Our North America trip: City 5 – Chicago

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Time flies! We have just left Chicago, the 5th destination (after Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles) on our “tour” to meet our Spotters in 11 North American cities.

What a magnificent city! Here’s some of the highlights of our short trip to Chicago:

Meeting our Spotters

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Last year we met 2 of our Chicago Spotters in Amsterdam (Meghan even came over for the Spotters weekend!). Here in Chicago we met 5 of our 6 Spotters at Mexican BYOB restaurant La Maya (soon online), where we had a lot of good laughs!

Our Chicago Spotters all have very different interests, but they’re a great team! The team regularly meets up to discuss strategy, write new articles regularly. This is why the Chicago city guide is one of our best performing city guides in North America.

Stanley Cup finals with our hosts (+ dog)

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Payton – our Roomorama host’s dog

 

When we arrived in our Roomorama apartment, we were immediately invited to have beers and join in watching the Stanley Cup finals. That night the Chicago Blackhawks won the cup at home in Chicago, for the first time since 1938. We heard fireworks everywhere – it was a memorable event for Chicago and for us!

Cycling around Chicago

Sanne on Divvy bike

Sanne on Divvy bike

When there’s a bike sharing system in a city, we love trying it. In many cities, it’s difficult for non-locals to get access – either because registration is compulsory and complicated or because there are no day passes. The Divvy system in Chicago is super easy and useful for visitors. The 24 hour passes are US$ 7.00 – much cheaper than using public transport.

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Exploring Chicago by bike is ideal, because it’s relatively flat, car drivers Chicago are polite to cyclists (even though we accidentally ignored quite a lot of stop signs…) and because you will end up having to stop often to take pictures – what a beautiful city full of amazing architecture!

Pilsen

Pilsen

Pilsen

Our favorite district we passed on our cycle journeys around Chicago was Pilsen (a.k.a. Pl-zen). We liked the semi-rough feeling this part of town has, loved the original political street art, the many Mexican places, quirky shops and trendy coffee places.

Fulton Market

Fulton Market Chicago

Fulton Market Chicago

Another district we really liked is Fulton Market – a district full of historical warehouses. Many of them are still in use, others have been converted to trendy restaurants or shops. Like Pilsen – it’s a very cool neighborhood but does not (yet?) seem to have been “discovered” by masses of visitors. We love places like that!

It was a pleasure experiencing Chicago like a local… Blackhawks, Chicago city and especially our Spotters: thank you very much!

Last Changed Date: 2016-05-19 11:45:13 +0200 (Thu, 19 May 2016)