Chicago

I arrived yesterday morning in Chicago after an overnight journey from Pittsburgh by train (left).

American trains, like Canadian ones, are rather slow, and this one crawled along at about 20 miles an hour for the last hour an half into Washington.

The sleeper compartments were, to say the least, compact, so compact in fact that I don't think they could accommodate about half of the portly American population.

The track was bumpy, and the suspension was springy, so it was a bit like sleeping on a trampoline for most of the night, but breakfast in the dining car was outstanding.

Lake Michagan from downtown Chicago

Chicago is spectacularly sited on Lake Michagan, more of an inland sea than a lake, with a beautiful
park running along the lakeshore. The city is bisected by the Chicago River and it is justly famous for its modern architecture- and that was the point of my visit, for this last couple of days across the pond.

Here are some photos of the city:

 

Chicago River

 

Chicago's elevated railway circles the city centre

 Day two in Chicago and I travelled to the suburb of Oak Park, famous for the location of an American architect called Frank Lloyd Wright. Here are  two of the houses he designed:

 

In the afternoon I went on another journey into the suburbs, but this time south, to see the campus of the University of Chicago. It is absolutely colossal, but here are a couple of pics of the oldest part of the campus, the main quadrangles;

  

 

And at the very centre of the university there is what some regard as Frank Lloyd Wright's finest house:

Tomorrow evening I fly back to London but not before I hope to have the chance to visit Chicago's Institute of Art. It really is a great city.