March 11th - 20th, 2010, Chicago & Cleveland ...
| As we have a contract in the US since last November, we decided to do one trip together ... and add two days in Chicago ... |
Chicago
So on Thursday we flew via Stockholm to Chicago, where we arrived at 12:30. We took a taxi to our hotel (downtown) and started to explore the city. This was the view from our hotel room (25th floor)!
Luckily, one of my customer's customer (Pepsi) was born in Chicago and gave us many tips around the city ... one of it being the hotel Omni, right in the centre of everything!
First night we followed a recommendation of the hotel and had a superb dinner at the "Devon" seafood restaurant ... just around the corner of the hotel ...
... here the two of us having dinner ... quite a bit tired! ... see the curious woman in the background ;-)
As Chicago is the hometown of Blues, we wanted to visit one of the famous blues clubs in the travel guide ... but the guy from the hotel recommended "Kingston Mines", being the best in town at the moment ... and it bloody hell rocked there! ... here the bar ...
... the guy announcing the band ... just read the t-shirt ...
... and here the band: Joanna Connor ... two guitars, bass, drums, an amplifier and boxes: wow! ... see the Obama picture in the background!
... and here the extra-cool guitarist ... it was just great to experience! After that we fell into bed ...
... and started exploring the city next morning, 7:30! We were lucky with the weather during the day ... here the Millenium Mile ... main shopping street in Chicago ...
... here the water tower from 1869 that - surprisingly - survived the big fire in 1871 ... we have to say that there are a lot of interesting buildings there ...
Loved this "greatest bar below the earth" ...
... and Chicago Police got new "moving around equipment" ... some police quads ...
Here the John Hancock Center, where we had dinner that night ... see below ;-)
We headed north and crossed the Chicago river ...
... saw the elevated railway with its stations ...
... and a slightly "odd" guy, shooting at everything with his umbrella ... ;-)
Here the railway approaching ... the sound exactly as in the movies ... see below ...
Then we went to the "Cultural Center", where free city walking tours were offered from the "Chicago Greeters" ... here inside the building ...
Volunteers took us around for approx. 1,5 hours ... here a mosaic in this building in German language: "O sweet voice! Very welcomed tone of the mother tongue in a foreign land!"
Here - we were told - one of the first skyscrapers ... with a steel construction inside and the facade attached to it ... at its time it was outstanding ... ... the windows with the two side-windows on top of each other are famous and known as "Chicago windows" in architecture ...
But now to something completely different: Of course Thomas wanted to see the places of his favourite movie "Blues Brothers" ... here some roads, the fans might remember from the chase ...
... and of course the city hall, where the movie ends ... the building on the right is the one, they drove through the glass windows ... ... Note: the green fountain due to St. Patrick's Day ...
... and - how great is that - the elevators, Jake and Elwood took upstairs ...
... and they even had an "assessors office" sign with "cook county property taxes" on top!
Here another side ... also a job ...
... here Cynthia with our guide "Joe" ... really a great guy full of information about "his" city ...
... here the two of us ... legs already hurting ...
... and the second best photo this time: "homeless but not phoneless" is the title ... ... how things have changed the last 15 years: in 1995 it was a luxury to possess a mobile phone ...
Then - already clouding over - we went all the way up the "Sears Tower" (or now called Willis Tower) ... where Cynthia stood on the glass ledge ... 400m above the ground ... Thomas couldn't do it ...
And here the best photo: if you thought that whales only strand on beaches ... they also do on glass ledges in Chicago!!!
Last but not least during our walking tour, we visited the "bean" at Millenium Park ...
... and had fun with the distortions ...
This afternoon we recovered with a drink at the hotel bar and wrote post cards ...
... here the classical American bar with a TV ... drowning all conversation ;-)
This evening - our anniversary - we booked a table on the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower ... to enjoy a nice dinner with the total skyline of Chicago ...
... but this is the fish bowl we got!!! Completely covered in clouds, we could not see 1 (one!) light ...
... but on the other hand, we didn't suffer vertigo and - we have to say - the restaurant is at least ridiculously over-priced!!!So we have to say: Chicago is a really great city and one day was definitely too short; but we plan to come back one day!
Cleveland
Saturday, we headed towards Cleveland for work (flight was cancelled, so we were 3 hours late) ... and Thomas introduced Cynthia to "Brown Derby Steakhouse" with its wonderful steaks! ... here together at the bar with our customer and now friend Gregor ... 
Cynthia had the free time to trace her roots and actually found her grandmother's old school... she was born in Cleveland ...
... the Hathaway Brown School, founded in 1876 ... a very nice person from that school actually gave her a book about its history ...
Wednesday night, we could actually leave site at 6pm to head towards downtown Cleveland to visit the birthplace of rock'n roll ...
... the rock'n roll hall of fame ... here with Gregor and us in front of it ...
We have to say, this museum is really great and we could have stayed 5-6 hours instead of the two we had (museum closes at 9pm on Wednesdays) ... here Pink Floyd "the wall" ... inside the museum, no photos allowed ... sorry!
Here some "Trabbis" (east German car) hanging in there ... we didn't get the gist, why ...
... and here, as we left, the museum at night ...
This was our last dinner / drink with Gregor at Ruby Tuesdays in Streetsboro ... the "home" restaurant of Gregor and Thomas when there ...So it was good for Cynthia to see Thomas' work in Cleveland ... now she can picture him, when talking on the phone!