The Tiffany Dome

After the nervous tension of watching Scotland vs. Italy (can't imagine anything else that would bring me to an Irish pub at 7.30am - that was the only place it was on!), I unwound by wandering down Michigan Avenue and exploring the Chicago Cultural Center.

It's an amazing place. Although it's a very grand building, admission is free and I came across locals who'd just come in to sit down and read their newspapers. There are free exhibitions and performances; nothing was being performed while I was there, though there was a choir rehearsing in one room which was great background music to my visit!

The Tiffany Dome is supposed to be the biggest ever made by the Tiffany Company, and it really is stunning. Until 1991, the building was the Chicago Central Library, and around the base of the dome (you can see part of it behind the lamp) is the inscription: "Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn".