Great Lakes of USA
In 2012, following our visit to Chicago, we took a 10-day tour around Lake Erie and the southern part of Lake Michigan. As in Chicago, Christian, Rainer's nephew, accompanied us.
The almost one-day drive to Cleveland started excitingly on the 6 to 8-lane roads of Chicago, before turning into an endlessly boring highway in the states of Indiana and Michigan. Cleveland is characterized by an economically rather run-down downtown on the one hand and by the extremely impressive and day filling Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame on the other hand. We were also impressed by the exceptionally good American Breakfast in Cleveland and the visit to the Great Lake Brewery in the Flat, a suburb.
After about 300 km you reach Niagara Falls, where we had booked luxury accommodation at the Chestnut Inn on the Canadian side. This Victorian wooden house with a balcony all around and a stylish interior is an absolute recommendation. The large, horseshoe-shaped Canadian Fall and the smaller, straight running American Fall are grandiose natural spectacles, which we enjoyed intensely. A dinner with a view of the waterfalls as well as the "Journey behind the Falls", a walk through a tunnel to below the waterfall, will remain in our memories. A day trip to Toronto offered us insights into a busy metropolis of millions, which you do not necessarily have to see on vacation. Of course, we were on the CN-Tower in 450 m height.
Another day trip north along Lake Erie brought us to Dearborn/USA, a suburb of Detroit with the headquarters of the Ford car company. Even though it was already a bit old, our Marriott’s Hotel, built by Henry Ford 80 years ago, was pleasant and spacious. The city of Detroit itself has been severely affected by the economic decline of the automobile companies based there. The Henry Ford Automobile Museum in Dearborn is unimaginably extensive by European standards. From vintage cars, presidential bodies and airplanes to the latest automobiles, everything here revolves around motorization.
At the end of our round trip we visited the Indiana Dunes National Park, where up to 40 m high sand dunes pile up on the south shore of Lake Michigan. They are remains of the last ice age. During our stay in Michigan City we participated in the American Way of Life of the Midwest. Really nothing for Central Europeans!
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