horse-driven carriage

Our days in Chicago include a number of touristy things such as driving around down-town on a horse-driven carriage. Georgie saw the horses and it was hard to resist. But at 40 bucks the half hour we though it was a bit of a rip-off. I mean, the guide knew less about Chicago than we did! He asked me if I knew the book Devil in the White City. I told him, "Of course, I read it". He didn't say much after that (our guess is that he hadn't read it). We learned from our guide that the Gold Coast is called the "Viagra Triangle" (apparently old men congregate in this area to entice young women to romance), and that cool young people hang out at Pilsen (the old Czech neighbourhood of Chicago) and Wicker Park (the old German/Scandinavian neighbourhood of Chicago). Thank you very much for this very crucial piece of information! Anyway, Georgie got to feed the horse a carrot at the end of the ride and that was a real treat for all concerned.

By the way, the book he mentioned is quite interesting. It was written by Erik Larson and it tells the story of the 1893 international Exposition in Chicago, with a parallel story of murder in the White City (the name given to the Exposition celebrating Columbus' arrival to the Americas in 1493, because of its grand classical buildings covered in white plaster and illuminated by electric lights, a real novelty in those days). The book, although a work of fiction, is based in real facts and the author really captures the feel and the atmosphere of Chicago as a great industrial city trying to compete with the more "ancient" and civilised New York, and assert itself not just as a place of money, but also of culture and bourgeois leisure.

(L)