I have to admit to knowing little about Chicago. After a few hours on an open topped bus I can now drop a few names: Al Capone (who came here from Brooklyn to take over the alcohol distribution during Prohibition); Mies van der Roehe (Bauhaus, less is more); and apparently David Schwimmer (from Friends, who founded a theatre called the Looking Glass theatre, where Alice in Wonderland is playing). And Oprah who lives on the Chicago equivalent to Rodeo Drive.
I have booked in for the night at a downtown hotel. It will be nice tonight to have a comfortable queen sized bed, an ensuite bathroom (with bath!!!!), a towel big enough for my body, and a carpet without bits missing. All of these things are absent at my hostel. Of course you get what you pay for: the hostel is $47 a night. The cheapest hotel I could find with air con was $168 including taxes.
Air con was important because my hostel room is an oven. When I made the decision to book a hotel last night for today, it was in the late 80’s outside (that’s Fahrenheit, not the decade). My room was still in the 90’s all night. It’s probably cooler now, as it has been drizzling all day. I won’t know, because I can control the temperature in the Essex Inn. Right next door to the Hilton, and across the road from the Art Institute.
One of the things I know about Chicago is they have some Joseph Cornell boxes at the Art Institute. I know because it’s mentioned in the novel “The Time Traveller’s Wife”. And the time traveller himself works at the Newberry Library, which apparently has some cool old manuscripts, so I will get to both places.
For now it’s pasta for lunch, and I’m hopping back onto the double decker bus in the rain, to see and discover more of what I didn’t know about Chicago.
Picture: a streetscape.
