19/09/12: Chicago by Day

An early post, as we’re off to dinner in a little while followed by more sightseeing. It promises to be a late night.

Today was taken up with touring the city by bus…


..and by boat. The latter took in the architecture of the city from the water. Like all the cities we’ve seen so far, Chicago is a curious mix of quite old (1800s – it was once almost completely wiped out by fire) and the new, and with construction everywhere, it seems to be in a constant state of renewal.


We've found Chicago to be delightful: the CBD is huge and modern, the parks are awesome, easy to navigate and the people are friendly. It is much less crowded than New York and definitely much less the museum that Washington DC seems to be. With the elevated railway track through town, it is easy to see why its character makes it popular with movie makers (Spiderman and I, Robot are two that immediately come to mind).

It is surprising the number of university campuses that can be found adjacent to the CBD, sitting is what one would think is prime real estate.

The weather has been great save for the awful south-westerly that gives us shivers. But we set off for Minneapolis for another two nights, and it is promising to be cooler again.