A rather stunning beach @ Toulon

Normally people from Nice go to Toulon mainly for one reason - to visit Ikea. And that's what brought as to Toulon this Sunny Saturday as well. We had a table to change (we got the wrong colour last time around). Things started off rather badly this time around too - seems that the table was composed of two boxes, and that we had left the other one at home! NOOOO.... Thankfully, turned out we'd actually picked up one of the boxes when we bought the table in the first place - so no need for a round-trip back to Cagnes (and full points to Ikea's customer service!).

After a "delicious" Ikea lunch, we decided to head off to the beach before driving back to Cagnes. After consulting Mr. Google, we ended up in a nice little secluded beach East of Toulon - a real private little heaven, a little rocky bay with its own little port and small hamlet. It wasn't the best possible place for swimming, with all the rocks and cliffs making access a bit difficult, but still much preferable to your typical overcrowded Cote d'Azur beach.

Barbeque in the Vesubie Valley

I've been doing Italian conversation for a couple of years now, and am getting along fabulously with my group. So I was quite happy to accept Henriette's (or Erica, as her Italian pseudonym goes!) invitation to come along for a BBQ, especially when I heard where it was taking place - Berthemont. Berthemont is a village located in the far away Vesubie Valley, in the Park National de Mercantour (in the Alps, basically).

So basically, Henriette and her husband have a house in the Alps, as well as a flat in Cagnes-sur-Mer, for when they miss a bit of urban life and the beach. Not a bad life, eh?

They're property in the Vesubie Valley is, in a word, stunning. The view from their annex, where the party was at, is quite simply great. The place is surrounded by mountains. No complaints about the big garden either.

The party was great fun. Most of our group could make it, including our teacher Annamaria (who's pregnant, and has been replaced by another Italian lady, Anna, over the last few months. Glad to hear everything is going great for her!), Laure, Virginie, Lucie and hubbies.

As expected, the food was fantastic, and the grand finale was, well, grand! (we finished with a pyramid of Champagne glasses, pretty cool!). All in all, not a bad way to spend Ascension Thursday! Grazie mille, Erica e Christian!

East Village and Harlem

Our second day in New York started in East Village, a part of Manhattan we didn't really get to visit on our last trip. East Village used to be a less-than-glamorous part of New York, a real melting pot where immigrants from East Europe, Italy and other parts of the worlds all migrated and mingled. Later on, it was the playground of hippies and the Beat generation. These days, it's gentrifying again, as one can expect, but still retains some of that alternative culture atmosphere, apparently... We were keen to find out!

We started out by visiting the Tenament Museum, a place that brings that immigrant past to life, apparently. We took a tour that told a tale of a typical Irish immigrant family that lived in the area. Very interesting & sort of interactive kind of experience, which tells a personal tale while setting it in an interesting historical context. Well worth the 20 bucks entrance fee!

After a nice lunch in a decently-priced burger joint, we headed for the legendary Saint-Mark's Place, which is kind of the main street of East Village, at least from a spiritual and historical point of view. There are plenty of historic buildings here, bringing back memories of the area's more distant and upscale past (Alexander Hamilton's house is located here, for example). More recently, the place became the favourite part of town for the hippies - a few quirky shops in the area serve as a reminder of those crazy days. A pretty cool street to wander down, all three blocks of it!

Saint-Mark's Place ends in Tomkin Square Park, a nice piece of Greenery, still a focal point for students, artists and other cool people. The sun was out and it was getting a bit hot, so we decided to head for an ice cream. After a quick consultation of Tripadvisor, we ended up having our sugar rush at The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop (c'mon, how could we pass up on a place with a name like that?). It was all very gay (I mean, one of the ice creams was called Salty Pimp, LOL), but hey, what's most important, the ice cream was excellent!

We ended our visit in East Village by checking out Saint-Mark's church (for which Saint-Mark's Place is named, unsurprisingly). Dating back to 1660, it's the 2nd oldest church in New York. The place was shut for visitors, but a janitor kindly let me in and even let me take pictures.

And then, it was time to head down to Times Square for what I'd been looking forward to for quite some time - a proper Broadway Show (Mathilde got me tickets for a stand-up comedy show by none other than Jeff Garlin, of Curb your Enthusiasm fame). After a walk around the theatre district, we made our way to the show. So how was Jeff, then ? In a word, brilliant. The warmup acts were OK, but Jeff really gave me a sore belly after all the laughing. What was brilliant was the guy's ability to improvise and interact with the audience - true comic genius!

