Chicago Class Trips and Educational Tours with Winged Victory USA

WV USA- 2004-2005
Chicago Spanish/French Student Field Trip Itinerary

Click here for a printable PDF of the Chicago 3-day Spanish/French Itinerary.
Day 1
8:00 AM	Depart school on a deluxe, climate-controlled and restroom-equipped motorcoach.
11:00 AM	Arrive in Chicago and meet your trilingual Winged Victory USA tour guide at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, the French cultural and educational center founded in Chicago in 1897.
11:15 AM	Walk to your assigned room in the same building for your cooking lesson.
11:30 AM	Enjoy your French Cooking Lesson, where you will cook your own French lunch! There will be five menus to choose from (before your trip). However, here is one to give you an example: MENU 1 Croque-Monsieur (pain de mie, sauce blanche, jambon, fromage genre emmental, passé au four) :Grilled sandwich filled with a cheese and ham sauce) Salade verte (salade toute prête, vinaigrette) : Green salad and basic vinegar and mustard dressing) Tarte aux pommes (pate brisée: farine, beurre/huile, eau, sel et pommes épluchées et coupées en quartier, beurre) : Apple tart (Flaky pastry :all-purpose flour, salt, butter, oil, water ; cooking apples, unsalted butter, sugar)
1:10 PM	In the comfortable auditorium, enjoy a viewing of a contemporary or classic French film (with or without subtitles), selected by your teacher from the institution’s vast film library.
3:30 PM	Meet the bus and depart for your hotel.
4:15 PM	Arrive at The Clarion Barceló Hotel and check-in to the area's "best kept secret". A charming property with wood and marble decor it provides the most value for your dollar.
6:15 PM	Reassemble in the lobby, then board your bus and depart for dinner.
7:00 PM	Arrive at Medieval Times and check in for an evening of sorcery, pageantry and horsemanship at Medieval Times.
7:30 PM	Begin your evening at the Spanish castle of Count Don Raimundo II. Upon arrival, you will take a journey back to 11th Century Spain, in the time of El Cid, where chivalry and knights in shining armor still exist. The evening will begin in the Grand Arena where you will be served a four-course dinner, as eight rare Andalusian stallions perform military drills with rigorous precision. Eventually, your knight will compete on horseback with five other knights from the various regions of Spain in medieval games of skill and accuracy. The games will end with a real jousting tournament, in which all the spectacularly costumed knights compete (at full gallop) to unhorse each other for the right to choose the Queen of Love and Beauty.
9:30 PM	Return to the hotel.
10:00 PM	Overnight security begins.
Day 2
7:00 AM	Full Breakfast Buffet in the hotel, which will include: Fluffy Scrambled Eggs, Crispy Bacon, Sausage Links, or Baked Ham, Seasoned Breakfast Potatoes, Chilled Orange Juice, Assorted Breakfast Breads, Butter, Jelly, and Marmalade, Fresh Brewed Coffee, Decaf and a Selection of Hot Teas.
8:00 AM	After breakfast, meet your guide in the lobby, and depart for "the loop".
9:00 AM	Arrive at the James R. Thompson Center, the home of French sculptor Jean Dubuffet's threestory- high "Monument with Standing Beast" and Pablo Picasso's "Head of a Woman" that scandalized the entire Midwest when it was dedicated in 1967. Of course, Picasso, a Spaniard, lived and painted for most of his career in France. Here, you will take a group photo at the Picasso Sculpture.
9:15 AM	After a group photo, you will depart on a short ride down Calle Mexico to the neighborhood of Pilsen, the home of a large majority of Chicago's 750,000 Mexican Americans, and the center of Mexican culture in the Midwest. Upon arrival on La Dieciocho (18th Street), you will begin your visit to Pilsen with a viewing of the many outdoor murals in and around Zapata Park and the Orozoco School.
9:45 AM	Depart for the Mexican Fine Arts Museum.
10:00 AM	Arrive at The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum - the largest institution of its kind in the United States. There, you will take an escorted tour of the current exhibit that may include both traditional and contemporary art produced by native Mexican and/or Mexican-American artists, and you'll have a few minutes to shop for Mexican books, clothing, art (including papier-mâché dolls, masks and drums) in the museum's one-of-a-kind Tienda Tzintzuntzan gift shop.
11:00 AM	After your museum tour, you'll take a short ride to the nearby Little Village Mall - an authentic Mexican mercado where the residents of Pilsen and “Pueblo Piqueño” shop for books, magazines, tapes and videos.
