3.7.2012 – 3.7.2012  37 °C

Last day in Chicago today.. We decided that we really needed to see some of this architecturally beautiful buildings today so we headed downtown to check them out. Chicago is renowned for its beautiful buildings so to fully appreciate their beauty and history we decided to get out onto Chicago’s canals to see the buildings up close.

We joined one of the dozens of tourist operators who offer “architectural” tours. We chose to join the tour run by the architectural society.. Hmm.. I like looking at old nice buildings (or in the case of Chicago late 19^th and early 20^th Century decorative sky scrapers) but I don’t really want to know which firm built it and which type of architect inspired the work, or who the architects teacher was etc etc. Our tour guide was obviously an enthusiast and made the trip really quite boring! Added to the lack of interesting discussion about the buildings was the sun beating down on our heads… All in all probably not the most pleasant spend of my morning!

In saying all that, the sky scrapers in Chicago are very impressive. The Wrigley building (built by the Wrigley family of chewing gum fame) is probably the sentimental favourite of everyone. I actually quite liked this greeny black building with the tip of the scraper covered in gold. It’s the Carbide and Carbon building and in my opinion is one of the picks of the city.

The other interesting thing about Chicago is the shallow, rusty iron bridges that are everywhere spanning the canals. These bridges appear to all open up (although in my time here not one of them opened and I’m not sure if they still open up?) and are all quite rusty. This doesn’t seem to be a problem and I guess with the qty of bridges it would be pretty hard to keep them all painted and therefore rust proof? Anyway, they are a nice counterpoint to the big scrapers.

I think the interesting thing about the Chicago skyline is you can see super modern day buildings mixed with 19^th century beauties, mixed with art deco 1920’s monoliths and even some 1950-1970 shockers (this building that reminds me of a corn cob comes to mind).. Well worth the title of architecture capital of the world!

Lunch today was some tasty sushi from the local market before we headed back out into the heat to check out some of the shops on State St. No purchases but nice to wander in and out of some old department stores! The Macy’s building in Chicago is pretty impressive. It is a grand old lady with big fluted columns and a tile mosaic roof (a little Harrods-esk)..  In fact, I felt a bit overwhelmed inside.. too many choices of clothing, to the point where I wandered around and then wandered out!!!

We finished our day by taking a ride on Chicago’s elevated railroad around the downtown loop. The railway was constructed in the late 1940s and it runs above the roads up on huge steel girders. The tracks are laid on top of the girders and wood. It isn’t the smoothest ride in the world.. in some cases it feels more old roller coaster style (the bush beast at the old Australia’s wonderland comes to mind.. you know the type that jerks your neck and back around!!).. but you do get a very awesome view of the scrapers and of course the street. Actually, the more I think about Chicago the more I think of my mental pictures of Gotham City.. Elevated rail lines, big sky scrapers (although not as foreboding as Batman portrays it!).. Chicago tempers the image with lush parklands and the beautiful lake, Michigan.

We’ve had a great time here in the windy city (that hasn’t been that windy) but its time for us to move on and start the next leg of our Eastern Escapade up into Canada and over to the New England area of Nth America.. New York here we come!

Song of the Day– Various, All that Jazz