Thursday early
morning (21.4.) we flew to Chicago, and the blue line brought us from the
airport to the city center. We quickly dropped our luggage at the Chicago
Downtown Hotel (we were lucky getting a rather cheap room in this 4* hotel),
and we went for lunch to The West Egg Café. Right away we fell in love with
Chicago’s food culture, and in particular with the great diner options. Although
the weather was misty, we went for a first sightseeing trip. Chicago is huge
and has many great spots to visit. From West Egg Café we walked north along the
promenade of North Lake Shore Drive and came past the Oak Street Beach and the
North Avenue Beach – it wasn’t exactly beach weather though^^ Given the
weather, we visited Lincoln Park Zoo, which offers free entrance and harbors
many exotic animals. We had a lot of fun in the zoo and stayed there for 2
hours :D From the zoo, we walked back south via the Astor Road, which harbors
many small mansions with various styles. We went south along the Michigan Av
back to our hotel for a short nap. As I couldn’t await seeing the Cloud Gate
(alias The Bean), we went to see it during sun set. On the way to Millennium
Park, we saw the Chicago Theater. The Cloud Gate had many visitors, but I found
it amazing nonetheless. After a number of fun photos and the sun set, we walked
through Millennium Park and took a loop via Jackson Drive and Michigan Avenue,
heading for dinner at Giordano’s, where we enjoyed one of Chicago’s famous deep
dish pizzas. On the short way back to our hotel, the night sky was illuminated
by an almost full moon.
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| Breakfast at West Egg Café |
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| "rough pavement" along the promenade of North Lade Shore Drive |
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| Charming Lincoln Park Zoo visit |
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| Hippo at Lincoln Park Zoo |
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| Chicago skyline (black Hancock Tower left) seen from Lincoln Park |
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| again :) |
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| West view from Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge |
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| Chicago Theater |
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| Having fun at the Cloud Gate... |
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| An amazingly huge mirror :) |
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| Cloud Gate after sunset |
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| Harris Theater at Millennium Park |
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| Chicago's night skyline seen from Van Buren Street Station |
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| River Esplanade by night |
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| Almost full moon - quite a nice sight |
Friday
morning (22.4.) we took the train south to 47
th Street, where we
started the day at
The Original Pancake House. The diner was very scenic with
mostly African-American customers, finest attitude and most delicious breakfast
offers. Well strengthened through the breakfast, we walked to Chicago
University campus and came past Barack Obama’s birthplace on the way. Chicago
University was nice, but not as impressive as I hoped (not as nice as Harvard
:P). Although it was rather cold and windy, we walked to Jackson Park, which
unfortunately was under construction. Thus we walked along Midway Plaisance and
past Washington Park to take the green line back to the city center. After a
short nap in our hotel, we went Michigan Avenue north again to visit 360
Chicago – the observation deck on Chicago’s 2
nd highest building,
the Hancock Tower. The view was great and – as usual – we watched sun set and
got to see Chicago during daylight, sun set and dark. The latter was the best
though, thanks to the impressive city lights^^ For dinner we went to a Potbelly
Sandwich Shop, and then we visited
Howl at the Moon Chicago to enjoy a drink
and some music before heading to bed.
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| Chicago city center seen from the Hancock Tower |
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| Oak Street Beach and North Shore Lake Drive |
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| Full moon over Chicago's Navy Pier |
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| City center at night |
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| :D |
The sun
greeted us the next morning (23.4.) and we had breakfast at Waffle Café, which
was good but not as outstanding as the two previous diners. Given the great
weather, we visited the Navy Pier and enjoyed the sun while drinking some
coffee. Next, we headed to Chicago’s Chinatown. Unfortunately, Chinatown was a
disappointment. So we walked to the Shedd Aquarium and saw the massive Soldier
Field, Chicago’s football stadium. From Shedd Aquarium we had a great view of
the city center’s sky scrapers. We took a detour via Dearborn Station on our
way to the Cloud Gate. Following another photo-session at the Cloud Gate, we
took another 1h afternoon nap in the hotel. The nap fueled us with energy for
an additional walking tour. We walked along the Wacker Drive around the city
center to see the Willis Tower, Chicago’s highest building – and I didn’t
manage to capture it properly on picture from close distance. From the Willis
Tower we walked zigzag through the city center. The Chicago Board of Trade is
quite a sight, as it is the only building which does not align with the
checkboard-street-system, but is built to be seen from distance through La
Salle Street. Further we came by the James R. Thompson Center and the Oriental
Theater. We finished our day of exhaustingly long walking tours with dinner at
the
Flat Top Grill.
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| Waffle breakfast at Waffle Café |
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| West view from North Shore Lake Driv |
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| We in front of Chicago's skyline at the Navy Pier |
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| At the Navy Pier |
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| Franzi in front of Chicago's skyline at the Shedd Aquarium |
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| in front of the Field Museum |
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| Grant State Park |
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| The Cloud Gate |
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| Tower of Club Quarter's Hotel in front of Trump Tower |
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| Trump Tower and Tribune Tower lit by late afternoon sun |
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| Franzi at State Street Bridge |
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| Oriental Theater |
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| Chicago Theater |
Sunday
(24.4.) was our last day in Chicago, and we started it with breakfast at
West Egg Café. We went shopping on Michigan Avenue, in
particular in the Disney Store, and we dipped our feet into ice cold Lake
Michigan at Oak Street Beach. The weather was great and we didn’t want to leave
the city and even more so we didn’t want to leave each other. Yet, we had to
catch our planes, Franzi flew back to Germany while I returned to Boston.
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| Dipping our feet in ice cold Lake Michigan |
