CHICAGO,CHICAGO THAT WONDERFUL TOWN (Sinatra,f)

24.5.2014
Never, in a million years did I ever think I would say this....I have fallen in love with not only a city, but an American city.
Wow. Sounds of jaws dropping and humble pie being eaten bit I love Chicago.
To recap, finally got in at 20.45, and easy enough to reclaim bags like an airport .......we were lucky, all the people who had missed connections  through being 51/2 hrs late were in dire straits and a team from PR had obviously been pulled in late on the Friday night of a holiday weekend (Memorial Day, Mon) to pacify, placate and reschedule unhappy bunnies. There may have been a question of compensation but we decided Amtrak had seen us alright so we headed to the taxi rank. Joyfully, our hotel, the Chicago Essex was a mere $10 ride away so we had checked in by 21.30 and they had a brasserie where we had a very pleasant meal. City looked good, weather mild so on finding that Buddy Guy's Legends club was a mere 2 blocks away we trotted off. We decided not linger but just went in to sort something out for Saturday night and were hit by the most glorious wall of blues that made your head hurt....can't book for sat, just first come first served so will take our chance but I don't think the GF is going to enjoy it as much as I will.
So, another excellent hotel, well above our usual pay grade and as ever, very helpful staff.
With the holiday weekend, Chicago is en fete and the hop on hop off was excellent but grid locked as streets were closed due to the huge Memorial Day parade which we watched in various places., but the city is terrific. The skyline is superb, the views along the shores of lake Michigan are stunning, everywhere is so clean and smart and from what we saw today we both agrees that we would have given up LA for another 3 days here as we will never get round to all the places we want to go back to tomorrow.. Top spot, even if I do find myself having to agree with Sinatra.