Chicago - more sunny than windy

The start of the Route is in Chicago, so that is where I begin, with 2 nights here. So far, this means that the trip feels much like any other holiday I would take - looking around a big city, visiting art museums, taking photos of big buildings...

Chicago itself is full of skyscrapers (as you can see from the photos). It is perhaps the birthplace of them, and still has some of the highest buildings in the US. Architecturally it is very interesting, with lots of interesting designs and evolution over time. There is a little bit of ti that reminds me of Hong Kong (lots of skyscrapers on the waterfront) -Hong Kong if it had a lot more space anyway!

The weather here has been incredibly hot for the first couple of days - mid 90's in Fahrenheit and very sunny. Fortunately it has not felt too oppressive - and everywhere is air conditioned anyway. Apparently in winter it is covered in feet of snow, which would be a big change! Having said that there is a big change this morning when the weather has broken with thunderstorms and is now mid 60's as opposed to mid 90's!

What have I done here? After flying in on Tuesday I visited the Millennium park (the picture below is of the city skyline distorted through a sculpture there) and the Contemporary Art Museum (which was free as it was a Tuesday). Here there were exhibitions on both a German artist and a Los Angeles artist, linking both where I have come from and where I am going!

Wednesday I went to the Art Institute Chicago. This was much more impressive than I expected - a large collection of which a surprising amount was more modern. In terms of the range possibly the best comparison I can come up with is the V&A in London. Later I went to the Chicago Cultural Center to see a couple of exhibitions there and then onto the Hancock tower to take in the views across the city (and the coastline of Lake Michigan). On the way back I passed a local news team interviewing someone in the street and may well have appeared in the back of shot (although as it would have been live I will never know). Finally I had a walk around the Buckingham Fountain which you can see below.

Overall, a really good couple of days (and I have only scratched the surface of the city). However, there is a road ahead calling my name so I'd better get going!