Baltimore Break

By Maxine Bates

In October my partner and I spent four nights in Baltimore. Having booked flights and accommodation only 48 hours prior to travel there wasn’t much time for research so we ‘winged it’ upon arrival in the city. Met at passport control with an incredulous “But nobody comes on vacation to Baltimore!”, we did wonder if we’d made the right choice of destination but managed to fill our time with a range of sightseeing in unseasonably warm sunshine. Unfortunately the harbour cruises had stopped for winter and it was out of season for any baseball games.

The city is set around the pretty inner harbour and the main tourist attraction are the four historic ships docked in various parts of that harbour. We bought a combined ticket to visit all four, so explored two on one day and the remaining two ships on another day. I found the Torsk submarine the most interesting, especially the cramped sleeping quarters with bunks directly above the torpedoes! We timed our visit to the US coast guard cutter Taney to coincide with their daily engine room tour at 3pm which was almost a private tour. In fact most of the ships we had to ourselves. The others were entirely different; the wooden USS Constellation with its cannon deck and the lightship Chesapeake. Boats of a totally different type were the dragon shaped pedalos for hire in the harbour!

Also around the harbour is the World Trade Center. The tallest building in the city and the tallest pentagonal building in the world even though only 27 floors high. Tickets to go up in the elevator to the observation deck were reasonably priced and there are plentiful information panels about the city, buildings and famous people. Baltimore apparently had several pioneers in the medical field. Sadly the names of the 58 Marylanders who were aboard one of the planes that hit the other World Trade Center on 9/11 are etched on one of the windows. A fragment of steel from the New York ‘twin towers’ is also on display. Across the harbour is Fort McHenry, the birthplace of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. The fort is now home to an exhibition, cannons and magazine store. We started with a film show in the entrance building; at the end, the screen lifts to reveal a view of the fort and everyone stood for the national anthem. The fort was where the words to the anthem were written by Francis Scott Key, inspired by the flag flying over the fort after intense British naval bombardment during the war of 1812. The flag itself was sewn at the now-named Banner House in the city by Mary Young Pickersgill - another interesting location to visit.

We came across the Washington Monument by chance, but what a great find - the first tribute to the first US President, built in 1815 and a gift from the state of Maryland. There was a small admission charge to climb the 227 steps but they only accepted payment by card which neither of us had with us at the time. We were kindly let in for free but left some dollars in their donation box. 227 steps up also meant 227 steps down, but there were markers on the walls telling you how far there was to go. We also visited the grave of Edgar Allan Poe (spot the error in dates carved on the stone!); the indoor Lexington Market that has been in existence since 1782; the Walters Art Gallery (mostly because it was free and had air conditioning on a hot day but also quite interesting) and the quaint Fells Point area full of interesting shops, bars and restaurants. For nightlife there’s the trendy Power Plant district, and famous restaurants such as the Hard Rock Café and Bubba Gump, or why not sip a drink in the lobby bar of the historic Lord Baltimore Hotel accompanied by their piano player?

I’d not visited the USA for four years and was quite shocked at how the current exchange rate made most things seem expensive and how waiting staff now expect a 20% tip. Not the cheapest destination to visit, but a pleasant one. Washington DC is only an hour away by train but that could be another review in itself…•

First published in VISA 138 (April 2018)