Good morning Chicago!

The weather is lovely today, sun and 23 degrees C! My plan for today is to take the hop on/off bus. It's a little bit expensive, it's a very convenient way to get to see all the touristic places. Another plan is to visit my "friends" at Ferragamo. They are going to have a preview of the summer (or was it autumn?) collection today and of course, they invited me... Wonder why......:-D

Shopping in Chicago

All the GOOD shops are in the North Michigan Ave. You have Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Maceys and all the designer-shops.

Some days ago I got an e-mail from my favorite shop in the USA, White house, black market. They invited me to a two days sale with 25% off all items. Luckily the two days were today and tomorrow, the two days I have in Chicago downtown! The shop is across the street from my hotel, more luck...:) Although I was pretty jet-lagged and woke up with a terrible head-ache that continued throughout the day, I managed to do some shopping... Retail-therapy... :-D I "spaved" a lot today! Here is some of it....











After spending some money at White hous, black market I went to Salvatore Ferragamo. And guess what? I found a purse I have been looking for all over Europe. I saw it at Hawaii and have been regretting I didn't buy it ever after. I didn't buy it at once, I still had a head-ache and was afraid it would affect my judgment. I headed for the next shopping-center...




I went in, looked at the cosmetic department and found my perfume. Well, I don't actually need a new one, but if I bought it, I would get a small present... After all I have used this perfume for ages, as my summer-perfume, so I WILL need it sooner or later!







I REALLY liked the bag... It's not leather, and it's not very exclusive, but nice when going to the beach! I needed a new beach-bag! The makeup and the small purses were another bonus! :-D

After lunch I headed back to Ferragamo. The head-ache was gone and I could think very clear!

Hahaha, the shopping-bag and box from Ferragamo really suits my red coat! :-D

Shopping in Chicago has been a pleasure. The people who work at the shops are so very friendly. At White house, black market I was offered a bottle if water and biscuits and at Ferragamo I got a bottle of Pellegrino. I know, I know, they all do it to sell more, but it's better to shop from friendly people than from the grumpy people working in Rome or London...

Hotel Chicago Intercontinental, Chicago, USA 4+*

April 2009


There were two people in front of the check-in counter. You should think that would go pretty easy, but it took ages. I’ve never waited that long to check-in before…

When I got to my room, at the third floor, the air-conditioning was blowing like crazy. I asked the bell-boy to turn it off, but it was broken. I had to change room. The new room was exactly the same as the first one except that there were no shampoo/soap dispensers in the shower. At the first room there were the dispenser PLUS individual toiletries. There were also a questionnaire that said they had started using the dispenser, but then found that their guests may would prefer getting the small toiletries so they had some questions regarding that. Thumbs up for the small toiletries from me!


I tried the toiletries and they are good, and they look nice! Me like! :-D


The shower and bath-tub could need to be replaced.





I would believe the room is small compared to US standard, but compared to European standard it's big enough. Since I booked a double room, but came by my own, they gave me a twin room. The beds were BIG. Not sure one bed would fit for two... well... it depends on how big you are (and how much in love you are...:-))!






The hotel is in the middle of the shopping-district. Very convenient for a shopaholic... :-D

I went to see the swimming-pool. The hotel is famous for the swimming-pool! In my opinion it looked nicer at pictures than in real... I wished there were steam-rooms, a jacuzzi and a spa connected to the swimming-pool.

I booked this hotel through Hotwire and only payed about 110 USD per night for bed only. For that price I would have stayed here again, but not for the full rack rate, that is about 250-300 USD. There is a Starbucks in the lobby so I didn't went for breakfast at the hotel.

Copenhagen to Chicago O’Hare airport.

When flying out from Schipol you have to go through a new security-control and interviews, before boarding , to get to the USA. In Copenhagen there were nothing.

After a 3 hour delay in Copenhagen, because of a faulty air-conditioning system, I finally landed in Chicago. With that said, SAS was a very nice company to fly long-distance flights with. Compared with KLM, the plane was a little bit smaller (2+4+2) and the bathrooms were spotlessly clean all the way! Luckily the flight was not fully booked so I got 2 seats all by my own. Fingers crossed it will be the same at the return trip!

When I reached the passport-control I saw lots of people filling in the green card. I thought I didn’t need that since I had done it at the internet. Well, people said it didn’t work. So yes, you still have to fill in the green card to get in/out of the USA. The queue was long, so I had lots of time to fill in the card.

I was not in the mood for taking the El, the train, so I jumped into a taxi. It cost me 40 USD, but was well worth it!

A new hotel in Liverpool!

The Ramada Plaza will open in Liverpool, in 2010. I welcome that, the city is in need of a good hotel. Although this will be a 4* property, it looks like it will be nice. Wonder if Liverpool will ever get a 5* hotel...?

Varun Sharma and "Inside Luxury Travel"

The program will be back!

I don't know when it will be showed, but in these days they are filming for the new programs.

In the beginning I really liked these programs, but now, I am not sure anymore. Varun shows some very nice hotels and the service he gets. Always big suits and the best restaurants. The problem is... He is coming there, with a camera. Everybody "knows" him and everybody wants to be shown at their best at TV. Sure he will get the best service and the best rooms!

Another thing... In my opinion it's a little bit "tacky" to pay 2000-3000 Gbp./night for a suit. I love luxury, but when it become insane and without sense, it's "tipping over". One person is not in need of two TV's, two bathrooms, two walk-in-closets etc...

I wished this program could show normal rooms at these nice hotels, not the "fairytale" view....

What to shop in Aberdeen?

Well... I didn't shop much in Aberdeen. They have all the department-stores, but if you don't like shopping there, it's not much to shop. I bought some books at Waterstones, as I always do while in UK. Since it was close to Easter I also filled my suitcase with... Easter-eggs! :-D




Buying Easter-eggs is a tradition in UK. In Norway we have smaller Easter-eggs, with marzipan. In UK they have those very big eggs made of chocolate. I bough a lot for presents to friends and family.



Because of all the chocolate, I had to buy some tooth-paste too... Haha, no... It's just that I LOVE this tooth-paste and we don't have this in Norway. Since it was on sale at Boots, I filled up my suitcase... Chocolate and tooth-paste...:-D