Day 1 - Back in the USA

Oh Great - Apparently we can order drinks from the comfort of our aircraft seat by swiping a credit card into the bottom of the tv screen in front of you. Suddenly Jackie has turned from computer technophobe to tech savvy in an instant. 2 small bottles of red wine just $14 - bargain.

The windows on the Norwegian Air Dreamliner are 65% bigger than conventional aircraft windows, which afforded us great views of the icy tundra of Quebec, Canada, then Lake Michigan & Chicago below.

After 8 hours our Flight DI1715 landed at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago at 1820 hours Central Time Zone. The captain announced that the outside temperature was a positively balmy 26 degrees. Looks like we will be carrying our puffa jackets!

Immigration & Customs was painless, then we took a shuttle bus from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 to catch a CTA Train into Chicago city centre.

My extensive research told us that we need a CTA 3 Day Ventra Ticket that would would give us unlimited Train & Bus use around Chicago. These tickets could be bought from vending machines at the airport for $20 each.

Having located said vending machine, we tapped in our requirements, then attempted to pay. Every payment card, credit card & debit card was rejected. Brilliant, we would have to pay cash then. Jackie dug deep into her rucksack to retrieve her purse, then pulled out a wad of US dollars that she had obviously been practicing origami with. They were creased & folded in all directions.

Jackie tried to stuff the crumpled dollars into the machine, but funnily enough it kept rejecting them. I hurriedly tried to straighten them out as the machine repeatedly kept asking us if we wanted to abort the transaction as we were taking too long. After about 20 attempts, we eventually got 4 $10 dollar bills to be accepted & the vending machine spat out out tickets.

More stressed that we should have been, we boarded the CTA Train on the Blue Line to Chicago city centre. After 19 stops & 1 change, we alighted at ‘Chicago’ the nearest stop to our hotel.

We carried our rucksacks, well Jackie dragged hers, the short distance to our hotel, the Warwick Allerton Chicago. Nice ‘Executive King Room’, we dumped our luggage, then headed out for some much needed refreshment.

We headed alone the Magnificent Mile & very quickly came across the Labriola Ristorante & Café which appeared to suit our requirements. We sat at the bar (when in Rome) & consumed a couple of pints of a local beer - Half Acre Pony Pilsner. The problem with sitting at the bar is people can sit next to you & some old boy did just that. He tried to engage me in conversation, but I wasn’t really in the mood for it.

Chicago is well known for it’s Deep Dish Pizzas. Neither of us likes thick pizzas, but luckily for us Labriola claims to be the best in Chicago! So, (when in Rome) we ordered a 12” Danny’s Special Deep Dish Pizza, which contained Russo Sausage, mushrooms, green peppers & onions, as well as a large vat of mozzarella cheese.

We managed about a quarter of it between us, then the very pleasant barmaid boxed up the rest for us to take home. We tried to find a homeless person, but couldn’t, so we chucked it in a bin.

By 2300 hours we were back at the hotel, where we crashed out.

Song of the Day - Back in the USA by MC5Read more