Detroit, MI, USA

In choosing to come to Detroit I didn’t really know what to expect (to be honest, before planning this trip I would have put it somewhere else on a map of the US!).  Leaving, I am I am still not sure (although I know roughly where it is now)!

Obviously Detroit has had its problems over recent years.  Famously the city itself went into bankruptcy a few years ago, and as somewhere so based on auto manufacturers it has struggled during the financial crisis.  However, as you explore move you find that it is a city that suffers from cycles; there have been several other auto slumps over the years that have impacted on its fortunes.  You do see poverty and begging about – although you see that in many places in the US, along with abandoned buildings (there were several that I saw during my trip along Route 66).  I didn’t venture much out of the core central area, but even this comes in waves.  There is a core downtown area by the river, then essentially a rundown “gap” until you get to the area around the main museums and university, and then another gap (where once car factories were) until you get to the “new centre” (which itself isn’t really bustling). 

 

The initial impression I got was probably not helped by the trip to the hotel on a crowded bus in high temperatures along a very dusty road.  The road is actually dusty for a good reason – there is a major investment going on into building a new tram system along the road, but it can give a misleading impression!  Generally there does appear to be some optimism around the city, with a lot of start-up businesses in the area – and the car manufacturers are starting to do better too.  Also, despite the city going into bankruptcy, there are still public services such as libraries about and open (which is better than some councils in the UK are doing in the management of their finances).  The people are friendly – I even got asked for directions by locals a couple of times despite looking very much like a tourist!

I can also report that, as a tourist there is a lot to see and do.  My first stops picked up on some of Detroit’s history.  I went first to the original home of Motown music, which started off from a standard house 9and eventually took over a number of other houses in the road!).  Here you got to see the original “Studio A” where many famous hits were recorded, and find out more about how the label(s) developed.  Strangely, despite a lot of the museum being set out as a standard museum (with exhibits, labels etc) you could only go round on a guided tour.  Interesting to see where it all began.

My next historical stop shared many qualities with this.  The reason Motown was so named is because Detroit is Motor City, with almost all significant US (and therefore world) car firms starting out there.  Perhaps the most famous is Ford, and the Piquette factory is where the company started out and where the Model T was designed and originally built.  Again, you get taken round the museum on a tour – less heavily scripted than at Motown though (I think it depended a bit on the person taking you round) and you are able to go off and look yourself.  It has a collection of old cars as well as the story of the cross-fertilisation between the different car firms at the time (with people leaving one firm to start another).  There is a bigger Ford museum out at Dearborn – which is where the assembly line production eventually took place – but naturally you need to get there by car!

As I mentioned, the Downtown area is somewhat separate and therefore doesn’t have the same tourist attractions that some cities might.  However, it still has a number of things worth seeing, including some impressive buildings from the golden age of Detroit.  There is also a monorail system (the Detroit People Mover), which goes around the limited area of Downtown in a loop.  Frankly, it feels very much like the “Marge vs the Monorail” episode of the Simpsons with a vanity project rather than a useful investment in public transport.  Certainly when I used it there were very few other passengers on it (compared to the buses – the main public transport provision – which were usually packed).  It also spends more time stopped at stations rather than moving; unlike the Toronto Subway which stops for as little time as possible with the People Mover it was possible for me to leave the train, go down two flights of stairs and get half-way down the street before it moved off from the station!  Lovely for a tourist to have a go on (at only 75 cents too) but I would be surprised if there weren’t better things to spend money on!

The Downtown area is where Detroit meets the river.  There is a good area for walking long its side, including a nature garden and fountains for children to play in.  Also there is the headquarters of General Motors and the fantastically named COBO centre.  A short(ish) walk from Downtown (and not served by the People Mover!) is John K King’s Rare and Used book store.  This warehouse of a building has 4 floors filled with almost any book you could imagine and many you couldn’t (if you happen to need a copy of Roy Jenkins’ Mr Balfour’s Poodle they have two!).  Great fun exploring for someone like me, even if I am limited in my purchasing by airport baggage limits!

