City of Cars

An exciting rushed trip through Hollywood and a bomb scare later, Ian and Brian finally arrived in good old Erie, PA. They had a nap, then it was time to hit the street for our Michigan weekend, starting in downtown Detroit.

You know your in for an interesting night when the Lonely Planet book says 'quite frankly, Detroit looks like its had the shit kicked out of it!'

It took about 4 hours to get there, arriving at about 9pm. We checked in to our hotel, then hit the streets to find some dinner. We found a nice Mexican restaurant and ate there, before proceeding to Greek Town for some drinks in a bar. We had a window seat. There were some interesting characters walking past and some pimped out cars driving past.

Ryan, Bryan and Ian in Greek Town

A pimped out car

On the walk home there were 4 un-marked police cars pulled over on the side of the road. They had 4 guys in handcuffs sitting on the sidewalk. Of course the police were expressing their 'authoritire' as they all love to over here.

No, this isnt a cheap porn shot! The hotel room was very cozy, which meant Ian and Brian had to share a double bed!

The next morning, we headed for the Detroit riverfront (halfway across the river is Canada. Detroit is the only US city to look south on Canada). It was nice down there, and the boys got to check out all the boats cruising past. We went to the head office of General Motors, which is actually an awesome building, and housed a small GM museum (big big big mistake Kristy - taking the boys to a car museum!)

GM Head Office stands out in Detroit

The park near the waterfront - from this angle Detroit looks quite nice

Ryan and Kristy with an old GM vehicle


Ian and Brian with the latest Corvette from GM

The real Detroit - downtown buildings are vacant, boarded up and run down. I guess that's what makes the city so unique

After walking through a funky park, we jumped on the people mover, an elevated transport system. We done 1.5 laps and hopped off at a downtown bar, before walking to the home of the Detroit Tigers stadium (baseball) who were actually practising while we were there.

Kristy at the Tigers home ground

After a brief stroll through town, we went to the Walter P Chrysler Museum (much to Kristy's delight!), where we saw about 70 Chrysler cars, including the very first prototype ever made. There were some really nice cars there too (Tony - you would have loved it!)

Ryan with a Chrysler muscle car

Kristy taking one of the Chryslers for a spin!

On the way to our next hotel in Canton, we cruised down 8 mile made famous by Eminem. After dinner, we drove about 25 minutes to a small university town called Ann Arbor. It reminded us of Beaumont Street and had the best looking range of people we have seen to date in the USA. We stopped in for a few drinks and ice cream.