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Published: December 28th 2010
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The day started just 30 miles north of Chicago.
The 5 of us got up at around 8am and began to pack the car after our long stay visiting Chicago.
Around 10 inches of snow had fallen the previous night and it was -6C outside, so we were forced to dig our car out of snow and defrost it. The morning was beautiful with few clouds and a bright sun.
We had planned to leave promptly and by 9.30am were on the road to Michigan.
Within the hour we had already crossed the border to Indiana and shortly after we were in Michigan.
I was expecting to see something different in terms of landscape from each state, as we had previously on the journey, but from Michigan I saw nothing special or outstanding other than a few extra brand names that I'd never heard of and a touch of snow on the roads.
The journey was quite long - a 5 hour drive - but was made considerably shorter by the time difference change of 1 hour which we had totally forgotten about until we were just 10 minutes away (instead thinking we were 1 hour and 10 minutes
away).
With Detroit I was impressed with the architecture and the buildings. There was also an impressive monument and many US flags on the street by the border, which tunneled through to Canada.
We parked in the nearest, cheapest car park and decided to walk around Detroit for a few hours to see what there was to visit. We arrived at 3.30pm, and so it wasn't going to be long before it became dark.
Ace decided to stay and sleep in the car while we were out. Shortly after leaving the car, we agreed that this was a wise choice as it was very cold with a chilly wind biting our faces as we walked past the ice-rink and through the main square of Detroit.
The grey clouds did not help improve the ambience of the city, the buildings were still grey and displaced and the city looked depressed.
The buildings on their own were impressive. We walked inside one of them soon after leaving the car because it was so cold and were even more impressed by the interior.
There was a giant waterfall falling from the roof, trickling through coloured kites.
We asked at
the tourist information desk in the building if there were any main attractions in Detroit - the guide told us there was only one thing worth seeing, and that was Greek Town.
We walked through the cold for 20 minutes until we got near Greek Town. When we did finally reach Greek Town, we realised it was one of the bigger buildings in Detroit, but was essentially just a hotel and casino, and not anything else we may have expected from the name.
We decided that it was time to return to the car, so ventured once more through the cold. We stopped off at a newsagents for postcards and I bought a Detroit beanie from their bargain bin.
By the time we returned to the car, it was nearly dark. We thought it would be a good idea to drive down 8 mile - the home town of famous rapper Eminem.
We drove down Eminem and were surprised by how commercial and open it was. There was nothing dingy or dangerous about it. We left 8mile and drove to another border crossing 60 miles north of Detroit.
The weather conditions were blizzard-like with heavy snow, strong
winds and negative temperatures.
We crossed the bridge separating Canada from US then crossed border control too.
I didnt get a stamp on my passport because I had already previously visited Canada earlier in the year.
The drive to Toronto was only another 4 hours. We were due to arrive by 10pm. The roadsigns had changed from miles per hour to kilometers per hour and all the distances were now in Kilometers.
The drive was quick, the Toronto skyline was impressive. We drove around the city for an hour attempting to find something to do. We settled on parking 5 miles outside of Toronto beside a McDonalds, ate there - at extortionate prices, and then slept in the car park in the car.
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