Love it or hate it

This morning we had a „Chicago Greeter Tour“, walking tours which are offered for free by volunteers living in a certain neighborhood. Same institution exists in New York. So, we met with Jim in Lakeview and explored the two most interesting neighborhoods: Boystown - the nucleus of the LGBT community - and Wrigleyville.

"Wrigleyville" is derived from „Wrigley Field“, the legendary ballpark which turns 100 this year. It's the second oldest ballpark after Boston's Fenway Park. Since it was the opening day of the Cubs baseball season today, fans were lining up already in the morning for the afternoon game. Peter will attend a game on sunday on an IPW media sports tour while I’ll be eating my way through Chicago's famous restaurants in the meantime on a culinary tour. Our guide - who, by the way, is leaving Chicago each winter for two months to rent a place in some warm place - showed us his (former) neighborhood.

Chilled to the bones we took the train to Lincoln Park, but first we warmed up on the brown line train on a 15 min. Loop sightseeing tour. Checked out things in Old Town - famous for its blues clubs - and walked Schiller and Goethe Street in Gold Coast (fancy homes there!). In the late afternoon we took the train back to the hotel. First thing was a hot bath and a hot tea, second was to accomplish an article on Chicago for AMERICA Journal.

The wind was horrible today, colder than yesterday. „Felt temperature“ ("gefühlte Temperatur") was about 30 deg F instead of the 40 deg F in reality. In such inhospitable weather Chicago is a city hard to love. We didn’t even want to leave the hotel anymore, so we settled for appetizers during cocktail hour in the hotel. And, now, after work is (mostly) done we are watching old series of M.A.S.H., which we both love. It's our favorite TV series besides "Cosby Show" and "Friends". Unfortunately, in the hotel they don’t have Food Network or History Chanel... should we mention that on the comment card???