Motor City
It’s now Monday and time to leave the convention behind for another year; this time our first stop is Detroit, Michigan.
As we need to check-out the hotel in Windsor, we decide to have a Tim Hortons for breakfast; it’s a Canadian institution, and although they have now made it to the UK, it’s not quite as good there!
Detroit is across the river from Windsor but there is a bus which will take you there for 5 Canadian dollars one way. We walked the few blocks to the bus station before boarding the bus through the river tunnel. As we are crossing the border into America, we had to clear immigration. This took us about 30 minutes as we needed to complete the Customs and Border Protection Form I-94, something you no longer need to do if arriving by air. Our bus left us as everyone else had cleared customs, but we were assured the next one was only 10 minutes behind. Our luggage was scanned and we boarded the next bus; thankfully we had a very helpful bus driver who dropped us about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. The bus then does a loop around downtown and heads back across the border to Windsor.
It was 1.30pm when we arrived at the Shinola hotel on Woodward Avenue; thankfully they let us check-in early. We were given a room on the top floor giving us interesting views of downtown, although we were overlooking a building site which was previously the Hudson Department Store.
We had a bit of time to kill before our tour at 4pm so decided to go for a wander and find a bar to have some food and Detroit beer. Interestingly, there was steam coming up from various parts of the roads and pavements. It is a way to pump heat into houses and it runs off burnt garbage. It costs a fortune to run and people are starting to realise recycling might be better, but hey, pretty interesting nonetheless! A friend recommended a few bars to us so we headed to Punch Bowl Social, a strange place with a couple of bars, a restaurant area, bowling, pool and arcade games. I decided to order some tacos and a can of ghetto blaster, definitely a winning combination!
It was close to 4pm when we left so we headed straight to the tour departure point. The tour was called “Detroit's Rise, Fall and Renewal” and was run by a lawyer who preferred doing guided tours than practicing law. We walked around the city, visiting landmarks from the boom time, which had then closed after the collapse and had remained vacant up until very recently. In fact, there are still a lot that are vacant. Dan Gilbert, an American billionaire businessman who was born in Detroit, has been buying these buildings up and is responsible for most of the regeneration of downtown Detroit. Although, this is a good initiative, our guide was not convinced he was doing it all for the right reasons! We only ventured inside a few of the buildings but The Guardian Building deserves a mention as it is a stunning example of the 1920s boom. We also took a ride on the Detroit People Mover; it’s been around since the late 1980’s and is an automated light rail system which operates on an elevated track. It was pretty fast and only cost 75cents per ride. We wandered through Campus Martius Park, heading down Spirit of Detroit Plaza to The Spirit of Detroit, a monument and icon of the city dedicated to those who love the Motor City. Further down the plaza is a monument called The Fist, dedicated to the boxer Joe Louis.
Our last stop of the tour was the Detroit Brewing Company where we had a half pint of a local brew. They brew everything onsite and its a cosy little place. Iain decided to try the 13.5% beer, so thankfully it was just a half pint!
After the tour ended, we headed to a bar called Standby; it is a trendy cocktail bar which was also recommended and is in an area which is covered in street art (Detroit is famous for this!). I had a fantastic cocktail called “10 Points for Gryffindor” and left feeling slightly tipsy. We were starting to get hungry again so wandered to Lafayette Coney Island; this is where you can get a coney (a hotdog with chilli, mustard, onions) and was featured on the Pizza Show on Vice before we came here. Iain had two and wanted more so I had to drag him away!
Our hotel is also known for the “Evening Bar”, a fancy cocktail bar so we thought we would head back there after a quick pint in The Brakeman. I decided to try a Detroit gin which was beautiful. Unfortunately we were both knackered so it was time for an early night before our train journey to Chicago the next morning.
As we need to check-out the hotel in Windsor, we decide to have a Tim Hortons for breakfast; it’s a Canadian institution, and although they have now made it to the UK, it’s not quite as good there!
Detroit is across the river from Windsor but there is a bus which will take you there for 5 Canadian dollars one way. We walked the few blocks to the bus station before boarding the bus through the river tunnel. As we are crossing the border into America, we had to clear immigration. This took us about 30 minutes as we needed to complete the Customs and Border Protection Form I-94, something you no longer need to do if arriving by air. Our bus left us as everyone else had cleared customs, but we were assured the next one was only 10 minutes behind. Our luggage was scanned and we boarded the next bus; thankfully we had a very helpful bus driver who dropped us about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. The bus then does a loop around downtown and heads back across the border to Windsor.
It was 1.30pm when we arrived at the Shinola hotel on Woodward Avenue; thankfully they let us check-in early. We were given a room on the top floor giving us interesting views of downtown, although we were overlooking a building site which was previously the Hudson Department Store.
We had a bit of time to kill before our tour at 4pm so decided to go for a wander and find a bar to have some food and Detroit beer. Interestingly, there was steam coming up from various parts of the roads and pavements. It is a way to pump heat into houses and it runs off burnt garbage. It costs a fortune to run and people are starting to realise recycling might be better, but hey, pretty interesting nonetheless! A friend recommended a few bars to us so we headed to Punch Bowl Social, a strange place with a couple of bars, a restaurant area, bowling, pool and arcade games. I decided to order some tacos and a can of ghetto blaster, definitely a winning combination!
It was close to 4pm when we left so we headed straight to the tour departure point. The tour was called “Detroit's Rise, Fall and Renewal” and was run by a lawyer who preferred doing guided tours than practicing law. We walked around the city, visiting landmarks from the boom time, which had then closed after the collapse and had remained vacant up until very recently. In fact, there are still a lot that are vacant. Dan Gilbert, an American billionaire businessman who was born in Detroit, has been buying these buildings up and is responsible for most of the regeneration of downtown Detroit. Although, this is a good initiative, our guide was not convinced he was doing it all for the right reasons! We only ventured inside a few of the buildings but The Guardian Building deserves a mention as it is a stunning example of the 1920s boom. We also took a ride on the Detroit People Mover; it’s been around since the late 1980’s and is an automated light rail system which operates on an elevated track. It was pretty fast and only cost 75cents per ride. We wandered through Campus Martius Park, heading down Spirit of Detroit Plaza to The Spirit of Detroit, a monument and icon of the city dedicated to those who love the Motor City. Further down the plaza is a monument called The Fist, dedicated to the boxer Joe Louis.
Our last stop of the tour was the Detroit Brewing Company where we had a half pint of a local brew. They brew everything onsite and its a cosy little place. Iain decided to try the 13.5% beer, so thankfully it was just a half pint!
After the tour ended, we headed to a bar called Standby; it is a trendy cocktail bar which was also recommended and is in an area which is covered in street art (Detroit is famous for this!). I had a fantastic cocktail called “10 Points for Gryffindor” and left feeling slightly tipsy. We were starting to get hungry again so wandered to Lafayette Coney Island; this is where you can get a coney (a hotdog with chilli, mustard, onions) and was featured on the Pizza Show on Vice before we came here. Iain had two and wanted more so I had to drag him away!
Our hotel is also known for the “Evening Bar”, a fancy cocktail bar so we thought we would head back there after a quick pint in The Brakeman. I decided to try a Detroit gin which was beautiful. Unfortunately we were both knackered so it was time for an early night before our train journey to Chicago the next morning.
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