We finished our perfect New York day with a nice dinner in a South African restaurant.

The next day, the plan was to visit Harlem properly. We started off by heading to Morning Side park. Amazing, how things can change in a couple of decades. Today, it's a lovely oasis of Greenery - yet 20 years ago this was one of the dodgiest places in New York, full of drug dealers and other dodgy characters...

After quickly checking out the massively impressive Gothic Revival style Cathedral of Saint-John the Divine (it's the 3rd largest church in the world), we headed for breakfast (must get ones priorities right, after all!) near Columbia University.

We then headed off to stroll around the campus of said educational institution. This venerable university is the oldest one in the state of New York, the 5th oldest in the United States, and naturally one of the country's Ivy League Universities. To quote wikipedia, Notable alumni and former students of the university and its predecessor, King's College, include five Founding Fathers of the United States; nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 43 Nobel Prize laureates; 20 living billionaires; 29 Academy Award winners; and 29 heads of state, including three United States Presidents. 'Nough said. The campus was just as one would imagine of an Ivy League University, with a nice Alma Mater statue watching over it all.

After visiting the impressive Riverside Church (built by none other than one John D. Rockefeller), we headed off to check out General Grant National Memorial. Completed in 1892, it pays homage to the Civil War hero (and later president of the United States) Ulysses Grant. There's an interesting museum recounting the "heroic exploits" of Mr. Grant (well, heroic, even if most people tend to be of the opinion that his victory of General Lee had more to do with the industrial might and superior numbers of the Northern states, than the military genius of Mr. Grant). Well, be that as it may, an interesting place to visit.

We then headed back to explore Harlem. And what an interesting neighbourhood Harlem is. It still has a very afro-american feel to it, with folks chilling out in the streets - the place really has a neighbourhood feel to it. I really hope the place retains that unique spirit it has kin spite of the inevitable pressure of real estate prices going up and all that. The gentrification can definitely be felt in many parts of Harlem, with the old Victorian-Era brownstone houses being restored and sold at no doubt lucrative prices...

We checked the main sights in Harlem, starting with the interesting Shomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, a public New York City research library, possibly the largest archives on black history and culture in the USA. Quite an interesting place to visit, a pity we didn't have time to stay for very long.

By now it was time to have a bite to eat after all that walking around in the heat. Our cool Airbnb host Daniel had recommend a place called Dinosaur Barbeque for lunch, and, well, we (or maybe rather, I) just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to have lunch in a place called that. The name is pretty descriptive, big portions and family fun all around. Just the way I like American food.

Our appetites sated, we continued exploring Harlem. We checked out Striver's Row, a collection of late 19th century houses, which was where the succesfull Harlem residents lived after world war I, when African-Americans started moving into Harlem.

The next stop was Apollo Theatre, a real New York and Harlem landmark (such names as Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie from the Swing Era, or more recently, Bill Crosby and Richard Pryor, made their names here). Still going strong, apparently.

But we just really enjoyed walking around Harlem and taking in the very special atmosphere of the place. Unfortunately, we had a flight to catch though. So after saying by to our host Danny (who is so far the coolest Airbnb host we've had the pleasure of dealing with), it was time to head off to the airport.

So how to best sum up our 2nd visit together in the Big Apple ? Well, saying it's one of the great cities in the world is kind of stating the obvious, but well, there you go. It's one of maybe 10 cities that you could easily visit 10 or 20 times during your life time and barely scratch the surface of the place... And just to hammer in the point, Harlem was a real revelation - a place unjustly neglected by tourists (lucky for us, though!). I believe we shall be back one day!

Back in the Big Apple

We continued our American adventure with a few days in New York. We arrived at LaGuardia airport on time, and took the bus into the Big Apple. We were staying in Harlem this time, something I was really looking forward to. Harlem, of course, is the place to explore Afro-American culture in New York (and in the States in General). We were dong Airbnb again, and were able to find our flat without any problems. Our host was the super-cool Daniel, an actor whose done a fair bit of Broadway and a bit of telly too (he even had a bit part in House of Cards, how cool is that ?), who gave us plenty of excellent advice on what to do in Harlem.

