It’s been a few weeks since I got back off this trip, so a few bits and pieces may be slightly hazy now, but here goes…
I followed my, now regular, summer plan of heading back to the UK for the summer holidays to see friends and family and ****, but taking a couple of weeks “off” within that to have a proper holiday. My original thoughts had been Texas, but flight times and prices weren’t too attractive, so I ended up getting return flights in and out of Chicago a couple of weeks apart and then filling in the time from there.
Serious advice for anyone traveling from the UK/Europe to the USA: go via Dublin. Obviously, if there are decently-priced direct flight options, then no, but if you need to connect anywhere, it’s a great option. First off, prices were decent, but the best thing is that you deal with all the US immigration stuff before getting on the plane, meaning that once you land, you can just leave the airport right away since you arrive at a domestic terminal (allowing for luggage collection obviously). Sure, it means that there’s some extra faff at the start of the trip, but it’s sooooooooo much better to get that out of the way at the start rather than after a long flight when you just want to get the f**k out of the airport and into a hotel room.
Chicago Day 1
My flight landed sometime around 6pm I think. I got the Metro from the airport to a station fairly close to my hotel in Chicago, which took a while but wasn’t difficult. For anyone who knows the area, I was staying just off the Magnificent Mile at the south end, meaning that pretty much all the major sites were within walking distance. It was getting a little late, and I was tired from travelling all day, but I took a quick, 10-minute walk across to Navy Pier which was pleasant enough at night, but I imagine a bit bland during the day.
No creds:
And that was the end of day one.
Chicago Day 2
This would be the first of many pretty full-on days, waking up early and walking for f**king miles getting s**t done. I started by walking up the Magnificent Mile to the John Hancock Centre.
There’s an observation deck up here, which isn’t the highest but arguably has the better views than those from the Willis/Sears Tower.
It had only just opened, so wasn’t busy at all. I ended up buying some tourist pass that got me into some other stuff a bit later. Anyway, the views were excellent.
After staying up there for about half an hour, I just walked back down to where I had started from.
I just continued heading south and ended up at Millennium Park.
It has the fab Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor.
Just past this was the Art Institute of Chicago.
This was on my to-do list at some point, but without a definite plan as to when. Since I was there anyway and it was included in the pass I’d just bought, I just went in. It’s excellent, and huge, with art by pretty much every major name you could think of, including some of their really well-known pieces.
I must’ve spent a good three hours or so in there before heading off again.
The aquarium, despite having a really good reputation, wasn’t really on my list of things to bother with. They’re all much the same thing once you’ve done a few of them, and now that I’ve got Ocean Kingdom not too far away, nothing else comes close.
However, it was there, it was on the pass I’d just bought and was closing a couple of hours later, so I thought I might as well finish off the day there. It was fine. It’s in an impressive old building with an extension for dolphins and beluga whales at the back. There was a piss-poor 3D show included as well.
There’s a planetarium nearby as well, which I wasn’t at all interested in – I think the pass had given me choice of either that or the art museum and I took the art museum – but there were decent views back across to the city.
I had tickets to see The Book of Mormon in the evening, so walked back over to that general area and got some food before the show.
It was amazing. I’d wanted to see it for ages, so was really glad when I noticed that it was on in Chicago while I was there.
After the show, I just took the 10-minute walk back to my hotel.
I intended to get onto the first park in this part of the report, but, as usual, I’ve shoved way too much s**t in here already. Going to eat something and get back to it later. Probably.
I followed my, now regular, summer plan of heading back to the UK for the summer holidays to see friends and family and ****, but taking a couple of weeks “off” within that to have a proper holiday. My original thoughts had been Texas, but flight times and prices weren’t too attractive, so I ended up getting return flights in and out of Chicago a couple of weeks apart and then filling in the time from there.
Serious advice for anyone traveling from the UK/Europe to the USA: go via Dublin. Obviously, if there are decently-priced direct flight options, then no, but if you need to connect anywhere, it’s a great option. First off, prices were decent, but the best thing is that you deal with all the US immigration stuff before getting on the plane, meaning that once you land, you can just leave the airport right away since you arrive at a domestic terminal (allowing for luggage collection obviously). Sure, it means that there’s some extra faff at the start of the trip, but it’s sooooooooo much better to get that out of the way at the start rather than after a long flight when you just want to get the f**k out of the airport and into a hotel room.
Chicago Day 1
My flight landed sometime around 6pm I think. I got the Metro from the airport to a station fairly close to my hotel in Chicago, which took a while but wasn’t difficult. For anyone who knows the area, I was staying just off the Magnificent Mile at the south end, meaning that pretty much all the major sites were within walking distance. It was getting a little late, and I was tired from travelling all day, but I took a quick, 10-minute walk across to Navy Pier which was pleasant enough at night, but I imagine a bit bland during the day.
No creds:
And that was the end of day one.
Chicago Day 2
This would be the first of many pretty full-on days, waking up early and walking for f**king miles getting s**t done. I started by walking up the Magnificent Mile to the John Hancock Centre.
There’s an observation deck up here, which isn’t the highest but arguably has the better views than those from the Willis/Sears Tower.
It had only just opened, so wasn’t busy at all. I ended up buying some tourist pass that got me into some other stuff a bit later. Anyway, the views were excellent.
After staying up there for about half an hour, I just walked back down to where I had started from.
I just continued heading south and ended up at Millennium Park.
It has the fab Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor.
Just past this was the Art Institute of Chicago.
This was on my to-do list at some point, but without a definite plan as to when. Since I was there anyway and it was included in the pass I’d just bought, I just went in. It’s excellent, and huge, with art by pretty much every major name you could think of, including some of their really well-known pieces.
I must’ve spent a good three hours or so in there before heading off again.
The aquarium, despite having a really good reputation, wasn’t really on my list of things to bother with. They’re all much the same thing once you’ve done a few of them, and now that I’ve got Ocean Kingdom not too far away, nothing else comes close.
However, it was there, it was on the pass I’d just bought and was closing a couple of hours later, so I thought I might as well finish off the day there. It was fine. It’s in an impressive old building with an extension for dolphins and beluga whales at the back. There was a piss-poor 3D show included as well.
There’s a planetarium nearby as well, which I wasn’t at all interested in – I think the pass had given me choice of either that or the art museum and I took the art museum – but there were decent views back across to the city.
I had tickets to see The Book of Mormon in the evening, so walked back over to that general area and got some food before the show.
It was amazing. I’d wanted to see it for ages, so was really glad when I noticed that it was on in Chicago while I was there.
After the show, I just took the 10-minute walk back to my hotel.
I intended to get onto the first park in this part of the report, but, as usual, I’ve shoved way too much s**t in here already. Going to eat something and get back to it later. Probably.
