Day 18 – Chicago, IL

Well, another day off the saddle and I was going to make the most of it. I thought this would be the perfect day to venture out and get a taste of Chicago. I relaxed at Victor’s house until about midday watch TV and venturing into the world of American politics! I then headed into downtown Chicago via the subway. Chicago is not too dissimilar to New York; there is a great atmosphere about the place and you can feel a little dwarfed at times by the sheer heights of the buildings, the architecture is stunning as well as the parks.

The first stop was a food market in what seemed like the financial district of Chicago. I dived straight into the food, sampling away at all the freebies before settling on lamb and spinach pie to start my lunch off. I also stumbled across the Millennium Park, a wonderful example of a contemporary City Landscape, with many different spaces to hide away from the fast paced city. I settled down for my second lunch but let’s say that this wasn’t quite up to scratch and the chef should be purchasing a hair net soon! I relaxed in a coffee shop to catch up on a bit of admin and look at my route out of Chicago.

I headed back to Victor’s house and managed to find my way back without any hiccups or turning into the wrong neighborhood’s !! We went out for supper at a great place just down the road from his. He had been claiming that they did the best fish tacos and that it was such good value it was like stealing! But he was right, they were superb, and I finished the night with a nice big ice cream to pile on the calories for the ride tomorrow! Chicago has been fantastic and a huge thank you to Victor for his hospitality and for my stay in Chicago, I can’t recommend the place enough.