It was getting late by the time we'd settled in, but we were still keen to get out and explore Harlem. It was pretty much just as I'd expected. It's still got a very afro-American feel to it, even though it's quite multi-cultural in general (plenty of African immigrants from places like Senegal bringing their own touch to the place). Thankfully, Harlem is a pretty safe place these days - it used to be one of the most dangerous places in New York just a couple of decades earlier. It's gentrifying rapidly - I hope the place is able to retain it's cool and laid-back feel in the years to come... We decided to have dinner in a real Harlem institution - the Red Rooster (which was, funnily enough, founded by an Ethopian-born guy who was brought up in Sweden !). Great place for roasted chicken, that's for sure! Loved the vibe of the place too - with live music livening things up!

We started the next day with a proper, filling, American breakfast in Harlem, after which we headed towards Central Park - the plan was to take on the grand-daddy of American museums - the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or more simply known as "The Met"). Now, The Met has it all: an amazing Egyptian collection, Greek sculptures, Art Nouveau design, furniture, American art, Classical European Art, and one of the greatest Impressionist collections in the World.

Seeing it all in one visit is basically Mission: Impossible. So we decided to concentrate on the stuff that we usually like - 19th/20th Century European Art, in particular the Impressionist stuff. I can confirm that their collection is impressive. We also took part in a guided tour taking in their Japanese collection (of course!). All in all, The Met is of course one of the mandatory places to visit in New York, even though I think we preferred the Art Institute of Chicago in the end I think (seems better laid out, friendlier and also importantly, much less busy. What was funny about the Met was that listening to some conversations, I had the impression of being in a Woody Allen movie... ;)

After a rather indifferent lunch in a posh Italian place near The Met, we headed down to the financial district for the afternoon. Mathilde fancied a bit of shopping, whilst I was quite keen on visiting the Groud Zero City and the museum they'd created there. The reconstruction around the site is pretty much all finished now, with the One World Trade Centre building having been completed just a couple of years earlier. Standing tall at 1776 feet (full points to anybody guessing what that number symbolizes ;-), it's the 4th tallest building in the world (and the highest in the Western hemisphere).

There is also the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on the site of the original world trade centre. Two reflective pools have now replaced the site of the original buildings, and the memorial museum is actually mostly located under ground. It's all quite tastefully done I thought, and the museum is really interesting an informative. What I liked about how it was done is that while it pays due respect to the lives lost, it's all quite restrained, and thankfully keeps "non-political" (I was expecting something more "patriotic" than this, so was positively surprised).

We headed back to Harlem for dinner, deciding to try out the Cecil, just down the road from out flat.  It was a pretty nice little place, serving kind of Afro-American food with a modern/international twist. It was a pretty fancy place for having dinner, with a nice and classy atmosphere. The dishes on the menu seemed really interesting and original - even if the food didn't quite live up to the promise (I don't know, maybe it comes from living in France, the home of haute cuisine - but fancier dining in the US is often a bit disappointing to me...)

More Windy City

The plan was to continue our exploration of Chicago with something everybody tells us is an absolutely mandatory experience - an architectural boat tour. Before the tour, we decided to have breakfast by the Mag Mile - we ended up sitting outside at a cafe just by the Chicago Tribune Tower. I feel it's necessary to write a few words about this magnificent building - one of the architectural highlights of Chicago. Built in 1922 in the neo-Gothic style after a competition (Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen's entry actually came second!). One interesting detail about the building - the exterior integrates rocks from various famous buildings from all over the world. Nice idea.

Breakfast out of the way, it was time to head back to the river and catch our boat. Expectations were high thanks to all the good things we'd heard but also the rather steep price tag... And we were certainly not disappointed! Should you ever be in Chicago, this really is one of the mandatory things to do. The 1 1/2 hour cruise gives a great insight into the colourful history of Chicago's architecture. It's interesting to note how the Great Chicago fire of 1871 kind of wiped the cityscape clean, allowing a bunch of creative architects out-impress each others with the most fantastic designs imaginable. This all was made possible by Chicago's location as a major transportation hub and business centre.

There are too many highlights to list here in this blog - but I suppose I ought to mention Sears Tower (oh, sorry, it's actually called Willis Tower these days...), which was the highest building in the world from 1973 to 1998. Today it's the second highest building in the USA and the 12th highest in the world. It's not the prettiest skyscraper in Chicago, but for sure it's one of the most impressive ones...! Quite interesting how it's built up actually - the skyscraper is actually built as a kind of 3x3 matrix - all of the tubes go up to the 50th floor, whereas only 2 tubes remain at the top (all part of a master plan to make the whole thing stand up).

