WE ARE VISITING SEATTLE FROM THE UK IN EARLY APRIL FOR 5 DAYS. WE ARE STAYING AT THE COMFORT SUITES SEATTLE CENTER. CAN ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS HOTEL AND COMMENT ON THE SAFETY OF THE AREA AT NIGHT. HOW FAR IS IT FROM SEATTLE CENTER.

It's not a bad location, convenient to Seattle Center (2 blocks, maybe 300m). Downtown is a bus or monorail ride (monorail from the middle of Seattle Center, runs till 11 PM); bus lines all around. The area is safe enough, tends to be a little trafficky at rush hour, but tolerable for the price. There are some good restaurants within walking distance - Thai, Greek, a brew pub or two; and a little further west on Roy St. is the "lower Queen Anne" neighborhood with a wide range of shops and cafes, etc. The hotel is also walkable from the performing arts complex (including Paul Allen's Experience Music Project, designed by Frank Gerhy to look like a crashed 747) at Seattle Center, as well as the Key Arena, where, God willing, the Seattle professional basketball team will be in the playoffs during your stay.

A car will be an asset, though, for touring the area, and for rain-proofing your outings, a consideration in Seattle in April (although today we're digging out of a very unusual March snowstorm.)

John, is the EMP really designed to look like a crashed 747? We enjoyed Seattle 1 1/2 yrs ago, including EMP but were overwhelmed with the exterior ugliness of the building - this would explain something! You have a great city, and the gods were shining on us because we were there in late June and it was sunny and quite warm!

No, I jest. It's supposedly meant to suggest a smashed Stratocaster guitar (really) but in all the times I've looked at I've never seen the guitar, only colored titanium surfaces which frankly remind me of airplane fuselage pieces. How fitting for the former hometown of Boeing, I figured. I've been to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, which is a much more impressive building IMO, albeit poorly finished and really out of place in its setting. The EMP just disappears in the cityscape, obscured by trees and phone wires from the street. It's best viewed from landing airplanes, where no doubt the usual question is "What the hell is that?"

THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION. I HOPE THE SNOW IS GONE BY THE TIME WE ARRIVE. BEING FROM ENGLAND WE'RE MORE USED TO THE RAIN.

It was gone by that afternoon and now we're having a very British spring - early daffodils, breezy - you'd feel right at home.

PS Anthony - using all caps is taken as shouting.