It is good to be a tourist and to tick those three star ‘musts’ off the list. And ever in need of a sermon illustration I wondered whether one really did feel nearer to God in the worlds tallest building! So – here is is – the Sears Tower – 233 South Wacker Drive – to give it its precise address. This has been the tallest building in the world for over 20 years and it cuts an unmistakable profile in the city’s skyline. It took from 1968 to 1974 to construct and is 1,454 feet from bottom to top.

Designed by architect, Bruce Graham, the tower comprises nine rectangular tubes resting on more han 100 steel and concrete caissons anchored into the bedrock hundreds of feet below ground. The whole thing contains 75,000 tons of steel. And thank goodness I do not have to clean the windows! For those of you who like statistics:

• The tower contains enough phone wire to wrap around the earth 1.75 times
• 25,000 people visit or use the building each day
• In a high wind the building moves up to 8 inches
• The tower has 108 elevators and some very expensive apartments

So – a visit was necessary. The elevator took 43 seconds to reach the top – after which part of me was still on the ground floor! It was a terrible trip! But – worth it. The views are quite amazing – far over the plains if Illinois – over Lake Michigan to Indiana. And below the streets and people. In the distance aeroplanes landing and taking off (from this angle looking almost if they were about to collide!)

It was well worth the $12 ticket. Here are some of the views – none of which quite do justice to the scale and distance of it all.

 And finally – it has the highest toilet in the world – and yes I did !! What a long distance water drop!! (Sorry )