Day three in Chicago – sore feet and all, I’m still going
out to see what is left to see in this fine city...
Well, the answer to that question is ‘A lot’.
After getting some blister plasters (band aids for all you North
American and Canadians!) and sorting out my feet – its ok they will be fine! I
jumped onto the ‘L’ for a ride around the loop and down towards Roosevelt Station,
where I jumped off and took a look around the south end of Grant Park and the
Museum Campus. Chicago is a very lucky city. Not, because everyone wins the
lottery (they dont), but because when it was just a small place, the town planners and
people who lived here, wanted to save the best bits for the people, so that
waterfront area, the parks and especially the lake were all made into places
for the people to use. Chicago has never had any factories or industrial areas
blighting the lake front (apart from the water treatment plant, for obvious
reasons) and they even built three superb museums here in stunning buildings for
the people to visit on their days out. The aquarium, planetarium and Natural
History museum are all housed here at the south end of Grant Park and are all
superb. I just had a look around the outside today but even that was worth the
visit- plus there is a dinosaur overlooking the car park too which is cool. I
also walked a little further south to the home of the Chicago Bears NFL team.
Soldier Field, which is actually so named to honour the servicemen of the
USA. It’s a weird stadium – what looks
like a spaceship crash landed into Rome – with a huge disk shaped stadium over Romanesque
columns. I’m not sure whether to like it or not, but it is spectacular in one
way or another.
Some more cool stuff in Chicago
Look out - Dinosaur
Memorial to the workers at Soldier Field
Cool stadium or not? I cant decide
The weather changed as I headed back into the park and I
could hear the start of a thunder storm, so I hunkered down by a tree and set
my camera to video the storm. I was joined by a dude named Johnny and we
chatted for a while about the weather, travelling, and his divorce, a trip he
made to Arkansas when he was the only black guy in the town and all the white
women loved him – literally! He was a good guy and when he upped and left I
went to shake his hand as he went to bump fists! We laughed and did both whilst
making quips about English and Americans. I hope he finds a job, as he is a
great bloke.
After the storm I ventured into the dark alleyways that you
find behind every building – I wanted to see something that tourists don’t
normally consider and it was fun – I was surprised at how clean they were and
how the back of the buildings are even more interesting than the fronts
sometimes.
My mate Johnny enjoying the rain
the rain
cool storm
this one was close!
Yeah!!
Also in the afternoon I visited the Washington Library,
which is an amazing huge 9 floor building next door to the hostel. Moving north
I made my way to Daley Plaza, where there is an Unnamed Picasso statue that
stands 50 feet over the square. Its impressive and a really cool place to
mellow out on a hot day. Behind that is ‘Thompson Centre’. This looks like any
normal glass fronted building on the outside, but inside is hollow. You can see
up about 20 stories at the glass roof that towers above you. It’s no wonder
that people describe it like being in an alien space ship. I watched as other
people came in and exclaimed ‘Wow’, as they saw the roof. (I said ‘Fucking
hell’, as I came in) It immediately jumped to the top of my favourite Chicago
buildings list. Outside is a weird sculpture that looked like nothing you can
describe, but the locals know it as ‘Snoopy in a blender’. Enough said.
Snoopy in a blender??
The awesome Thompson building interior
I finally gave in and went to see the Sears (Willis) tower.
After paying to get in, getting through security, and queuing about 5 times to
get lifts and stuff, I finally made it to floor 103. The observatory floor. I
was disappointed. Apart from the glass cubes hanging over the side of the
building, there is not a lot up there. The views from Hancock are better and
with the audio tour you get to know a lot about the city. Here in Willis, there
was none of that. Just a whole load of people and not enough space. After a few
minutes I joined the huge queue to get back down and headed back to the hostel
for a beer and a rest.
It was a brilliant day though – with a great thunderstorm,
shared with Johnny and seeing some other parts of Chicago. I still have
tomorrow here and a huge list of things to see!
Well, I have done a lot more and still have too much to see
before I leave. A stroll along the riverside walk this morning, taking in some
of the history of the river and the cool bridges and buildings brought me out
at Trump International. A stunning building which boasts it looks different
from every angle – It does. It very cleverly designed, so that at each side the
height of the building matches those around it, so even though it bigger than
them all, on all sides it doesn’t quite appear like that. A cool building
though and close by is another one - Tribune Tower.
Unnamed Picasso
The glass ledge103 floors up
The views were good
Trump
Zoom in if you can...bits if buildings from everywhere at Tribune Tower
I passed by this the other day but didn’t stop to look
closer. It actually has lots of parts of other famous buildings from around the
world, embedded into the stone work – so there bits of The Taj Mahal, The Great
Wall of China and Cologne Cathedral amongst many others. I like that, but
wonder if they should be left where they are instead of being taken away for
tourists to see elsewhere. If you want to see The Great Wall of China – Go to
China!! I did!
Further along the river I came across Navy Pier. This used
to belong to the Navy as the name suggests, but is now a centre for families to
visit and enjoy – especially on a hot summers day. There are gardens, rides,
boat trips and a famous Ferris Wheel, that says it is designed just like the
original Ferris wheel (Aren’t they all!?!) It’s a good walk out to the end of
the pier and when I was there, a sailing competition was taking place, so I
watched for a while before the impending storm hit the city again. By the time
the rain started I was back in Millennium Park and so I hid in the Cultural
Centre, where there is a tourist information booth as well as a wonderful
building to look around. Huge windows overlook the park and I sat for a while
waiting for the downpour to stop, with a great view of everyone outside getting
wet.
Navy Pier
The sailing competition
Monument to canoes!?
Rain...lots of it
After mellowing out for an hour back at the hostel, I rode
the ‘L’ out to Midway airport, where I changed to a local bus and finally found
myself at ‘Toyota Park’, home of Chicago Fire Soccer team. (Football, I know.)
Tonight they were playing Vancouver Whitecaps and I was amongst a crown of
nearly 17,000 to watch it.
At Toyota Park
The game wasn’t the best I have ever seen, but Fire won 1-0
even though they had a goal disallowed and were down to 10 men for most of the
2nd half. The crowd was a bit strange. In the first half, I sat in
my allotted seat, which was right next to the away fans from Vancouver – all 40
of them. All around me the home fans seemed more interested in chatting to each
other and hardly watched the game unless Fire were attacking. I moved in the
3nd half though to ‘The Harlem End’, where the diehard home support is. There,
led by two maniacs stood on a metal frame leading the chants, we stood on the
seats and sang throughout the whole of the 2nd half. I joined in
when I could understand what they were singing and couldn’t wipe the smile off
my face. It wasn’t the Stretford End, but with about 300 fans going mental, it
gave it a good shot and succeeded at feeling like a football match. At the end,
fireworks went off over the stadium to mark the victory.
The Fire supporters - comlete with Fire Engine noise!
From inside with the supporters...
...and inside
In with the die hard supporters!
It was great!!
It was a good night out and well worth the entrance fee of
about $25. I now have a football team (United of course – as well as
Bournemouth) hockey team (Jets), NFL team (Bears), MLS team (Fire) and if I
really need to- an MLB team (Nuggets). No way will I ever stoop so low as to
watch rounders though (Baseball).
So that was Chicago – a great city and somewhere I fully
intend to re-visit sometime...maybe when the Bears are playing.....
Its now 6pm and after an easy Greyhound trip, I am in Indianapolis! I arrived at the hostel to find about 20 people in the back garden enjoying what they call 'A festival', loud music is blaring out on what is the 3rd day of a weekend of it. Im so glad I only got here today. I will tell you more about the arrival in Indy later, but for now, I am off out to explore and get some peace and quiet!
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