park where I went to the International Rose Test Garden. This was established in 1918 to preserve European roses which might be destroyed in the war. There are now over 10,000 bushes of 650 varieties. Roses in the test gardens are evaluated over two years before being judged, with varieties being sent from all over the world. As you get off the shuttle bus you are met with that wonderful rose smell. I then went to the Japanese Gardens a haven of peace, harmony and tranquility. There are three primary elements in Japanese garden design - stone, water and plants and it was a pleasure to wander round them. The MAX took me back into the city where I went on a streetcar to the South Waterfront. I went on the aerial tram, a short ride up to Oregon Health and Science University where there are wonderful views over the city, Mount Hood and in the distance Mount St Helens which erupted in 1980. The sign over the entrance to the hospital on the site says ‘Where healing, teaching and discovery come together’. Back down on the Waterfront I looked round a small Farmers Market before getting the streetcar to Powell’s City of Books which claims to be the largest independent new and used book store in the world. There are no fancy displays just shelves stacked high with books in 9 large, colour coded rooms. The streetcar, MAX and bus got me back to my hotel very efficiently!