The Knickerbocker sounded a good place for breakfast, so we set off in the pouring rain. It is very cold today, only about 6C. Well, the hotel is nothing to write home about and historywise, they didn't invent the Knickerbocker Glory - that was probably invented in Blackpool. Breakfast was fine, but we didn't linger, and headed across the road to book a table at The Drake for afternoon tea later on. We were impressed with this hotel and are glad to be coming back to really see it. With it still raining and feeling bitterly cold, we started our walk up to Lincoln Park via Astor Street. On the way a woman stopped and asked if we needed help and showed us the way to Astor as she was going that way. She told us she was originally from Romania, been in US 28 years. She had quite a story to tell us especially when A said he had just got back from Bucharest. Astor Street was a bit over hyped. There are some nice places, maybe the rain dampened our enthusiasm! At the end of the road, we continued on towards Lincoln Park. It must be a nice place when the sun shines, but we just got colder, eventually finding Cafe Brauer. It took a while to find how to get in - via the closed off patio, of course, but they did us a great chicken roll with fries, to share and a hot cup of coffee. Amazingly, they came with iced water when we sat down, not a good idea in our frozen state!


The rain was easing a bit when we left, so we walked into the zoo and looked in a couple of the animal houses - most of them were inside, today. The place was full of kids on trips, so it was a shame about the weather. We crossed the highway and went to visit the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to see their butterflies. This was great fun and we also saw lots of frogs and turtles, but no sign of the praying mantis. Time was flying by and we had to be back at The Drake at 4 pm. We made it just in time, and sat in the Fountain Room with many other guests, sipping tea and listening to the harpist playing popular songs. Afternoon tea with prosecco was very tasty, and we enjoyed our lapsang suchong, too. All good things come to an end and so we were on our way back to the hotel. No longer wet, but still cold outside! We saw the Hancock Tower and Centre, but we didn't make the trip to the viewing floor, maybe not so good for the views today. We did see the historic water tower and pumping station, where we called in to the TIC for information about the trains for tomorrow's trip to Oak Park and the FLW tour. We did hear that it had snowed in one of the suburbs - it certainly seemed cold enough!


Knickerbocker Hotel
Drake Hotel
Café Brauer, (facebook page)
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum