Chicago, day 1, a park, a pavilion and a bean

Getting slightly footsore we made our way to Millennium Park. The citizens of Chicago are fortunate to have a green sward that runs 23 miles from the city's southerly end to it's northern suburbs, along the shore of Lake Michigan. Millennium Park is a part of this within the Loop area of the city.
It was February and supposed to be cold. I had brought a heavy winter coat with me, but a lot of the time we were walking round with bare arms. Nevertheless the ice rink was running still.



In the summer the park boasts flowers and fountains, although now it was all looking rather bare. But Chicago being Chicago, there are still things to look at. We went first to admire the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry and built 1999-2004. It is a beautiful arrangement of steel and home to the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. It is also used for more popular music and can accommodate a mere 11,000.






One of the other attractions in the park is a giant installation by Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate aka The Bean. This large steel curved structure holds no end of photographic possibilities, especially for selfie lovers. Apparently the lower surfaces of the object are cleaned of smears daily and the whole thing sometimes gets a pressure wash and a deep clean bath once a year. We had a rest there while I photographed it to death!






























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