Sweet Nothings

Beautiful Windy City panorama (wind not pictured) The 2016 edition of the Goulds’ annual Stateside trip saw a move away from the West and East coasts, instead taking in a chunk of the Midwest and some good ole Southern comforts. Masochists can read all about my 2011 visit to Chicago here , complete with tortuous title pun. My wife and I covered much of the same ground this year, the main difference being an increased, nay all-consuming, focus on food. Indeed, this entire holiday presents further evidence that we are now selecting destinations purely on the basis of treat availability, and in the sincere belief that calories consumed abroad will magically have no effect. Hence we enjoyed a  Ghirardelli hot fudge sundae and stocked up on bags of their absurdly moreish chocolate squares, abandoned our salads at the Michigan Avenue branch of the  Cheesecake Factory halfway through to ensure room for the mountainous slice of eponymous dessert, and made sure to sample s...

Arty boat tour shot Top of the Must-See List for Chicago was an architectural boat tour . Although this doesn't sound terribly promising on paper, it lives up to its billing by being an informative 90 minute-lecture on the history of Chicago's most significant buildings - delivered by a genuine expert from the Chicago Architecture Foundation - which doubles up as a pleasant introductory riverbound meander around the downtown area. The tour was certainly a more pleasant journey than the long El ride into the city, which we had to take every day because for reasons of (can you guess?) extreme parsimony we were ensconced in a hotel way out in the northern suburbs. The El (short for el evated railway) is one of those iconic things which turns out to be something of a disappointment. What looks fun and quirky on ER and in the movies is pretty drab up close. The circular section around The Loop - the heart of the City, at least in the financial sense - is quite cool and find...