The seven days in Chicago were delightful – my favourite city by far. Spend many days walking round downtown, Grant Park, Millenium Park and Navy Pier, with several trips to more outlying attractions, including the south side (not for the feint hearted and not a place many taxi drivers will take you). More on this later.

Now, a little information about ‘The Cardinal’ long distance train taken from Amtrak’s website:

“The Cardinal operates between New York and Chicago, offering unforgettable views of the Southeast’s stunning natural beauty. You’ll see gently rolling horse country, the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley, and the wild white-water rivers of West Virginia as they can only be seen by train. Heading westward, the train rolls along the banks of the mighty Ohio River — from the quaint towns of Ashland and Maysville, to the skyline of Cincinnati. From there, your journey continues to Indianapolis, and then northward to Chicago”.

I was of course due to travel in the reverse direction and wanted to stay over in Cincinnati to visit the National Underground Railroad Museum and also see some of the city. Now The Cardinal only runs three days per week and takes a scheduled 28 hours from Chicago to New York so I had to get my timing right! I boarded the train in Chicago at 5.45pm (if you’ve never travelled Amtrak it’s like boarding a flight, arrive early, check in baggage, etc.) with a scheduled arrival of 3.17am in Cincinnati. A wonderful smooth trip travelling through Indiana via Indianapolis to Cincinnati, Ohio, arriving on time. Strange thing about many large American railroad stations, they don’t have platforms as such (they are mainly now freight depots) so passengers have to climb down to ground level – with a heavy case that’s not easy. Anyway all three of us got off the train to an empty station. Cincinnati station is a wonderful vast art deco station, much of it now converted to several museums, restaurants and shopping mall, plus very interesting railroad memorabilia (more of that later). However at 3.17am it was deserted and walking out onto the wide concourse I realised there were no taxis and the station is about a mile from downtown and my hotel. The couple who got off the train with me were locals and had pre-booked a taxi. Seeing my plight in an unfamiliar town, took pity and offered me their taxi and phoned for another – great guys.

More about Cincinnati later.

After three days in Cincinnati my plan was to board The Cardinal at 3.17am and journey on to New York arriving at the scheduled time of 9.58pm the following evening. But plans go awry – big time! The Amtrak ticket office and passenger waiting room is only open from 11.00pm to 6.30am so my plan was to get there in plenty of time to check in my baggage and allowing for taxi delays, etc. Went like clockwork, arriving at the station at 1.00am in line with Amtrak check in requirements. The passenger waiting room was small, functional, with a drinks and snacks machine. The rest of the station was of course closed (well it was 1.00am). Ah well, a two hour wait wouldn’t be so bad – that’s what I thought! The train was running late due to storms on route – very late. It finally arrived at 8.00am, 5 hours late! A small group of us had been waiting there for 7 hours! some locals had gone back home and came back so didn’t have the delights of a night sitting on ‘not very comfortable’ benches. Was I glad to see that train! Needless to say the train didn’t make up any time along the route – Amtrak long distance trains don’t go very fast and they certainly don’t try and make up time. On the contrary, because of the lateness they were making scheduled stops at small stations and making sure the passengers who got off had their onward journey (car or whatever) there so they weren’t stranded. Good for Amtrak in catering for their passengers – but the downside is if you’re travelling the full length of the route the journey was getting longer and longer. We finally arrive in New York at 6.00am, some 8 hours late. The journey from Cincinnati had taken 27 hours rather than the scheduled 19 hours. Hmm, it was however fun in a strange sort of way as you see a lot of beautiful countryside and meet all sorts of people along the way (not many do the full journey). Needless to say I got to my hotel in New York (a few steps away from the station thankfully) and crashed out for a few hours – Christine, Maureen and Sarah were of course flying in from Manchester that day and I had to get myself to the airport to meet them that same afternoon. I made it but did rather look a little dishevelled!

The photo galleries are in the following 18 categories – just click an image below …

Chicago Blues Festival – Links to photos of the 2010, 2016 and 2017 festivals published on EarlyBlues.com

Chicago Downtown – The Loop (Chicago Transit Authority Elevated Trains)

Chicago Grant Park – Buckingham Fountain

Chicago Magnificent Mile – Chicago Pumping Station (the Water Tower)

Chicago Millennium Park – Cloud Gate Sculpture (‘The Bean’)

Chicago Navy Pier – Family Attraction

Chicago Riverwalk – View of the Chicago River towards Lake Michigan

Chicago Suburbs – DuSable Museum of African American History, Washington Park

Cincinnati Downtown – Carew Tower National Historic Landmark

Cincinnati Riverfront Park Area – Belle of Cincinnati on the Ohio River

Cincinnati Suburbs – The art deco Union Terminal (Amtrak Intercity Train Station & Museum Complex)

Amtrak The Cardinal – Iconic Amtrak diesel locomotive taken at Cincinnati Union Terminal arriving 5 hours late!

New York Solo Walkabout – Flat Iron Building

New York Family Walkabout – Times Square at night

New York Pride Parade – Balloons galore

Washington National Mall – Lincoln Memorial Statue

Washington Suburbs – Union Station

Arlington National Cemetery – Eternal Flame on John F. Kennedy’s grave