Baltimore

A short train run found us in a train yard parked under an interstate bridge. Trucks and stuff can be pretty noisy hurtling over those things. Luckily the train is fairly well insulated and we weren't bothered by the noise too much.

The arena wasn't very nice but it is right down town which is great as it means we could pretty much walk anywhere we wanted to get to and Baltimore had quite a bit to offer so it was good that we were here for two weeks.

Lexington Market was only a few blocks away and it is funny how you get different reviews of a place. Some people told us not to go there as it was dodgy and others said they loved it. I really loved it and certainly had no qualms of going there on my own.

Inner harbor was also just a short walk away and there always seemed to be something going on here, with street entertainment and plenty of shops, including the best Barns and Noble book shop. Not because of the actual book store but its setting in an old power plant. You could also hire paddle boats here and went went old school with a retro paddle boat and not a dragon. Though I'm thinking if we had seen 'How to train a dragon' before and not after we may have had to pay more and got the dragon.





We did plan to spend a day hoping on and off the water taxi but we either got in to town too late or the weather wasn't on our side. I don't think it went anywhere you couldn't manage to walk to but it would have been a nice way to fill a few more hours and did drop you off at all the major attractions.

We went to the Federal Hill area to check out a book shop 'The Book escape'. It was a great little book store with second hand and new books. I was glad the book store made us venture out this way as Federal Hill itself is a really nice area and you had amazing views of inner harbour from there and we found a play park so willow was happy. On the way back from there we went via the harbour and did something else you are meant to do in Baltimore. We had sea food and choose well by having it at the Rusty Scupper. I had crab cakes and they were really good.



We went to Fells point a few times as it is a really nice area of Baltimore, with it's cobbled streets and trendy bars and shops. It even had pirates one day we visited. We had pizza here at a small place called Bop Pizza, and it was the best pizza I have had, even Willow liked it.




A few blocks from the arena is Westminster Hall and Burying Ground. The church and cemetery are one of the oldest in Baltimore and Edger Alan Poe's grave is here. I really loved it here. When I went the first time (I visited a couple of times) I was the only one there and it was kind of creepy. His house is also here but a bit of a walk away and not in the best part of town either.




Another Area of Baltimore (so many areas) was Mount Vernon, I wandered here one day on my own to see the Washington Memorial, smaller than the one in DC but the original. The same architect built both though. Right next to it was an amazing old Gothic church.






We had heard a lot about the National Aquarium here, it is meant to be one of the best. We managed to go on a school trip which was great but I wouldn't say it was the best we had been to. It did have a great dolphin show though and the Jellies invasion was nice. Sometimes though I wonder if we are getting to spoilt with all the places we are getting to visit and getting a bit to critical maybe.






Another few things we didn't do were the Science Museum, Children's Museum and The American Visionary Art Museum. They all looked good but we have have done quite a lot of museums in the last few weeks so gave them a miss. Especially since these ones cost money and we have been spoilt with all the free ones in DC. You can see quite a lot of the Art museum for free though, the outside of it reminded me of Phillys Magic Garden.






I liked Baltimore.