off to chicago

Another beautiful day in DC.

Arne had to do some sightseeing on his own as I had to meet a customer.
A bit unfortunate considering the nice spring day. We both met at the Union Station at around 16:30 and got on the train to Chicago. A huge shiny silver looking Amtrak.

When we reserved our tickets we decided to just go for the coach class not the sleeper cars. The seats are OK, they are recliners and have plenty of legroom. We got little pillows from the conductor but no blankets. This would not be a problem if the air conditioning would not run on full all the time. In addition to it being a bit chilly and noisy the air is very dry, just like on an airplane.

We had dinner in the dining car, which was quite nice. The prices are reasonable and it's a good place to start chatting with people. And so we did till they kicked us out. We met a nice young lady from Chicago. She's the programm director of http://www.wluw.org, an independent community radio station.

Breackfast was yummy, too. It had to be eggs, hashbrowns, saussage and bacon. And, of course, orange juice and coffee and some more coffee, and plenty of time to chat about, well, mostely politics again. This time with a couple of ladies from Seattle. They came up on the train all the way from Florida and are now heading back home to Seattle.