From
October 2 to 6, 2003 I made a City trip to Chicago - this was already
my second visit in Chicago. In fact that
there were no direct flights between Vienna an dChicago this time,
I decided to go via London Heathrow. Boarding for
flight Austrian 451 to London war at gate A05. Our aircraft was a
Airbus A321-211 (OE-LBD). Takeoff was at 7.30am.
The aircraft was full this day. After aprox. 2 hours of flight time
we landed in London at runway 09L. The security check
took a long time this morning, so a bus brought us to our next flight.
Flight United 929 to Chicago was ready for boarding
at gate 15. At the gate I got a nice surprise - I was upgraded to
Business Class. The aircraft for the flight to Chicago
was a Boeing 777-222 (N779UA). My new seat was 15D - no window seat
- but in Business Class. Landing at Chicago
was at 1.00pm. Then I had to join the long queue in front of customs
inspections.
Some pictures from flight Austrian 451 Vienna - London ...
After
customs I took a taxi to the hotel - the Lenox Suites Hotel in downtown
Chicago.
In
the afternoon I made s small walk through the city, unfortunately
the weather was not good. The next morning
it started raining. After breakfast I decided to go to the Hancook
Center. The observation deck is located on the
94th floor. Usually you can have an marvelous view from there, but
this day the view was not so good i fact of the
rain. But having a short break for a coffee is always nice on an observation
deck. After the Hancook Center I went
to the museum of Science and Technology. The whole fuselage of a Boeing
727 can be seen there and a retried
UA -captain
explained the flight deck. You
can see everything in the museum - from an airplane, an real train
to
a small mine. Fortunately the weather was much better the next morning.
I made a cruise over Lake Michigan
where I had a fine view to the skyline of Chicago - the 3rd largest
town in USA. Then I visited the Sears Tower.
With 446 metres the highest building in America. The view from the
observation deck is breathtaking, especialy
in the evening and night hours. At
the evening i went to the Chicago Cubs stadium where a match took
place.
In the next morning the waether was very good - Blue sky with some
small clouds, the sun was shining. My flight
back to europe was at the early afternoon, but I decided to walk through
the downtown again and make some
nice pictures during this good weather conditions.
Here some pictures from Chicago ...
At noon I went to O'Hare airport. The time from
check-in until departure I spent in the Red-Carpet-Lounge. Boarding
for flight United 944 to Frankfurt was at gate C18. This time the
aircraft was a Boeing 777-222 (N774UA). The flight
time from Chicago to Frankfurt was about 8 hours. During the return
flight from Frankfurt to Vienna I had an stop at
Munich. So I got a flight in an Airbus A300 from Frankfurt to Munich
which is not very common this days. The
aircraft was a Airbus A300B4-605R (D-AIAX). The flight time was only
35 minutes. The flight from Munich to
Vienna was operated by an Airbus A321-211 (OE-LBD) from Austrian.
I reached Vienna onboard Austrian 112
at 9.45am.
Some pictures from flight United 944 from Chicago to Frankfurt ...
On
the following map you can see all routes of the flights
Here
are the links to all pictures I made at this trip
Austrian 451 from Vienna to London - October 2, 2003 (mehr)
United 944 from Chiacgo to Frankfurt
- October 5, 2003 (mehr)
