The regular travel section today's Sunday paper - Sydney's Sun-Herald - features a wonderful tourist destination in the United States ... [drum roll] ... Baltimore! A two page spread describes the city as "warm as pie", a "real" city, a "happy fusion" of the urbane north and hospitable south, infused with Baltimorean "sincerity", a "fringe festival" (in relation to nearby Washington DC), and so on.
It makes Baltimore sound like a fun destination, which is great because we're going to spend two weeks or so there in June when we visit Emily and Greg who are living near the inner harbour "where tourists congregate". We can't wait to get there.
I'm sending Emily the article for expert comment on its accuracy, and hope it's not going to disappoint us.
AS
2 comments:
Hmmmm.... very interesting indeed! Greg and I read the article with much interest and have to say that we actually agree with the authors sentiments. It hasn't always been that way, but the longer we spend here the more we think that the city has got a lot to offer.
I think Baltimore is fighting hard to earn people's respect - the council has worked hard to increase tourism and cut down on the crime rate, but there is still a long way to go. The city definitely has character, and there are a lot of historical places that add a certain something to the mix (the place where the American national anthem was written, the site of the first casualty of the Civil War, the first Washington monument (yep, from before the famous one in DC)), the various forts and cannons and old buildings scattered around the place)... it's not a bad city, really.
We are slowly discovering more hidden treasures - I only went to the Walters Gallery, mentioned in the article, for the first time last week. The article has actually inspired me to plan a trip for all the expats here to the sites mentioned - the Museum of Dentistry etc. - and ending with a viewing of the movie Hairspray (2007 version)!
I am really looking forward to showing off Baltimore to all our visitors. I hope it lives up to your expectations!
Recently Baltimore was voted Number 1 most UNDERrated city in the US!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18024681/
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