It's been a long enough hiatus since Part 1, I figure now is as good of a time as ever to revisit the Charm City!

 

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Stop one of this day was to visit Johns Hopkins Hospital. Why, you ask? Well...

 

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For the subway (mode #3) of course! I needed an excuse to take it somewhere, so I rode from JHMC to the Lexington Market.

 

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The Lexington Market station. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of Lexington Market itself!

 

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Eutaw Street, I believe. This one was in significantly better shape than Howard Street, which the light rail line runs down.

 

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Speaking of light rail, here's mode #4 now! We actually rode this the first night we got in, and we were all pretty surprised at how vacant the storefronts along the route were. There hasn't been much revitalization along Howard Street, it seems.

 

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Baltimore's CBD in general wasn't particularly family-friendly. It was strange seeing a whole strip of sex clubs and porn shops in the heart of downtown - it felt like something out of Taxi Driver and way out of place in a 21st century city. Totally unrelated to this photo, though!

 

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Back in Fells Point now.

 

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Beautiful houses along Patterson Park. Reminded me a lot of Montreal.

 

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The dawn of a new day! I hung around in Fells for the morning to watch the neighborhood wake up, and then I decided to finally head over to Mount Vernon to find out what all the fuss was about.

 

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This neighborhood feels so very "British". Such a great area.

 

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Hopped off the Circulator somewhere on Charles Street near the cathedral and just started wandering. Honestly, I probably could have spent my entire trip just in Mount Vernon, and I probably would have if I had hit it up on my first day instead of waiting toward the end.

 

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Charles Street was narrow and packed with buildings, which made it feel very intensely urban. The way it undulated up and down hills added a lot to the streetscape as well. The topography of Baltimore was one of my biggest "pleasant surprises" of this trip.

 

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I think I stared at this house for five minutes. Abso-freaking-lutely magnificent.

 

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The inside of the Basilica.

 

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The urban fabric around here was just so foreign and crazy and fantastic.

 

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Have you ever been somewhere where you've just been moved speechless? I was at a complete loss for words walking around Mount Vernon. Every single corner was a new surprise and the sheer size of the collection of these historic mansions completely blew my mind. This neighborhood is absolutely a national treasure and I was shocked that it doesn't get talked up more.

 

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It's as if all of the West End had been built to the same quality as Dayton Street. It was completely overwhelming to see such elaborate structures piled on top of each other. Completely unreal.

 

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Such a strange and brilliant juxtaposition.

 

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More gorgeous brownstone. Seriously beautiful architecture. I can't accurately begin to describe what it's like to move through this neighborhood.

 

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Probably the most impressive rowhouse street in the whole city.

 

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It just goes on and on for blocks and blocks and blocks and almost all of it is perfectly preserved. I didn't want to ever leave.

 

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Penn Station looming in the distance.

 

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This was an old B&O station I believe.

 

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After picking my jaw off the ground, I headed up to the art museum until it got dark. If I hadn't had other plans in store for the next day (to be seen in Part 3), I probably would have managed to spend an entire day just in the area around Johns Hopkins Univ and headed back to Mount Vernon. There is literally too much to see in one day. But I know my plan of attack for next time! Stick around for the final part, which I'll try to get posted sooner rather than later.

 

^ Fun fact about your last picture. That was the location of Zoe Barnes's apartment in the first season of House of Cards. The show was set in DC but filmed in Baltimore.

 

I love Baltimore but do you have a love/hate relationship with rows of residences? While there are plenty of variances in those neighborhoods, Baltimore is full of generics in others (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.30541,-76.57941&z=20&t=S streetview). I've driven through large swaths of the city and really dislike their architecture with the exception of downtown and Mt. Vernon.

I love Baltimore but do you have a love/hate relationship with rows of residences? While there are plenty of variances in those neighborhoods, Baltimore is full of generics in others (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.30541,-76.57941&z=20&t=S streetview). I've driven through large swaths of the city and really dislike their architecture with the exception of downtown and Mt. Vernon.

 

I agree. One thing I don't like about Baltimore is the blandness of many of the row houses in some of the neighborhoods. Some streets have almost no grass or trees at all either, so it leads to a very barren concrete and brick landscape.

Much loved England has plenty of those too, surprisingly. I was kind of shocked at seeing how many bland and barren rowhouses and streets both in the inner city and suburb.

Nice shots.

I love Baltimore but do you have a love/hate relationship with rows of residences? While there are plenty of variances in those neighborhoods, Baltimore is full of generics in others (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.30541,-76.57941&z=20&t=S streetview). I've driven through large swaths of the city and really dislike their architecture with the exception of downtown and Mt. Vernon.

 

There are some bland areas, but that's true of any city. Baltimore has way more than Mt. Vernon and downtown. Bolton Hill, Fell's Point, Canton, Charles Village, Station North, Roland Park, the list is extensive and really more impressive (architecturally and fabric-wise) than anything we have in Ohio.

I love Baltimore but do you have a love/hate relationship with rows of residences? While there are plenty of variances in those neighborhoods, Baltimore is full of generics in others (http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.30541,-76.57941&z=20&t=S streetview). I've driven through large swaths of the city and really dislike their architecture with the exception of downtown and Mt. Vernon.

 

There are some bland areas, but that's true of any city. Baltimore has way more than Mt. Vernon and downtown. Bolton Hill, Fell's Point, Canton, Charles Village, Station North, Roland Park, the list is extensive and really more impressive (architecturally and fabric-wise) than anything we have in Ohio.

 

Fabric-wise, I agree.  Architecturally, Cincinnati can hang (and exceed in some ways).  For example, Roland Park is a stunning area but the architectural variety in, say, Hyde Park in Cincinnati is more varied.  Charles Village is nice but isn't architecturally impressive.  It certainly mimics DC along St. Paul and, say, Philadelphia along Calvert but nothing more eye-catching than *insert West End, Cincinnati street here*.  Some of Baltimore's best residential are actually west/northwest of downtown such as Eutaw Place and the neighborhoods near Druid Hill Park.  Baltimore reminds me a bit of Liverpool or Manchester with a lot of working-man "terraces" for blocks and blocks without vegetation in the blue-collar neighborhoods and down-right jaw-dropping rows along the central spine heading north / northwest.