Edit: Added more pictures from last weekend at the bottom.

 

On a my third day of Thanksgiving vacation, I got a little bored of DC and decided to make a day trip to Baltimore. It being a Friday, I decided to take the MARC commuter rail from Union Station to Baltimore...only to find out after getting there that there was no service because of the holiday. Instead of paying $30 for Amtrak, I decided to take the Metro to the B30 bus to BWI to the MTA light rail. After finally getting to Charm City, I took the following pics:

 

My light rail train after getting off in Mt. Vernon.

 

 

 

The symbol of Balitimore (and the original, as they'll always remind you)- the Washington Monument

 

Side view of the famous Peabody Institute

 

My first stop of the day: The Walters Art Museum. This was a pretty neat museum, and I just recently had found out that it is free! The collection isn't huge, but still some good pieces.

 

America's first cathedral, designed by Benjamin Latrobe with some input from Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

I'm told that the oculus shown here was Jefferson's suggestion

 

 

 

 

 

Main lobby of the library

 

My second art museum trip of the day. Like the CMA, the BMA is undergoing a massive renovation, so only a fraction of their galleries were actually open.

 

Some house in Charles Village

 

That's a bit bold

 

 

 

Back to downtown

 

 

The light rail tracks going up Howard Street (this is not a rail corridor success story).

 

More empty storefronts on Howard Street

 

This place is great. Think smaller, less ornate version of the WSM, except with more prepared food vendors. Great crabcakes!

 

 

 

 

Looking down Eutaw Street

 

 

 

Of course I had to take a ride on the Metro Subway. The rail situation in Baltimore is interesting. It's similar to Cleveland in that it has one heavy rail line along with a light rail line that has some divergences and is sort of considered to be two lines. However, they are referred to completely separately. In Cleveland, all three lines are "the rapid." In Baltimore there is the "light rail" and there is the "subway" (or "metro", not sure what the locals actually call it). The lines also do not connect with each other and you have to walk a few blocks if you want to transfer from one line to the other. The subway is also relatively new (early 80s) and the plans for it were of course much more extensive, but only one segment was built. The stations and trains were pretty dirty and parts of some of the stations were crumbling. A nice benefit of the system though, MTA and DC's WMATA accept each others' smart cards.

 

 

 

 

Same exact rolling stock as Miami's metro system

 

And now to the Times Square of Baltimore: The Inner Harbor. I usually try to avoid sections of cities that are home to Ripley's Believe it or Not and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, but I do love the Inner Harbor.

 

The National Aquarium

 

 

 

The 15 star, 15 stripe flag is a popular sight in Baltimore...for obvious reasons

 

Beautiful Charm City from Federal Hill Park

 

A memorial in Harbor East (I forget what for unfortunately)

 

My favorite Baltimore neighborhood: Fell's Point

 

 

 

Despite its football team and its reputation from The Wire, Baltimore's a good town. Sure, it's rough around the edges, but there's a great culture there. Plus the food and architecture are great too.

 

 

February

 

First stop of the day: getting one of the best crab cakes in the world (and dropping $20....)

 

Unbelievably good

 

Lexington Market

 

Greenmount Cemetery

 

 

 

I feel torn about posting this here, and even feel guilty for having taken the picture. But this is John Wilkes Booth's unmarked headstone.

 

Typical Baltimore row homes on Broadway

 

Canton

 

 

 

Natty Boh! Sadly no longer brewed in Charm City

 

View of downtown

 

City Hall

 

 

 

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And here are some shots of filming locations from The Wire

 

Bodie's Corner

 

St. Casimir's Church

 

McNulty's Crash Site

 

The Greek's Diner

 

Major Crimes HQ

 

"Kavanagh's Irish Pub" where they had the officers' wakes

 

"Baltimore PD HQ"

 

And some bonuses from House of Cards

 

Zoe's apartment

 

Frank Underwood's house

I dig it.

What a beautiful city!

Looks good, dude.

 

(The memorial is the National Katyn Memorial... a Polish massacre by Soviet secret police.)

Very nice!  Alot covered for an afternoon.

nice work - crabcakes at faidleys in the market sound like a good idea right now.

nice work - crabcakes at faidleys in the market sound like a good idea right now.

 

It does indeed...just not sure I'd want to spend $20 for a crab cake meal again so soon!

My mother lives in Annapolis so I visit both often.  I definitely prefer Baltimore to DC.  Much more my style.  The Marc trains not running on weekends is rough though.  I've always been shocked terrible transit between the cities is.  There should really be regular, direct service between Balt, Annapolis, and DC.

 

Great pics.  I hope you had fun, hon!

Good news for you: MARC Penn Line trains about to start operating on Saturdays and Sundays. 7 round-trips in Saturday and 4 roundd-trips on Sunday.

Enjoy the ride!

LOL.  "About to..."  They've been saying this for over a year.  I hope that actually do it soon. 

 

EDIT: I see that they actually did it on the Penn Line starting yesterday. Praise Jesus!  I'm not sure why they went with a typical rush hour commute schedule, but hey it's better than nothing.  I would've run trains every two hours 6am-10pm. 

I'm glad that they are finally running on the weekends. But it's still annoying that they don't run on holidays (or the day after Thanksgiving)

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Because we all know that title belongs to Cincinnati

 

At least Baltimore finished their subway and light rail line....

 

Sorry...too soon? 

A Subway has nothing to do with greatness. See Atlanta as Exhibit A

A Subway has nothing to do with greatness. See Atlanta as Exhibit A

 

Nothing? I know more great cities that increased their density, intensity and dynamism with subways than without. BTW, Atlanta's subway system is used by 250,000 people a day -- double what SORTA carries on its entire bus-only system. I know that I would never live in a city without rail transit as those cities lack the urbanity and energy that rail brings. And Baltimore is dramatically adding to its rail offerings thanks to funding leadership by the state. It will add the Red Line thus creating a more thoroughly connected metro area...

 

^And Baltimore, like Denver, is engaging in an Eagle P3 (public-private partnership) program to fund part of the new, innovative (part subway) Red Line LRT... And Cleveland's RTA could... naaa, it would never work here, right?

 

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-11-15/business/bs-bz-transportation-worker-training-20131115_1_purple-line-red-line-light-rail

New pics

Well done, detective.