A few hours spare in Chicago was the ideal opportunity to wander around the city for a while, and take in some of the "sights". I say "sights", but most of the good stuff about being in Chicago was more about just being there - being dwarved by the skyscrapers, and walking along streets with railway tracks running on top of them, like in the picture here. It was much warmer than when I was there before, which meant that I could actually notice some of this stuff, instead of freezing half to death.
The biggest Chicago attraction is probably the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, but when you are in the city, you usually wouldn't know it was there. There are so many other tall buildings around, that you only catch a glimpse of it very rarely - it is almost as if it doesn't exist most of the time. So you tend to head for other attractions instead, the most obvious of which is Millennium Park, a fantastic collection of public art, gardens, and an outdoor theatre. The sculpture in this photo is known as The Bean, and is incredibly shiny, so it gives a great reflected view of the city skyline and the lakefront.
Millennium Park being quite new (and this being America), corporations have made their mark - The Bean sculpture is in a part of the park called AT&T Plaza - most original. The other amazing sight in the park is the concert arena pictured here - designed by Frank Gehry, the lattice roof stretches back for quite a way, making a very decent looking place to watch a show.In the time I had, I managed to get a good feel for the city - there aren't exactly all that many major "sights", in the Big Ben, Tower Bridge sense of the word, but walking around Chicago is a classic North American "big city" experience. The skyscrapers everywhere make for the feel of an important place, and there is more than enough there to keep one amused for a few days off. Of course, the $2 for £1 shopping can't really help but be a bigger attraction at the moment, though.
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