Today was a little more low-key in the sense that we didn't do as much as we did yesterday. We walked the Magnificent Mile just to see it, and sure enough, we saw many of the designer and brand name stores that make up that street as well as walked back to the area where The Bean is as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. Pictured here is the Burberry Store, which looked different in the morning light than in the afternoon light when we returned to the hotel, and the store was completely black. The morning light gives it the warm, caramel appearance the patterns of their purses and scarves remind me of. I thought that was interesting. Our purpose for walking back up to the Art Institute was to visit it today. Chicago had never really interested me before, so any visit here was just a bonus to my life, but once I found out that there were van Gogh paintings at the Institute, I needed to go! We found out when we got in that there was a Manet exhibit as well, so we paid the extra fee to see that since it was a special exhibit. For those of you that have followed my blog since the beginning (in 2006!), you might remember that I love Impressionism in general, but my favourite artist is Vincent van Gogh. There was a whole impressionist section of the museum, and my heart swelled just being there. I have to admit that I even got teary at times, especially when seeing the van Goghs in person. There were actually quite a number of them, too.
We also saw some more modern art, as in, post-Impressionism, a small Islamic art exhibit, and a contemporary art section that included Andy Warhol. There was also a beautiful set of Marc Chagall windows that I loved. I am mostly not into modern art, but I do love Chagall's stuff.
Part of the reason that this was all we did today is that it takes one that long just to see it. We still didn't see all of the museum. You would have to have a lot of stamina to see the whole thing in one day, but I don't know if these places are meant for one to see the entire thing. You usually focus on what you want to see. At least that has been my strategy in other large museums. We ate lunch at the museum so that we could see the remainder of the exhibits that we wanted to see and then finished up there around 2:30 or so.
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| The quote carved into this building is from the poem "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Art is long and time is fleeting |
We only saw a tiny fraction of all there is to see and do here, but we did at least get to enjoy the things we most wanted to see and do, so that was important. Maybe once day we will return--but we will likely travel by plane than by road. My general impression of Chicago is that people seem to be really friendly, and the city is really clean. They seem to even wash the streets at night, at least in the downtown area. We had sat outside to have our coffee on our second day here, and the sidewalks were wet despite not having rained. It was really surprising. One thing I will be happy to leave is all the cigarette smoke. I don't know if it's because it's just more crowded here or if that more people smoke, but it seems to be everywhere, and I hate breathing it in and smelling it. Tomorrow, we are back on the road. For now, my Chicago album and Art Institute of Chicago album are below.
Downtown Chicago in general: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rB15qF6W4m8dmZhU6
Art Institute of Chicago: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6xv2Krud6ecSbUty5
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