Chicago

Sunday, 15.Oktober

Some days are best when they are over….

• Actually, the day doesn’t start off too badly, we make it to the earliest shuttle, which is actually already fully booked (but still has enough space), and so we have plenty of time at the airport to check in our luggage and get through the long security check to the gate in good time.
• Our flight is on time and we land in Chicago as planned.
• That’s where the trouble starts: Hertz won’t give us a rental car because they don’t accept my card as a credit card (which had worked all those times before without any problems…), after several phone calls back and forth with Hertz USA and the ADAC (from whom we rented the rental car), there is no ad hoc solution that Hertz will accept and so we are “stuck in Chicago” – well, there are perhaps worse things than being stuck in Chicago, but it’s not exactly a good start to the Route 66 trip.
• What’s more, we miss the Wachstumsrunde (where we meet up with friends of ours regularly) because of all the excitement of the rental car, which makes us a bit sad.
• We decide we need a nice hotel to relax in and book a room at the Hampton Inn & Suites, part of the Hilton chain, which I already know because we stayed here at the Chicago conference last year.
• It’s still as nice as I remember, breakfast is included, which is a plus, and our room is ready when we finally arrive, which is exactly what we need.
• So we retire to our room and do nothing for a while before thinking back and forth about how to solve the Route 66 dilemma.
• We find a reasonably cheap rental car three days later and decide that, firstly, the three days in Chicago will do us good as relaxation and, secondly, Chicago is a super nice city to spend time in.
• To my delight and to save the day, we find a really nice and beautifully decorated ramen restaurant just around the corner, where we finally eat something other than American food – it’s super tasty, although the portions come in huge bowls – so the restaurant seems to have adapted a bit to the American culture.

Monday, 16.Oktober

The Famous Fish und drunk Shakespeare

• At breakfast we meet a Japanese couple, he is 78, she is 77, and they have been married for 54 years.
• They are just as keen to travel as we are and, fascinatingly, at almost 80 years old, they are still on the go: they are traveling through the USA and Canada for two months, visiting numerous friends (in LA, Toronto, The Dalles, etc.) and are now spending three days in Chicago – just like us.
• We get to start talking because she and I ask ourselves together: Is it actually raining? And when we see a woman running around with an umbrella, she points at the lady and says to me: “Ooh, nooo, it’s raining, look!” and thanks to indescribable and only situational tragicomedy, we have to laugh about it together – it’s really hard to put into words, but such moments somehow build up a strange kind of bond – as does, of course, the fact that all four of us have been traveling in a country where many things are different from how we know them at home.
• The couple tells us how they feel that all the traveling is also quite tiring. Especially after yesterday we can only agree wholeheartedly – even though you mostly look at it romantically and only take photos and talk about (or write about) the moments you enjoyed.
• Straight after breakfast, we set off for Robie Haus, for which we have actually managed to get tickets.
• We take the metro south and, like last year when we were here for the conference, I notice that from 33rd Street at the latest, but actually from Jackson onwards, the people on the metro are predominantly black, until you leave the metro station and head towards the lake (east) and suddenly come to the university area, where there are lots of (predominantly white) students.

• The Robie House was built in 1908 by Frank Lloyd Wright and was one of the main buildings shaping the Prairie Style – it was commissioned by Robie Junior, whose father ran a large company that seemed to be making a lot of money – which turned out to be a mistake when the father died and a pile of debts came to light. Therefore, the Robie Junior family did not live in their dream house for very long before they were forced to sell it.
• The house itself does blend in with its surroundings from the outside and a feature of the Prairie style is the elongated, rectangular yet very flat shape, which is emphasized by the row of continuous windows.

• Apparently no one had warned the Robies, who moved here from the south, that it could freeze in winter – which is why all the water pipes of the very thought through watering system for the flowers were broken after the first winter.
• Almost more fascinating than seeing the house from the inside, by the way, is watching our guide bring the house and its history to life with total enthusiasm – he’s been doing this tour for 30 years and is a real Robie Haus fan!

• Afterwards, we take a tour of the surrounding buildings, which also takes us across a small part of the University of Chicago campus and past villas where directors etc. used to live.

• We take a walk to the Plein Air Cafe, where I had brunch with Simon and Iordanis a year ago and where- to my delight of course- there is a bookshop located right next door, although it specializes more in university books.
• We take the bus back to downtown Chicago, where we take a walk through “The Loop” district, through which the famous iron loop of the metro runs.

• The district is home to many theaters, restaurants, stores, the Willis Tower and several works of art, including one by Picasso.
• We also take a look inside the impressive Art Deco hall of a high-rise building, which was also designed by Wright.

• We also pass the Art Institute of Chicago, which is located right next to Millennium Park at the lake. This is also where one can find the Bean, which is currently closed off, and the famous fish.
• The fish is not actually a fish, but an open-air concert venue that regularly hosts classical concerts in the summer. It was built by the famous architect Frank Gehry, who – as my travel guide said – was inspired to create the shape by a dish his grandmother liked to cook, a kind of filleted fish (see for yourself in the leftmost picture).

• Then it’s on to the best part of the day: We have tickets for a performance of Drunk Shakespeare (which I’m now attending for the third time, I’m a real fan). Five actors perform a Shakespeare play together, where one of them drinks several shots at the beginning and an extra shot here and there and the whole thing is handled with humor and a bit of spontaneity in the texts – a kind of Shakespeare improvisation with comedy. It’s very funny and we also have fun as an audience, especially because you are always involved or speak along – a bit like the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tuesday, 17.Oktober

A conservatory zoo…

• At breakfast: Two mothers, each with a child, discuss what they should do today (so loudly that I simply have to listen) – one wants to go to Lincoln Zoo, one child whines: “Noo, Science Museum”, the other asks: What’s so special about the zoo? Looks it up, says, “It’s conservatory”, silence, then a child: “Mum, what’s conservatory?”, Mum: “Mmh, ooh, it’s hard to explain in words…”
• We chill in the room for a while before we head south again and our first destination is…. Dadada… a café =) Yeah!

• We chill and have some coffee and tea there before walking to the shores of Lake Michigan to the Observatory, Chicago’s planetarium.
• Unfortunately it’s closed today, which isn’t a problem as the weather is too nice to spend the day inside anyway (she said and drank coffee inside for two hours…).

• We walk back along the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan on a really nicely created footpath, with a wonderful view of downtown Chicago all the while standing out beautifully against the bright blue sky.

• Once there, it’s time to head off to the musical “Hamilton”, for which we have tickets and which is playing in the famous Nederlander Theater.
• The theater itself is well worth seeing, the musical less so.

• Nevertheless, it’s great to be back in this lively city with lots of character and charm!
• That’s it for Chicago, tomorrow we’ll set off from here on Route 66, more on that you find in the next blog entry.