11:45 AM	Meet the bus and depart for the River North neighborhood (just west of the Magnificent Mile) for lunch at your own expense at your choice of the Rock and Roll McDonald's or the Rainforest Café. After lunch, you'll have a few minutes to browse for souvenirs.
1:30 PM	Meet the bus and depart for the Art Institute of Chicago.
2:00 PM	Arrive at the Art Institute of Chicago - which houses more than 300,000 works of art within it's 10 curatorial departments, where your guide will give you an introduction to the works of the French Masters from the Art Institute's famous collection of Europoean paintings. Afterwards, you can walk to the Contemporary Wing to consider some of the amazing works of Spain's famous modern artists Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. You may also explore the French Polynesian exhibits. Before you leave you'll be free for a few minutes to shop for books and postcards in the Museum's expansive book store.
3:30 PM	Meet your bus and begin a city site-seeing tour that will bring you by: The John Hancock Building, The Sears Tower, and down the Magnificent Mile, to name just a few of Chicago's famous landmarks.
4:30 PM	Transfer to dinner.
5:00 PM	Arrive at Café Bernard for dinner, a popular 29 year-old French Restaurant, featuring a wide array of French delicacies. Upon arrival, you can sing along with Claudia Hommel, a Chicago-area Cabaret singer, who is known throughout the Midwest for teaching the French language and culture while entertaining French students with her songs.
6:15 PM	After dinner, transfer to Navy Pier.
7:00 PM	While at Navy Pier, you will view a 7:00pm showing of an unforgettable IMAX theatre film.
8:00 PM	Afterwards, you will have about 1/2 hour to shop for a souvenir at Navy Pier: one of Chicago's most popular year-round tourist attractions which has more than 50 acres of parks, gardens, shops, and restaurants extending almost a mile into Lake Michigan. There you will find a food court, dozens of retail stores and a magnificent view of the Chicago skyline.
8:45 PM	Meet the bus and return to your hotel.
9:30 PM	Overnight security begins.
Day 3
8:00 AM	Full Breakfast Buffet in the hotel, which will include: Fluffy Scrambled Eggs, Crispy Bacon, Sausage Links, or Baked Ham, Seasoned Breakfast Potatoes, Chilled Orange Juice, Assorted Breakfast Breads, Butter, Jelly, and Marmalade, Fresh Brewed Coffee, Decaf and a Selection of Hot Teas.
9:15 AM	Check out of your rooms, place your bags on the bus, meet your guide in the lobby and depart for the Field Museum.
10:00 AM	Begin your visit to The Field Museum , one of the largest public museums in the United States. Your visit to the Field Museum will begin with a brief orientation tour. Afterwards, explore the museum's nine acres of exhibits that include Sue, the world’s largest and most famous Tyrannosaurus Rex, an Egyptian tomb (with 14 mummies), and the French Polynesian exhibits. While you are here, you will have lunch at your own expense in the museum's cafeteria.
12:30 PM	Depart for the shores of Lake Michigan where you will head to the amazing John G. Shedd Aquarium.
1:00 PM	Begin your visit at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, where your first stop at "The Big Blue", is likely to be the 90,000 gallon tank containing 350 species of tropical fish, but the principal attraction is the spectacular Oceanarium. There, in a painstakingly recreated Pacific Northwest ecosystem, you can watch dolphins, penguins and Beluga whales frolic above and below the surface from literally inches away. Don't miss the dolphin show at 3:00pm; it's going to be one of the highlights of your entire trip.
3:30 PM	Meet the bus and depart for home. You’ll be back at school by evening, exhausted yet forever enriched.
Your trip also includes:
A customized, keepsake DVD for each student and group leader, made from photographs taken with a camera that we will loan you for your trip. The images are downloaded, set to music, and then mailed back to you on a DVD to enjoy for years to come! A comprehensive Travel Protection Plan, underwritten by Stonebridge Casualty Insurance Company and administered by Trip Mate, Inc. is included in the price of the trip. This Plan provides benefits such as Pre-Departure Trip Cancellation, Medical Expense Emergency Assistance, Travel Delay, Baggage and Baggage Delay. A Travel Insurance Certificate will be provided to your child’s teacher for each child on the trip. Liability Insurance - WINGED VICTORY USA carries $2,000,000 in Professional Liability and Errors and Omissions insurance.