Chicago; Sunday, 21 April, 2019

I was quite surprised that, despite the amount of food consumed, I got a decent nights sleep and actually woke up after breakfast service had started. This did mean that I was running late as I had intended to get out of the hotel early as I, correctly, predicted that there would be a long queue for the Willis Tower Skydeck even before it opened.

It was only a short walk from the hotel to the entrance, if anything the walk to the back of the queue snaking its way halfway around the block was longer – though it was quite deceptive as the tower clearly caters for very big queues and once the doors opened and we started moving it kept flowing almost the whole way to the lifts. Less than 20 minutes after doors opening I was already on my way up to the 103rd floor, and there had been a good 10 minutes walking and only a brief stop at security prior to that.

The views from the highest observation point in the city are spectacular, particularly on a very sunny and clear day with (apparently) four different states visible – the most impressive feature though being Lake Michigan, looking to all intents an purposes like a sea rather than a lake.

One of the main attractions of the Skydeck is the Ledge – which are four toughened glass boxes that extend from the floor so that you can stand in a glass box suspended 103 floors up, seeing straight down to the road over 1000 feet below you. Though to deal with the sheer numbers you only get 60 seconds in a box which you have to share with one other group.

After taking in the views I headed back down the tower to the ground and walked round the corner to the Big Bus stop where I arrived at the same point a tour bus was coming round the corner. I took the tour bus round to the lake side and had a long wander through the impressive Maggie C Daley park and the Millennium Park. The latter is home to one of Chicago’s modern symbols the Cloud Gate, or Chicago Bean – a highly polished stainless steel sculpture originally designed to resemble a drop of mercury, but to everyone just referred to as the bean.

From the bean I wandered back through the downtown roads in the loop to find somewhere for lunch, and after lunch had a bit more of a wander before picking up the last Big Bus tour of the night for a final tour round the city.

Tour finished I wandered back to the hotel to freshen up and then, once the sun had started setting, headed back to the Willis Tower to take advantage of my free evening ticket to go back up to the Skydeck. In the early evening this was even quicker than the morning with me only stopping to put my camera bag through the security scanner and to wait for the first lift to come down.

Back up on the observation floor I took in the sights of Chicago at sunset and into the early night – with the lights of the city making it light up the night. I eventually headed back down in the lift to ground floor and walked round to the L Train station to pick up the train a couple of stops round to Millennium Park and revisited Cloud Gate at night – where it was easier to view the sculpture as there were only dozens rather than hundreds of people around.

I stopped for a quick dinner in downtown before heading back to the hotel and turning in for the night.