So, fantastic way to spend the morning, then. We spent the afternoon walking around the Gold Coast neighbourhood.  It's a historic neighbourhood that was built up and flourished after the Great Chicago fire. It's where the Creme de la creme used to live (and still does - looked like a pretty trendy place). It's the place to check out pre-skyscraper architecture in Chicago, plenty of impressive Victorian townhouses to be found in this part of town. Oh, and one more important fact: the original Playboy mansion was located here!

We stopped for a coffee at a real Chicago institution - the Public Hotel. Pretty atmospheric place for a surprisingly reasonably priced coffee. There were pictures of what we supposed were famous people - unfortunately we're not familiar enough with local history to recognize most of the folks featured in the photos.

We continued our walk by heading into Lincoln park, or more specifically Lincoln Park Zoo. It's a kind of rare attraction in the USA, since it's completely free! Unfortunately it was kind of closing down for the day when we arrived, so we didn't see that many animals. Still a pretty nice place to walk around...

For dinner, it was time to try another real Chicago speciality - Chicago style deep-dish pizza. We decided to go to one of the most famous places in Chicago for pizza - Giordano's (these days a chain of restaurants, actually). Now, I knew that Chicago pizzas are known for being, well, rather filling, but I still figured I'd be able to handle a medium-sized pizza. Except that it's apparently for 4 people. So, delicious as the pizza was, I ended up opting for the doggy bag option... So, yet another must-do-activity-in-Chicago ticket off the list then!

The next day (2nd last day in Chicago :( ), we decided to head off and explore South Chicago. We started with a quick stroll around Chinatown. Chicago's Chinatown, even if it is a proper Chinatown, does not quite compare to what New York or San Francisco has to offer. Also, it lacked the usual hustle and bustle one would expect to find in a "proper Chinatown" - I suppose mostly due to the fact that it was early morning. Well, we had a very cheap breakfast, at least.

Our next stop was the Prairie Avenue District. It's another part of Chicago that was very fashionable after the Great Chicago fire, and there are still plenty of impressive townhouses left that hark back to those old glory days when this was the place to be for the movers and shakers of Chicago. This historic district also houses the oldest house in Chicago - the Henry B. Clarke House (these days a museum). The house has actually been moved twice - the original location was much more centrally located.

hWe then carried on back towards the loop, or rather towards Museum campus, a part of Chicago that assembles a bunch of important museums as well as an aquarium and planetarium. The Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears, the local football team, plays) is also located here. It's a pretty nice part of town to walk around, but we weren't feeling very motivated (we'd done a lot of walking over the last couple of days - and my lousy feet weren't getting any better!), especially since the sun kept away hidden behind a cover of clouds). We were treated to some great views over the lakefront and the Chicago skyline, though.

Time for a major dose of culture then - we decided to tackle the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the greatest art galleries of the USA, kind of Chicago's answer to the Metropolitan in New York, I suppose. It's certainly a big place, with loads to see. We spent about three hours there in total before reaching a state of saturation (with a break for lunch at Al's Italian Beef again!), mostly concentrating on the impressionist and modern American works of art. I also liked their collections of miniature room replicas from various periods and geographical locations. What can I say ? One of the great art galleries in the world...

For dinner, we decided to try a proper Chicago steakhouse - Gibson's steakhouse. The verdict ? Can't say there was anything wrong with the meat as such, but I was still underwhelmed.

The next day, 'twas unfortunately time to pack our bags and leave Chicago. But, we did have a few hours in the morning to kill before that. We decided to start our last day in Chicago in style - with a proper American breakfast at Yolk. Muffins, fried eggs & potatos, bacon, bring it on!

The weather was quite gloomy, so we opted for a museum, rather than yet more walking around. After quick consultation of our Tripadvisor App on our smartphone we decided to check out the Driehaus Museum. A good choice. The museum is located in a historic townhouse of a rich Chicago banker. Rather than an accurate restoration of the old historic house, it's a kind of showcase of the interior design, furniture and tastes of the Art Nouveau era in Chicago. We really liked the place - all in all a pretty informative visit, and a great way to wrap up our Chicago tour.

