29- Journey’s End

Our journey home was a bit eventful. Firstly the car we had booked to take us to the airport didn’t arrive, so we had to take a taxi. The flight from Chicago to Heathrow was a bit bumpy due to strong winds. As we got nearer to Heathrow we were informed that the weather wasn’t great, 6 degrees Celsius, rainy and windy. The plane circled a few times then made its decent to the runway. We almost touched down when the plane suddenly veered upwards and soared back up. Seemingly due to the wet tarmac the previous plane which had landed had not yet cleared the runway so our captain was told at the last minute to abort the landing. We circled then landed on our second attempt. Our connecting flight to Aberdeen was delayed for 20 minutes while the plane was checked out because it had been hit by lightning on its previous journey. We all boarded and were then delayed for a further 30 minutes due to a backlog of flights waiting to depart. We eventually took off and due to the high winds made up some of the time we had lost. As we came in to land at Aberdeen the plane was caught in cross winds and the pilot had to abort the landing. Unbelievable – two flights and two aborted landings.

We were met at the airport by our daughter Nikki and our grandchildren Emily and Douglas. It was great to see them after six months. The kids had grown so much. They took us home where our son Chris was waiting to greet us with a welcome home banner!

After 27 flights our adventure is over.

Our trip had lasted 191 days. We’d travelled over 50000 miles, through 12 countries on 4 continents. We had visited 46 destinations and slept in 31 beds. We’d travelled by aeroplane, train, bus, car, ferry, tuktuk, songthaew, motorbike, push bike, cyclo, catamaran, junk, kayak, bamboo raft, campervan, helicopter, subway train, monorail, small boats, cable car, tram and by foot.

We’d climbed mountains,

crawled through tunnels,

swum with the fishes,

soared with the birds,

kayaked among the icebergs,

eaten with the cannibals in Fiji and so much more. We have so many happy memories and about 20000 photographs – anybody want to view them all???

We have seen magnificent sights, tasted delicious food (and some not so nice), and met many wonderful people who helped to enhance our journey with their advice, help, kindness and friendship. We would like to thank you all. To those of you still on your travels stay safe and face your fears, life is too short, live it large.

When we started this blog, it was as a way for our family and friends to hear how we were getting along. We have been astounded by the number of people who have viewed it. We hope you have all enjoyed our journey and maybe you will decide to go on your own adventure. If so let us know, so that we can follow your blog.

“I have a dream” said Martin Luther King.

Well we have fulfilled our dream. The coffers are empty, the heart is happy, the soul is full and the memory bank is overflowing. We faced our fears hand in hand and our love grew stronger. We have found many new friends and visited lots of amazing places on our journey around the world and the best thing of all is that we did it together.

Keep dreaming!

28 – Chicago

We blew into Chicago. It certainly lived up to its name “The Windy City”.  The flight had been quite turbulent, but it meant that our flight arrived a bit ahead of schedule. The journey from O’Hare to downtown took forever during rush hour, bit we eventually arrived at our hotel “Congress Plaza” which was on Michigan Avenue.

Congress Plaza Hotel

It had been THE hotel in Chicago in its heyday at the beginning of the last century. It was where the US Presidents and foreign dignitaries stayed when they visited Chicago.

Our room on the 9^th floor had a side view which looked towards Sears Tower to the south and Lake Michigan to the north.

Our first priority in Chicago was shopping.

Our son Chris is a great Chicago Blackhawks fan and had asked us to get him a jersey from the Blackhawks store, so we took the bus along Michigan Avenue and made the purchase.

We wandered around downtown Chicago admiring the architecture.

Wrigley Building

would you park your car here?

It is a beautiful city. It had been virtually destroyed by fire many years ago and at that time they made a city plan which has been used ever since.

There are many different types of skyscrapers but they all seem to complement one another.

The Chicago Tribune building was rebuilt and they decided to incorporate stones from various iconic buildings throughout the world.

Tribune building

 We spotted stones from various places that we had visited including Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei in Cambodia and The Opera House in Sydney.

The cloud in Millennium Park

The city has quite a lot of green areas with different types of sculptures,

water features

BP bridge

and bridges.

Chicago is known for its music. 

We spent an evening at Buddy Guy’s Legends, a Blues club.  

They had three different acts on the night we were there.

The bands were fantastic.

On Sunday we went to the House of Blues for the Gospel Brunch.

It was great, the gospel singing was beautiful, very passionate and powerful voices.

We took a trip up to the Skydeck at Sears Tower, which is now known as Willis Tower.

The viewing deck is on the 103^rd floor with 360 degree views over the city. There is a part of the viewing deck which protrudes out over the side of the building. The whole section is glass including the floor.

It was a bit unsettling to be standing on a glass floor and see the street 103 floors below you.

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is just east of the city, so we took the bus there and spent a day viewing the exhibits.

Museum of Science & Industry

 The museum is huge with lots of scientific hands on displays pertaining to weather,

Tornado

 genetics, toy making,

farming and

transportation. The world’s first electric car was produced between 1915 and 1923 and had a top speed of 23 mph with a range of 50 miles between charges.

1923 Electric car

During World War 2 the US captured a German U-boat which is on display at the museum.

German U-boat

Chicago has been a great final destination, but our time is up and we have to head home.

Chicago street with train above

We’ll let you know how that feels when we get there so stay tuned for the final chapter.