Chicago

Wednesday 21 July

Chicago

I started the day with breakfast at the diner attached the hotel and looked through various leaflets to weigh up the options. I decided the best bet was to opt for a city tour so I went down to the nearest stop which was just a few minutes' walk away. The tour was a "hop on, hop off" bus tour and the vehicles were open-top buses and old-fashioned trolley buses (although not powered by overhead cables).

The tour went down past Soldier Field, which is where one of the local football teams plays. It is an interesting mixture of styles as when they built the space-age style new stadium a few years ago they kept the original 1920's façade. The bus went past the museum campus and on along past Grant Park and stopped at Navy Pier where I decided to get off.

Navy Pier was originally a training area for the Navy but is now a recreational area with shops, restaurants and a funfair. With a cloudless sky there were some good photo opportunities with the skyline looking magnificent.

Transformers 3 film set

Back to the bus and onto the middle deck of a triple-deck road! Alarmingly, there was an area with burnt-out and overturned cars. The guide explained that they were filming the latest "Transformers" movie in Chicago! Apparently the film company had paid $20 million to the city to be able to film here.

I got off by the Hancock Center which, although not the tallest, is one of Chicago's most recognisable buildings. I didn't go into that building but had a wander around the Fourth Presbyterian Church opposite - make famous in the film "My Best Friend's Wedding".

Willis Tower

Back on the bus and my next stop was at Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). This was the tallest building in the world from 1973 to 1992 and is now the fifth tallest. I joined the queue and bought a Citypass which is a discounted ticket for five attractions in the city. The lift takes people to the 103rd floor observation deck in just under 70 seconds, so ears were popping!

The view was magnificent, despite a bit of heat-haze. On one side of the building there are four glass boxes which project outwards so you can stand inside and look directly down. Only the glass separates you from a drop of well over 1,000 feet. Scary!

Another ride on the bus took me to Millennium Park. It turns out that London wasn't the only city to miss deadlines for millennium project - this one was finished in 2004! It's a great space with an outdoor stage for free concerts, and some great contemporary art installations. One is a huge, highly-polished mirrored bean shape by Anish Kapoor and another is a modern version of a pair of gargoyles. They consist of two glass brick towers on which are displayed huge images of Chicagoans' faces. Every so often their mouths open and they spit out a huge gush of water! On such a hot day, there were lots of kids queuing up to get wet!

Crown Fountain

My final stop on the tour was the Adler Planetarium where I saw two shows in separate theatres, each with projections onto a domed ceiling. First was one called "Night Sky Live" which described tonight's sky over Chicago and second was one called "Journey to the Stars".

I then walked back through the park to the hotel for a rest before heading out for a great bowl of pasta at Portillo's (nothing to do with Michael Portillo, I assume!).