Weekend in Baltimore

Soccer, Ships and Jellyfish in Charm City

When we mentioned that we would spend the weekend in Baltimore, almost everyone looked at us if we were planning a trip to Kazachstan's fifth largest village (or Blankenberge for that matter). Why would you voluntary spend two days in Baltimore? Are you sure you wanna do that? But no, we actually spent an entire weekend in Charm City and we don't regret it!

What brought us there? Soccer... a friendly match between AC Milan and Chelsea (the wrong ones won, you decide). And we weren't the only ones there: about 71,000 people joined us! The stadium which is normally used for the Ravens' football games was huge, I never saw anything like it (an American friend pointed out that there exist 150,000 stadiums in the US... think big). Before the match started, we had an all American experience: tailgating or a BBQ organized around the open tailgate or trunk of a car. In other words, beer and hamburgers. :-)

On Saturday, we visited Baltimore by water taxi. The Inner Harbor is modern but still charming, filled with ships (even a submarine) and lots of shops. We were a little surprised by the number of tourists (especially after the reaction of our American friends who do not seem to be very impressed about Baltimore as a holiday destination), you could literally walk on heads.



The water taxi also brought us to Fells Point, an even more charming harbor. We had our first crabcake there and definitely not our last! We also visited Fort McHenry, birthplace of the American national anthem inspired by the famous star spangled banner which was raised during the Battle of Baltimore in 1812 (we already saw the original flag in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington D.C., remember my post of March 17).


Baltimore's aquarium is very high on a tourist to-do list and with reason! We were very impressed: sharks, stingrays, dolphins, coral, but also an entire rainforest including alligators, monkeys, parrots and even tarantula's (which, may I add, should be pointed out for safety reasons by a big warning sign... it is pretty damn scaring to be on the look-out for colorful birds and monkeys, and suddenly see a tiny little sign hidden between the bushes reading "Also populated by tarantula's"). However, I was most impressed by the jellyfish... the museum contained an entire wing with different kinds of jellyfish which were beautifully displayed. I decided to even dedicate an entire post to these beautiful creatures (which does not mean that next time I step into one or find one on my fingers while swimming in the sea, I won't curse or refer to these beautiful creatures in a more unpleasant way).


On the culinary front, we enjoyed Baltimore's crabcakes and fresh fish. Crabcakes for lunch, crabcakes for dinner and yes, even crabcakes for breakfast (Eggs Crab Benedict)! Definitely alone worth the trip to this charming but surprisingly unpopular city.