Trip Report: May 12 - June 2, 2002
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
SPRING JOURNEY ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND RETURN
CHICAGO TO CLEVELAND
Wednesday and Thursday, May 15 and 16, 2002. Day 4 and 5
We pulled into Chicago at 6 PM, only an hour and twenty minutes late, and deposited our luggage with the redcap in Room 341- this is where the Metropolitan Lounge attendant sends you when you have too much luggage (nine pieces in our case). There is a food court in the station which offers a great variety of food, so we stopped there for a smoothie before attempting to go for a walk.
Although it was a sunny day, and we could see people sitting outdoors at a restaurant across the river, the Windy City was earning its reputation. Tulips were bent over, nearly touching the ground, in the wind. Rather than being buffeted about and having dust blown into our eyes, we retreated to the comfort of the Metropolitan Lounge. A half-hour delay in the Lakeshore Limited's departure, due to its late arrival from the east, was announced. We were offered redcap service, and took it. By the time we boarded Viewliner sleeper 4810, all nine pieces of luggage awaited us, placed on the sofa and chair and stacked on the floor. We were able to stow most of it in the overhead luggage racks in the room.
Next to our car was a vintage Heritage Fleet dining car. Ted had to convince me it was an old piece of equipment, as the interior had been completely resurfaced and recarpeted in a very up-to-date manner, with a pale green ceiling and darker green upholstery.
The dining car steward was a bit frazzled, as he explained that they were in the processing of thawing the food and he predicted first-sitting dinner at 10 PM, second sitting at 11:15pm. (I interpreted this as problems becoming familiarized with the new standardized menu which has, by "corporate decision", been foisted upon the onboard staff.)
We want to retire early so the steward said we could get a complimentary sandwich from the Amfleet snack car. (In case you're wondering if the Lakeshore looks like a patchwork quilt of various equipment, you'd be right!) Then the first call for dinner was made at 9:20pm, so we enjoyed an excellent meal in the dining car. The fish course has halibut, not as good as the salmon on the Empire Builder, but better than a sandwich from the snack car.
Our scheduled arrival into Cleveland is 3:45am. Our car attendant promises to wake us up at twenty minutes before our arrival in Cleveland, and we settle onto the comfortable mattress - thicker than those on the Superliners - in Deluxe Viewliner Bedroom A. But sleep doesn't come easily, as the room is quite warm and the air-conditioner seems to work only sporadically. Ted is so warm that he gets up and cools off with a shower at about midnight
Traveling over the Norfolk Southern track is a bumpy ride. There are sudden jarring, noisy lateral movements every now and then. All hope of making up time is dashed when we hear only parts of a garbled announcement over the spotty PA system:
"A Norfolk Southern freight..ahead trespasser on the tracks all trains will be stopped until the authorities"
It wasn't too hard to fill in the blanks there. We appreciate being advised of why unexpected stops are occurring, however. We also had frequent updates each time the Builder was delayed. Amtrak gets our praise for this, as passengers used to fret over unexplained "Amstops". Apparently there has been a policy change.
Are we upset that we won't be getting into Cleveland at 3:45 AM? Not at all; this is good news, as the later we are, the more sleep we hope to get. When we finally arrive in Cleveland, it is 6 AM and the sun is beginning to show. Although Amtrak doesn't use the lofty Terminal Tower we're headed for (now only subway lines do) we can look ahead to see it is still one of the highest structures in the skyline.
One piece of luggage is offloaded from the baggage car. We retrieve this, our large suitcase which we had checked to Cleveland - the one containing our dressy clothes - and taxi to the Renaissance Hotel Cleveland, in the Tower City complex.
The Hotel Cleveland was opened in 1918 as a deluxe businessmen's hotel, and it still is. The beautiful lobby, the lobby bar, the restaurant, and the ballrooms have been carefully restored to their original magnificence. I made my first trip to Cleveland, by train on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad from Pittsburgh in 1941. I was, of course, very young and impressionable. I can remember arriving in the terminal underground beneath the Terminal Tower building and walking directly from the station concourse into the hotel lobby. Apparently it was too expensive for my family, as we did not stay there, but found another hotel nearby.
We check into a quiet room on the ninth floor, overlooking Public Square. After bouncing around in our Viewliner Deluxe Room, we are looking forward to a nice quiet nap after breakfast. Unfortunately, the air conditioning is not functioning. Questioning the front desk, I learn that the hotel has central air conditioning, but it is turned off, so nothing we can do with the in-room controls that will cool it down. As we descend to the street level Brasserie Restaurant, we overhear in the elevator two young executives on their way to a meeting, "My room sure was overheated last night!" "Yeah, mine too."
After a simple, but excellent breakfast, with friendly and efficient service, we return to our room realizing that as the sun moves higher, our room is not going to become more comfortable. As we have work to do, sights to see, and a concert to dress for tonight, I make a reservation at the Ritz-Carlton, just on the other side of the Terminal Tower complex. We move ourselves there by rolling our wheeled suitcases through the Tower City mall.
The Ritz-Carlton is more expensive than the Renaissance, but we knew it was worth it the moment we checked into our luxuriously cool room on the ninth floor overlooking the glass domed mall. Although we have booked clients in Ritz-Carltons, in our many years of travel we had never stayed in one. We quickly learned why they have such an excellent reputation. This was without doubt the best hotel we have ever experienced. The sixth floor lobby is isolated from the street and gives one the impression of a private club entrance. The rooms are impeccably furnished. The service is quiet and unobtrusive. The restaurant fare exquisite. I could easily get used to this. But we have things to do, starting with a tour of Tower City.
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