Hi everyone and welcome to our short “daily” updates about our journey through the north-east of America. As Nino got the opportunity to present his research at a scientific conference in Chicago, we decided to extend the trip to some other interesting places “nearby” and by that combine it with our annually exploring holiday.

As, to date, none of use has a driving license, we planned our journey public transport friendly by visiting only the following big cities in the U.S. and Canada:

Chicago (10th – 16th July)

Montréal (16th – 20th July)

Boston (20th – 25th July)

New York City (25th July – 1st August)

But lets start with a quick recap and some impressions on our first day (which was mainly covered by the flight).

We started with a rather short delay of about 30mins in Zurich and flew over the GB (see the image above) and London (see the image below) through an endless day.

We did not expect to fly that high in the north, even cutting Greenland, however of course most of the flight was covered with the Atlantic Ocean (below) before we arrived in Chicago by passing Lake Michigan (the even lower image shows the Michigan coast of Lake Michigan).

Unfortunately, although our pilot was able to catch up 20 minutes during our flight, we had to wait inside our plane for 30 minutes before our gate in Chicago was ready. After a nerve-wracking interview with the customs and border protection officer and an additional wait of 1 hour for our checked baggage (which we did not really expect in the US), we finally got a taxi which brought us (passing billboards addressing Trump and his tax returns) directly to our hotel in the heart of Chicago.

We got a nice, big and comfortable room facing directly onto the street in front of the hotel with ambulances “rushing” by or standing in the lines about every 30 minutes. However, the view along all the skyscrapers right in front of us is just amazing!

We left everything in the hotel and went outside to quickly visit the conference location, which is modern glass building right at lake, before going for our first oversized dinner. The 5 minutes walk goes along old and beautiful institutes of the university and endless skyscrapers, all next to each other in downtown Chicago.