We felt rather sad to leave (well, we had a few days in New York to look forward to, so no reason to complain I would say). Chicago was a real relevation for us. I would say it's almost as much a must-place to visit as say New York, Paris or London. In short, a world class city that has it all: architecture, parks, great restaurants, culture, sports and a character all of its own. One of those places I could well imagine visiting again, in spite of the rather long flight...

Exploring Chicago!

Holiday time again! This time our destination was the US of A. We'd been keen to repay a visit to New York. But, we figured it'd be a good ideas to combine our visit to the Big Apple with something else. So after some research, we ended up on deciding on spending a few days in Chicago, before heading off to New York.


Didn't really know what to expect of Chicago, really. Everybody knows Al Capone comes form Chicago, and I knew it was rather famous for its architecture, but apart from that, I didn't know much about Chicago.

After a routine flight (which allowed me to catch up on the latest movie offering of Hollywood, as always), we arrived at O'Hara airport. After getting through immigration, we jumped on the "L" train (the L is short for Elevated) and headed for the Lincoln Park neighbourhood, where our Airbnb flat was located. Turns out I'd messed up the instructions for getting to the flat a bit, so we ended up heading into the town centre for nothing, but eventually found the flat, located in a nice, lush neighbourhood with Victorian-era flats.

After meeting our host, we decided to head out straight away to explore the neighbourhood. We decided to head off to Lincoln Park (the neighbourhood is named after a big park by the lakeside (Chicago is located on Lake Michigan). It was getting a bit dark by the time we arrived, but it was still pretty nice to walk around the park, checking out the local kids playing baseball, and people just strolling about. We ended up having dinner at a nice enough BBQ place (named Wrigley's BBQ - I suppose due to the proximity to the legendary Baseball stadium Wrigley Park).

The next morning, we got up bright 'n early, keen to properly explore Chicago. We decided to take the "L" to the Loop (which is what the downtown area is called - so named, apparently, because of the tramway that "looped around the downtown area). We were pretty much immediately impressed by the skyscrapers surrounding us. Downtown Chicago certainly impresses pretty much the way Manhattan does. What's great about Chicago is that it's managed to preserve the historic buildings better than New York has - there are plenty of amazing examples of late 19th century and 20th century architecture all over the downtown area.

We decided to do a themed walk around the loop (the theme being public art). We were treated to works of art from such notables as Pablo Picasso (an unnamed 50-feet statue weighing no less than 160 tons), Marc Chagall (the four seasons mosaic artwork) and many others. But the highlight was still the amazing architecture. We really adored the art deco Chicago Board of Trace, dating back to 1930 (adorned with a statue of Ceres on the top), the Marquette building, the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple (a sky scaper church, with a gorgeous interior), the Harold Washington Library Center (the main public library in Chicago - housing a beautiful glass-roof topped garden at the top), just to mention a few of the highlights. We were impressed.

For lunch, we decided to go for a real Chicago institution - Al's Italian Beef. This down-to-earth fast food joint was made famous by that brilliant food show Man Vs. Food (well, it was of course famous even before then). Their concept is deceptively simple - they serve a delicious beef sandwich. And what's so special about this sandwich ? Well it's basically they dip the sandwich in the gravy in which the meat has been cooked (the recipe is of course top secret). The end result ? An absolute delight, and for about the price of a Big Mac menu. Yummie!

Our appetites sated, we headed off to another Chicago landmark - Millenium Park. Located between Lake Michigan and the legendary Michigan avenue, Millenium park was an ambitious city landscaping project conceived to welcome the new millenium. OK, it got a bit delayed, but the end result is pretty stunning, a real showcase of modern architecture (in the positive sense of the word). There are several architectural gems, including a big pavillion for hosting events, the crown fountain and most notable, Cloud Gate. It's a kind of sphere shaped reflective steel structure, which reflects & distorts the Chicago skyline and the surrounding park. A really cool place!

We continued our stroll along the afore-mentioned Michigan avenue. Often known as the Magnificent Mile, or the Mag Mile, it's THE place to go shopping if you've got money. Plenty of fancy department stores, impressive skyscrapers, fancy hotels, and so forth. The spot where Michigan avenue crosses the Chicago river is where the Chicago skyline is arguably at it's most beautiful - with the imposing Wrigley Buildings and the neo-Gothic Chicago tribute building "standing guard" on both sides of the Magnificent mile.

