Actually, the Chicago Underground Tour (with Rats). This is an interesting, entertaining, and informative tour of some below street level areas downtown. CVH, who does not care for rats, did not join me.
Long ago, downtown Chicago along the river was built to have two levels: an upper, for use by office workers, tourists, etc, and a lower, for use by the folks who make deliveries, pick up the garbage, etc. Over a hundred years later, this infrastructure is still in place and very much used the same way.
The tour began near the Billy Goat Tavern, immortalized by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live.
It really is “Cheezborger,cheezborger, chips, no fries”
We immediately began searching the nearby area for rats. We did not see any (they are not usually active in the morning), but there was clear evidence of many, many rat nests.
The most common rat in Chicago is the Norway rat, like this one here. Our tour guide informed us that the Norway rat originated in China – not Norway. At least it’s not called the Chicago rat.
Chicago is regularly reported as “the rattiest city in America”; however, this is just not true. Because rats live off of our refuse, the number of rats in a city is directly proportional to the number of humans. This is another of the many rat facts that one learns on this tour.
This lower level is vast, and home to untold numbers of rats.
After we learned how to recognize rat nests, the tour moved into the train tunnels, where we had the unexpected pleasure of seeing the Metra Holiday Train getting ready to go out for the season.
(file phot0)
Our tour director took our picture with the Holiday Train, and he said he would send it to us all, but alas, I guess he got busy, so here’s a old picture to give you an idea.
We also heard the story of the most famous rat from Chicago, Scabby.
It seems that Scabby was first a costume, like a sports mascot, but that turned out to be too uncomfortable, too small, and too friendly-looking. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of a huge, mean, inflatable rat and it spread like, well, rats.
There is a whole series of bewilderingly complicated pedestrian tunnels under downtown Chicago. In one tunnel, there is a beautiful display of several stained glass windows.
If you visit Chicago, you should go see these early twentieth century masterpieces outside Macy’s basement.
My favorite part of the tour was visiting the abandoned subway station.
Every bit as creepy as it looks, and not a place you would want to be caught alone late at night. Or anytime, really. The L trains roar by, but they do not stop.
