Today I walked around the city center. My hotel is on Harisson Street, at the bottom of the Chicago Loop (the Bussiness district, named after the elevated railway around the area) and next to Grant Park. Quite an ideal location. From the hotel I walked towards The Magic Mile, the main fancy shopping street. First I went to see Millenium Park which contains an number of interesting pieces o art.
The first is the Crown Fountain, designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. The fountain contains of two towers made of glass bricks and water is falling down from the top. On the facing sides of the two towers are huge video faces, smiling at eachother. And every now-and-then, they pour water out of their mouths or shout out a waterfall from the top of the tower. Between the towers is the fountain itself with unpredicatable squirts of water.
It was quite busy at the fountain as today is Labour Day; a national holliday. Kids running around the fountain and mums and dads running after them.
A short walk further into the park is Cloud Gate; British artist Anish Kapoor’s first public outdoor work installed in the United States. Cloud Gate is a 110-ton elliptical sculpture, forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a “gate” to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.
A short walk further toward the Magnificent Mile you encounter the statue of King Lear by J. Stuart Johnson. The statue is on pioneer square, next to the building of Chicago Tribune. The latter is interesting because all around the building stones from famous places all around the world are put in the building blocks. Even a brick from Leiden:
Across the square is the Chicago Building which is quite interesting as well. One part is older than the other part, and the two are connected by a bridge high in the sky:
When I reached the Magnificent Mile I saw a nice store I -of course- just had to visit 
Around 14:00 I went to the Navy Pier and had a nice seafood salad and a beer for lunch. While enjoying my beer I got a phonecall from Colin & Amy who had just been on a boat ride in Boston. It will be great to see them again in about three weeks 
De ‘openingsfoto’ van Australie is nu dus vervangen door een prachtige foto van kranen. Heel mooi! Verder is het verrassend dat in Chicago zoveel kunst is geplaatst in de stad.
Goede reis verder naar Canada en geniet nog maar even van je vrijheid!