 

The main art gallery in Detroit is the Detroit Institute of Arts.  This has a large collection spanning the ages (far bigger than I expected!), which it actually takes time to try and explain (what makes a particular artist unique?  How did styles develop?) in one of the best approaches I have seen (and I’ve been to a few galleries in my time).  On a Friday night it is open until 10pm, and also puts on free concerts (which you may have already read about!). 

Also visited in and around this area were a number of other museums and galleries.  The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit only really had three exhibits – and one of them was a painting of President Obama from each day of his presidency, so was a bit repetitive!  The Museum of African American History was interesting and had some good insights.  They did though have an annoying habit of showing timelines that theoretically showed what was happening in Detroit, Africa and the World over the same period, only for the periods to start and end at different years for each row!  Maybe that’s why I appeared to be the only visitor they had (no, it was just early and you had to follow a route which meant I would have been ahead of anyone else).  The Detroit Historical Society museum had a variety of different exhibits on different aspects of the city, including a (small part of a) working car assembly line!

All in all I am glad I went to Detroit.  There was certainly more there to see than I imagined there might be, and it was interesting to get a measure of it as a place.  I will be interested to see how it develops.

 

PS - Richard Branson was in town at the same time I was launching a new route to the UK.  He attended an event at a college I could see from my hotel room window.  It was big news on all the local TV stations (Branson, not me)!

 



Electronic Strings

Whilst in Detroit I attended two concerts, linked by a theme of “electronic strings”.

The first was a gig for the group Clean Bandit.  It you don’t know them, they fuse together classical and dance music (but are much closer to a pop act than anything else).  I have been a fan of theirs for a while now and it was a fortunate coincidence that they were playing in Detroit.  In the UK they would have certainly sold out, but surprisingly the venue in Detroit (which itself wasn’t huge) couldn’t have been much more than half full.  Those who didn’t come missed a treat though – despite not having the guest artists there they usually work with they put on a great show that was very enjoyable.  It also made a change for me to attend an event where I was dragging the average age up (recently I appear to have been attending events whereby most other people are at least 20 years older than me!)

The second was a free concert in the evening at the Detroit Institute of Arts (well, free after you paid to get into the galleries at least!).  They put this on each Friday, and this week was Ashley Bathgate, a solo cellist.  Perhaps not what I would usually go see, but maybe I should.  There were two times listed – 7 and 8:30 – which I assumed would be the same show repeated.  I went to the 7 show which matched pieces by Bach with more modern pieces, some using computer effects such as a delay loop.  At the end I would that the 8:30 show was something different so, after getting dinner and seeing a couple of galleries I had missed (which was my main plan for that time) I went back to catch some of that as well. 

If you are interested:

www.cleanbandit.co.uk
www.ashleybathgate.com
 
However, I know I am (getting??) old, but since when is this ever acceptable at gigs?

Toronto to Detroit by train

One of the keys to making this trip happen was working out how to get from Toronto to Detroit.  My preference is always to go by train - it may not be the quickest way to get about but usually in the USA and Canada it is quite comfortable with lots of legroom and the ability to stretch your legs with a wonder.  Today you tend to get wi-fi (ahead of the UK - and it is free!) and other amenities to make the journey go quickly.  However, there is no train link between Toronto and Detroit...

There is, though, a train link between Toronto and Windsor, a Canadian town literally across the river from Detroit.  You can then get from the train station to the bus station (or a nearer stop) either by foot (as I did) or by bus.  You can then get a bus through the tunnel to Detroit, passing through immigration when you get there. 

From my experience it all worked well, and is a good way of making the trip happen.  As ever there are not frequent trains between Toronto and Windsor (3 per day?) but the times are fairly reasonable and the trip takes 4 hours.  (Incidentally, one of the things that seems odd as a traveller is that there is huge rail infrastructure in both the US and Canada, which only see a handful of train per day - at best!)

I made the trip in business class - I wasn't sure that my case would be light enough for the discount ticket in economy (and they do weigh them at the station so it is worth being sure), so given the rice difference between standard economy and discount business was small, I took the upgrade.  This meant you got breakfast on board - the service is like an airline rather than the frequent trolley service you might get in the UK.  Interestingly, when they serve the meal they serve people holding frequent traveller cards first, and then go back for everyone else!  I guess one of the advantages they get is first dibs on the meal choice, although I had no issues when it came to my choice.

Walking from the train station you have to go past the Detroit-Windsor tunnel to get to the bus station.  However, I found out that there is a stop around the back (from talking to the tourist information office) which removes a little from the walk!  A bus turned up quickly for me - and I was the only person on it!  Rather like a very large taxi I suppose...  It was probably just as well for any other potential passengers as everyone has to get off at the border for processing, and processing me (as a tourist) probably took longer than a local would have (particularly as it wasn't very clear what you should be doing!). Still, I made it!

Toronto, Canada

Never mind the issues getting there - there was certainly a lot to see and do in Toronto when you were there.  Because though of the bag issues (and the fact I hadn't twigged about the Niagara Falls being nearby when I blocked out my trip) I only really had two full days to look about (plus a short explore on my first evening). 

Being up early on my first day I started at the only attraction open at 9am on a Sunday - the CN tower.  This space-needle like building was once the tallest in the world and offers spectacular views across Toronto and for miles and miles beyond. Whilst it is somewhat expensive to go up a small frustration is that you don't get the full 360 degree view - a quarter of the internal viewing area is taken up with a restaurant!  Whilst it is possibly in the less interesting direction it is frustrating nevertheless!  Also up the tower is a glass platform where you can effectively walk with a clear view below - amazing how many people were nervous of it  (it is lightly disconcerting, but I am sure they are not going to let you fall!)

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has progressed over the years from a small house to a huge gallery (which now towers over it).  It was everything a gallery in a place like Toronto should be - a collection which spanned from the traditional to the modern and a focus on Canadian artists (particularly a "group of 7").  One of the notable things was the quantity of pictures on display - whereas a lot of galleries will have them spaced out in some places the AGO had walls covered in them!  It also had a collection of works by Henry Moore and a most fascinating wooden staircase!

To the south of Toronto, in the Ontario lake, are a collection of islands accessible by ferry.  Whilst the afternoon I went there was not the greatest for weather (although not quite raining) it was a good place to get out for a walk and you could see how they would get packed on warm summer days!  it also gave great views back across to the main city.

Casa Loma is a castle-like house built to the north of the main city.  It was built by a rich industrialist about 100 years ago who (after not too many years of living there) ran out of money and it nearly got demolished a few years later.  It is done with great detail (and once included a quarter of all telephones in Toronto!) and also includes displays on his old regiment and classic cars.

The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum which combines elements of the Natural History Museum (including a dinosaur skeleton in the foyer), the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in one large site.  A bit like the AGO it also combines modern and "classical" architecture, with the two buildings almost looking like they have been crashed together.

Also visited in Toronto included the St Laurence Market, the CBC (Canadian Broadcaster) museum, the old distillery district and the university (which was very Harvard-like in its collection of buildings).  There were also a number of art galleries that I would have visited (and indeed tried to) only to find that they were closed for rehanging (will have to come back in a couple of weeks...).

Around town there is a lot of impressive architecture, both big modern skyscrapers and older buildings.  Indeed some combine the two, with a skyscraper being built around an original building.  The old and new city halls are impressive in their own different ways - the new city hall as a piece of 60's architecture that still woks today.  There is also a lot of building work going on across the city (something that I seem to regularly find in Canada).