We popped over for Garret's for their (justly) famous popcorns, and then ended up doing a bit of shopping at Macy's. I took the opportunity to visit the Chicago Sport's museum. Chicago has no shortage of famous sport teams, from the amazing Chicago Bulls, to the Chicago Blackhawks (one of the best hockey teams during the past decade) and the "lovable losers" (they haven't won the world series for 106 years!) a.k.a. The Chicago Cubs who play at Wrigley Park, near our flat.

We then headed back to the flat, rather nackered after an energetic day (well, as energetic as it could be considering my feet decided to give me all sorts of trouble since a bit of a sports overdose before our holidays. For dinner, we decided to go for a vegetarian meal (SAY WHAT?!) in nearby Boystown (yes, that would indeed by the gay neighbourhood of Chicago). I had a vegetarian burger, and, well, let's say I prefer the meat version!

The next day, we decided to head down to Oak Park, a nice leafy neighbourhood in the Western part of Chicago. The reason for going to Oak Park is mostly that Frank Lloyd Wright had his home and studio here for many years (actually Ernest Hemingway also used to live here). s The walk from the "L" station to Wright's house was a pleasant one. Oak Park is a kind of idealistic version of what an American suburb should be like, at least in my mind. Beautiful wooden houses with well-kept little gardens lining up the streets.

Visiting Mr. Wright's house was rather an interesting experience. His house was a bit of a architecture laboratory where he tried out new techniques which he would later apply in his more famous buildings. Now, I'm not such a huge fan of all of Wright's buildings, but I really love his interior design and furniture, and this house is a showcase for it. We were also lucky enough to have an excellent guide who gave a great insight into Wright's life, work and influences.

Having checked out his house, we walked around for a bit more in the neighbourhood, which contains numerous architectural gems. Wright designed quite a few of the houses in the area, some of which are pretty cool (others less so - looking a bit like predecessors to some rather ugly architecture we had in the 60's and 70's at least as far as my admittedly untrained eye could tell). Plenty of nice and impressive Victorian town houses as well.

On the way back to the town centre, we walked by Hemingway's house (we didn't feel like visiting another house so decided to carry on without checking out the interior), where we had another brilliant Chicago speciality - a hotdog (as tradition dictates, with mustard rather than ketchup!).

Lunch out of the way, we headed back to downtown Chicago on the L train. We had a walk around the Chicago river area (and taking in the stunning architecture on view - including the rather imposing 423 meter Trump Tower - the third highest building in the US). We then headed on to Navy Pier, which is one of the biggest tourist attractions of Chicago. I can't for the life of me understand why. It's a bit like a less charming and even more commercialized version of Pier 39 in San Francisco (which is vastly overrated to, if you ask me). OK, I suppose it's a nice place if you have kids. Anyway, to be said in Navy Pier's defence, the views towards downtown are great, and they do sell beer ;-)

Having checked out the "unmissable" Navy Pier, we headed back towards downtown, walking north along Lake Michigan, checking out all the sporty Chicagoans having a run or cycling, and enjoying the great views and the sunshine (we were starting to feel luck with the weather, 2nd day of stunning sunshine - none of the fickle weather Chicago is so famous for so far!).

We ended our walk at the John Hancock building (a measly 344 meters high...). The plan was to head up to the top and check out the view (apart from the famous Sears tower, this is THE place to check out the Chicago skyline). But before that - Cheesecake factory - THE place to have a cheesecake. We were even prepared to queue for a table (well, maybe me more than Mathilde, to be honest ;-). And the verdict ? Well, we didn't particularly like the place (it does have a certain, hmm, mass-industry feel to it), but there's no faulting them cheesecakes, that's for sure!

And as for the view from the top ? Predictably impressive... I'm not always such a big fan of these panoramic towers, but in places like New York and Chicago, you just need to see the skyline from the top. So, in spite of the hefty entrance fee, I was at least happy enough to fork out the cash. The view from Hancock tower is particularly great due to its strategic location close to Lake Michigan, along the Mag Mile (so plenty of interesting buildings in sight) - the rivalling Sears tower is located a bit further away from the prettier parts of Chicago.

For dinner, we decided to head West of the Loop, a trendy area for bar-hopping and eating out. We figured chances were slim as far as getting a table without a booking was concerned, but after trying out a couple of places, we ended up in a Japanese restaurant (surprise, surprise!). Not exactly like dining out in Japan, but the food was excellent and the place had a nice, trendy vibe to it. So a perfect way to end a perfect day, then!