Detroit: Rooftop Restaurant (Coach Insignia) on top of Ren Centre

My morning walking tour on October 18, 2008 was followed up by another walking tour of Brush Park, one of Detroit's fascinating neighbourhoods. Bob Goldsmith from Detroit Tour Connections was our guide again and explained this area to us.

During Victorian times this era featured many affluent mansions for upper-class families in Detroit. The neighbourhood encompasses 24 city blocks and originally included 300 homes, 70 of which were Victorian mansions. With the development of suburbs and an extensive highway network, people started moving further afield and Brush Park began to lose its appeal. Many of the houses were then subdivided into multiple apartments, and in the post-war years many of the houses started to become abandoned.

Some houses turned into crack-houses and the city decided to demolish many of them, leaving behind large empty plots of grass, often referred to as "urban prarie". Today, many of the buildings are now being restored and new townhouse developments have also sprung up. Brush Park is a fascinating neighbourhood in transition.

In addition to private residences we also admired some historic church buildings and a recently opened upscale grocery store called Zaccaro's. After our tour my friend Linda and I relaxed a little at our hotel, and in the evening we embarked on an exploration of downtown Detroit. We went on one entire loop of the Detroit People Mover, a single-track, one-way public transit system that covers 13 stations in downtown Detroit.

Then we explored the Renaissance Centre, the world headquarters of General Motors. We strolled past the large showroom on the main floor into the Wintergarden which faces the Detroit River. Then we made over way into the 73-storey Marriot Hotel which makes up the central tower of the seven-building complex. The top of the hotel is crowned by the Coach Insignia restaurant where we enjoyed a phenomenal sunset and a nice collection of appetizers at the bar. The view from this rooftop restaurant was absolutely gorgeous and provided us with a night-time vista of Windsor across the river, as well as Detroit. Further west the Ambassador Bridge was all lit up and twinkling in the distance a great ending to an action-packed day.

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• Cadillac

[vistagame]

it no longer revolves that was the summit back in the day.

[shamrock608]

thats beautiful