Getting around is easy - a lot of attractions are within walking distance of each other and if not there is a subway system and even trams still running!  All relatively quick and efficient from that which I saw.  The od thing is buying a day pass which is effectively a giant scratchcard where you just need to scrape off the date for which you want to use it - that and metal tokens for the entry barriers show that there are some aspects still a bit low tech.

So, very much worth the visit (and I could have easily filled some more time) - it is a good job I am writing this on a 4 hour train journey as it means I get a sit down!

Niagara Falls

One of the highlights of the trip I didn't realise that I would have when I booked it.  The Niagara Falls are a 2 hour train journey from Toronto (although with delays it took closer to 3!).  Interestingly, even though I booked the train through the Canadian Rail service (ViaRail) it was actually an Amtrak (American) train that went primarily from Toronto to New York, in a similar way to which I went from Montreal to New York by train a few years ago.  The one disadvantage, though, of it being an American train is that the Wi-Fi only works on the American side of the border so no connection in Canada!

The falls themselves are spectacular.  There are higher waterfalls in the world, but none that have such a vast quantity of water flowing over them.  The main falls, the Horseshoe falls, form (as the name suggests) a semi-circle of water just pouring down.  Also across the river are the American Falls (and smaller Bridal Vail falls) which are also impressive in their own right.  Obviously they are all situated on the American/Canadian border, and there is a bridge linking the two countries right by the falls. 

 To get closer to the falls I first went on a boat trip which takes you close(ish) to the bottom of the falls.  You get decked out in a red poncho on an open-top boat and then go past the bottom of the American falls and into the basin of the Horseshoe falls.  The idea is that you might get a bit wet from the spray from the waterfalls - as it happened we got very wet as it started raining heavily as well!  It is quite impressive, although being on a relatively crowded boat (and in the rain!) is not necessarily the best way to enjoy it. 

Next I went to the Journey Behind the Falls.  Actually first it was a journey to a waiting room where you got to queue up for a long while, but once you took a lift to maybe half-way down the cliff-face you got to see the falls from a new angle.  Probably in my minds eye I had a different picture of being behind a waterfall - walking literally behind it.  Whilst this may make sense for some small waterfalls it obviously makes no sense for something of this power.  Instead there are tunnels in the rock which take you to small holes where you can see the force of the water going down.  You also have access to an area at the side of the falls where you can really see the water going over.

Having seen the falls from below and behind, I then went to see them from above.  The Skylon tower gives you the ability to put the falls in context.  From just walking along you really just see the water going over - it is only from above that you see them in the context of the river and how it leads down. 

Overall, it was very impressive - perhaps not quite as dramatic or alien as the Grand Canyon but still well worth the trip.

A small rant before I get on!

Off again on my travels - Toronto, Detroit and Chicago.  However, getting there was a bit of a challenge!  I had booked connecting flights from Bristol to Toronto via Amsterdam.  The change-over at Schiphol was 50 minutes which struck me as slightly optimistic, but KLM were happy to sell me the flights.  The flight from Bristol arrived plenty early (although it took time for the stairs to come and let us off) and so I was at the gate for the Toronto flight before boarding commenced.  Therefore I easily made the flight and made it to Toronto.  However, my bags were a different story...

I arrive at Toronto and make my way through passport control and wait for the luggage to arrive.  And wait... And wait...

Finally it looks like there are no more bags to come so I go to the desk and ask what's going on.  "Oh yes, your bag hasn't made it".  Well, you could have told me that before I waited that long...  They claimed they "didn't know whether it was on the plane" which frankly is even more worrying!

So, nothing given to tide you over, no concern expressed by the people on the desk, no sympathy, just a "it should be here tomorrow" and on your way.  Eventually it did arrive, on the evening of the next day (well over 32 hours late) and a little worse for wear, having been who knows where?

My issue is this.  My plane from Bristol arrived early.  My plane to Toronto left late.  Therefore, whilst there should have been 50 minutes available there was probably 90.  This implies therefore that it was almost impossible for my bag to have made the plane and therefore KLM should not be selling tickets with such a short changeover.  I would be very interested to see how many bags do not make interconnections such as this (can I raise a Freedom of Information request on a Dutch airline?).

My hotel were a little more accommodating and give a few items to tide me over the night, including a toothbrush, a razor... and a comb.  Not sure what I was to do with that one!

They lost a few brownie point though when the fire alarm went off at the middle of the night (OK 11:30pm but I'd been asleep for a while) that evening.  Fortunately they only evacuated a few floors (and stopped just short of mine) but it was a bit of a rude awakening.  However it showed that their fire alarm comes with a built-in intercom system, and therefore we were getting told what to do which was useful!

Paphos, Cyprus

Another short trip away for some winter sun, this time to Paphos in Cyprus.  And hot and sunny it has been.  Whilst the BBC weather has suggested it will be 22c and cloudy, for the majority of the time here it has been bright sunshine and felt a lot warmer.  A bus suggested that it was 34c the other day which I think was exaggerating it a bit but where it was sunny it certainly was warm!  As time has gone on there has been more cloud about, but generally it appears to sit further inland, remaining bright on the coast.

The area is famous for its historical sites, and the first that I visited was the Tomb of the Kings.  Whilst not tombs of actual Kings, there are several impressive tombs spread out over a wide site, some of which are very impressive.  You have relatively free reign to wonder about the site and get close to all the structures within it.  It is also home to many pigeons! 

The other way down the coast from where I was staying was Coral Bay.  This is a relatively small resort with a harbour and beach, but also a Mycenaean settlement, where you can see the outline of some buildings but also a small domed museum where the most notable thing was the echoes that your feet make within it, as opposed to perhaps the contents itself! 

A more modern historical site is by my hotel, where Agiou Georgiou landed at the start of Cyprus' war of independence against the British.

Within Paphos itself, the main visitor sites are by the harbour.  The archaeological park is a World Heritage Site, containing within it a number of ancient settlements, many of which have impressive mosaics within them.  It is all a bit more structured than the Tomb of the Kings, with defined walkways to keep you off them!  Also within the site are an interesting small theatre set-up (with a key point for projecting your voice to the crowd) and a more modern (11th century?) castle which was mainly destroyed by earthquake just 30 years after being built!

The local area also has a number of other historic sites.  The Fort at the entrance of the harbour didn't have much to see in it, but did let you on the roof to see the views.  There was also a Christian church, surrounded by ruins of previous churches on an impressive site.  Further up the road were some Catacombs , where there were a number of steps down to darker and darker locations.  I followed them down and down, until I ended up walking into a pool of water and getting very wet feet!

Needing to go back to the hotel to dry off, I went back to Paphos the next day, to continue looking around the historic area (including an even older theatre) and then taking a bus up the hill to the main town centre.  Here, there was a market (which was more an indoor market than anything more impressive) and the usual shops and civic buildings.  There were also three museums - the Byzantine museum (which had a small collection of religious paintings), the Entomological museum (which was more of a random collection in someone's house) and the Archaeological Museum, which was the most professional of the museums and also the most interesting, particularly for me as there were a number of contemporary artworks on display alongside the much older findings. 

Getting about has been fairly easy thanks to the local bus network, although there have been a number of times when I have just missed a bus.  Tickets are a fixed price (€1.50) no matter how far you go - as long as it is on one bus.  If you need to change buses then you will have to pay another €1.50.  Thankfully there is also an option to pay €5 for a day ticket.  All tickets come out of a book (and are stamped with a date if it is a day ticket) as opposed to using a ticket machine.

As I often like to note local TV here, the main item of note is that the TV choice in the hotel had BBC One and ITV on it!  How they get them this far away I don't know (I presume it is some remnant of British rule) but means there is something on (allowing for the time difference!)

All in all it has been a good few days here with some interesting sites (different to those I normally visit) and some good weather.