"Motor City" - Detroit, Michigan, USA

Detroit, as seen on Google Earth. 

A few weeks back I had a chance to go visit a friend in Detroit, Michigan.We also went to Traverse City which is approximately 4 hours drive away from Detroit. But more about Traverse City in another post.

Detroit is the biggest city of state of Michigan, it is known as the "motor city". Detroit is home on the car manufacturers of USA; Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all have their headquarters in Detroit. Detroit is unique in its own way. I had a chance to go to GM world headquarters known as Renaissance Center. Renaissance Center (GM  world headquarters) is a grand, tall, glassy skyscraper sitting right at International riverfront in downtown. Renaissance Center is interconnected seven towers, which houses GM world car exhibit, GM world, Consulate-General  of Canada, Consulate-General  of Japan, Marriott hotel, HP enterprise services, USPS, Deloitte  and several other corporate offices, GM University, retail stores and restaurants.

Renaissance Center, seen from waterfront. 

Renaissance Center

International river front, as seen from inside Renaissance center.

The amazing thing about this picture is it was taken inside GM headquarters- Renaissance center but you can see Detroit's International riverfront through the glass. The water you see in the picture is Detroit river. The buildings right across the water is Canada. Isn't that fascinating!!!  If you notice carefully, on the pavement is a world map- in black stone.  If  you actually see and walk over the world map, which I did, there are white dots on the map, which are GM's all the offices across the globe.

Pods within the building.

Car's in GM world exhibit. 

GM headquarters is a well-designed architecture with structure's called pods. At places it looks like a maze and it's really easy to get lost. GM world car exhibit showcases their finest and best cars for the public. It is a car fanatic's paradise.

The International riverfront is a picturesque, calm and serene place.

Panorama picture of International River front.

Detroit's downtown is unlike other big American city's downtown I have seen. The first thing that is noticeable is it has fancy skyscrapers like other downtown but what it lacks is the people. It is awfully quiet and all you see is bunch of tourists and few locals. It gives an impression of deserted city which was once full of hustle bustle (which it is).

Detroit has a small downtown with a public transport within the city called Detroit People Mover. The train reminded me of Gotham city from batman movie where the trains rain above the ground level on the tracks all across the city. It's easier to get by in the downtown using the Detroit people mover. Let's have glimpse of Detroit's downtown, through few pictures.

The picture below is of statue called "Spirit of Detroit".

The Monument to Joe Louis, known as "The Fist".
  

Interestingly, Canada is only about half a mile away, and Windsor, Canada is 7.9 miles, or as my friend giving me the tour likes to call it "tunnel away". You can take Detroit - Windsor tunnel and off course if you have necessary documents you could be in another country in few minutes.

Most people live in the suburbs which are half to an hour away from Detroit's downtown. I had a chance to explore some of the suburbs, nightlife, and food of the great city, more about it in another post.

I hope you enjoyed reading. Keep checking for new post every week.