All pictures CC-BY
Fabian M. Suchanek
Trip to Chicago
Chicago River
Welcome to Chicago!
Chicago is located at Lake Michigan — one of the Great Five Lakes in the North of the US.
The lake is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via Niagara Falls.
Map by Uwe Dedering
Channels bypass the falls, so that ocean-going ships...
... can arrive at Chicago port.
This is what made Chicago boom: boats would drop off settlers, and load crops and other goods from the Great Plains.
From Chicago, it is just a few kilometers to the water basin of the Mississippi. So people dug a canal that connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi.
Map by Uwe Dedering
This canal (shown here) thus connects the North Atlantic to the Mid West, and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico.
The South Chicago River (shown here) usually flowed into Lake Michigan. Since it’s part of the canal, it now flows out of Lake Michigan.
The canal is called “Sanitary and Ship Canal”, because Chicago gets its clean water from Lake Michigan...
... and dumps its waste water into the canal, bound for the Mid West.
Chicago Streets
Chicago is a very dense and lively city, and so people had to come up with a number of smart transport solutions. There are first some snail-shaped parking lots.
Then there is the “L” — the subway of Chicago (shown here crossing a parking lot; view from my hotel).
It is called “L”, because it runs on “L”evated tracks through the entire city.
Many streets, and even many bridges, have a parallel line of tracks running above them, as shown here.
In addition, Chicago streets run on three parallel levels, one above the other. The top level is the “normal” street level...
Map by SPUI
...the second one is shown here in the middle. The lowest one is shown at the bottom. Note that it’s a real street, with cars, middle line, and traffic lights.
Museums
The Adler Planetarium shows the
first
manned US space capsule. The two inhabitants spent 4 days sitting in this capsule side by side.
The History Museum tells us that Catherine O’Leary’s cow caused a fire in 1871 by knocking over a gas lamp. The O’Leary and her cow were exonerated from guilt in 1997 by the Chicago City Council.
If you ever wondered how much space your first million US dollars will take, come to the Chicago Money Museum.
It explains how to run a bank, how to run the Fed, and when to raise interest rates. Different from what its name suggests, the Money Museum is for free.
It also houses an
accurate model
of the French bureaucracy.
The Shedd Aquarium was for some time the largest indoor aquarium in the world.
The Museum of Science and Industry would deserve a blog on its own.
Food
Now to food. This is what they served on the flight here. I wonder why they had to remove a passenger by force from the plane...
This is the famous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at Gino’s. It’s just as inedible as it looks.
This is Chicago’s famous sliced beef sandwich, served in a croissant. Yes, you read that right: it’s a croissant.
Then there is the famous “Chicago style hot dog” – otherwise simply known as “a hot dog”.
Chicago’s famous Garrett Popcorn — with a surprisingly bad ratio of sugar to taste.
But fortunately, there is also Yolk’s. Gorgeous breakfast.
This is the part of the American Cuisine that they should import to Europe. Not MacDo.
The “French Berry Toast” – unfortunately completely unknown in France.
Yolk is closed in the afternoon. Fortunately, for dinner, God invented the “TGI Friday” restaurant chain.
Chicago Streets
This water tower was the only building that survived the previously mentioned great fire of 1871.
Today, the city is full of colorful skyscrapers...
... one of them standing only on a small strap...
...and others being curved.
My week here saw temperatures between 10°C and 30°C. Chicago is called the “windy city” for a reason.
The Ferris Wheel was invented here in 1893 for the World Exposition, to rival the Eiffel tower of Paris.
The streets are generally clean...
...but maybe the local prison is very crowded.
Signs like this help keeping the city safe.
The US does not implement the EU directive that stipulates that modern art has to be ugly and dull by law.
Even the shopping mall has an artsy feeling to it.
Millenium Park
The Millenium Park is clearly the masterpiece of the city.
Its most famous inhabitant is the Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean”. It’s fun from the outside...
...and from the inside.
The BP bridge is named after its sponsor. It was designed by Frank Gehry and crosses the motorway like a snake.
Gehry also designed the local bandshell.
The Millenium Park also houses a playground...
...and climbing walls (front: beginners; back: advanced).
Mediation is a local Ersatz-religion (“Feel the goodness”, says the animator, “Allow yourself to be happy”). Easy.
The portable toilets in the park have a hand-washing station in front of them — with water, soap, and paper towels. I wonder why I have never seen that in my adopted home country.
The Crown fountain is also fun...
... in particular when the box becomes animated...
... and comes to life.
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