Mystery novelist Laura Lippman says Baltimore has the necessities that make a city worthwhile.
“There’s good food, very interesting cemeteries — I love visiting cemeteries when I travel — and really good museums,” says the award-winning writer who has lived in Baltimore since she was a child.
That affection for the city shows up in many of her novels, dominated by a series with a Baltimore-based private eye, Tess Monaghan. A visit makes it easy to see why she likes the town. The city moves from the slick — say too-slick — Inner Harbor to neighborhoods like Fell’s Point. Restaurants include classy chains like McCormick & Schmick or hometown places such as Faidley’s in Lexington Market, where Lippman gets her favorite crabcakes.
By the way, Baltimore’s cemeteries include the resting spot of Edgar Allan Poe, which for some time was the site of a mystery mourner known as the “Poe Toaster.” He visited the grave on the anniversary of the death and left roses and cognac.
To best understand Baltimore, a visitor needs good advice.
“As Dr. Chilton told Clarice Starling in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’,” Lippman says, ” ‘This can be quite a fun town if you’ve got the right guide.’ ”
Amid shops and food vendors on the Inner Harbor, two complexes stand out in their efforts to provide knowledge in a fun way.
The Maryland Science Center has an IMAX theater and a planetarium that explores the night skies and space travel. The center also has displays looking at the sciences of the human body, the geology of Earth and other planets and, as a Baltimore special, a study of the blue crab.
The National Aquarium draws 1.6 million visitors a year and is one of Maryland’s biggest tourist attractions. It is the home to 16,000 swimming creatures and a famous dolphin show.
Tony Bennett made this headline more a reference to San Francisco, but Baltimore is in the same aquatic position. Naturally, then, a Baltimore cruise should be part of any visit.
Watermark tours, in the Inner Harbor area, has been offering trips since 1972, including a 45-minute trip around the harbor, a Friday evening cocktail cruise and a Saturday city-lights trip.
The company also offers water-taxi service and a cruise to the nearby harbor of Annapolis.
The harbor of Baltimore plays a huge role in United States history. It is the home of the National Anthem.
Only about 3 miles from the city, Fort McHenry is a National Park Service historic shrine.
In the war of 1812, it stopped a British advance in the battle of Baltimore Harbor, which Francis Scott Key captured in lyrics.
Besides historical exhibits, activities at the fort include bird walks in the neighboring wetlands set for Wednesday and Nov. 19.
Baltimore’s history is rich in the sports world, too. Besides being the home of the Preakness and the birthplace of Babe Ruth, the city boasts baseball’s Orioles and, you might have heard of them, a football team called the Ravens.
A visit to Baltimore should at least include a look at the Camden Yards area, where baseball games are at Oriole Park and football at M&T Bank Stadium.
Like Pittsburgh’s North Shore, the Camden Yards area has developed to accept the crowds that envelope it, and is good for a walkabout or dinner before a game.
Baltimore has a history that includes many sides.
Take an overall look at the Maryland Historical Society Museum, which is the home of a research and archive institution that also is the site of the state’s largest Civil War display.
Meanwhile, the B&O Railroad Museum tells the story of one of the nation’s best-known rail lines and offers rides and locomotives to examine.
Down at the Inner Harbor, tours are available on the U.S.S. Constellation, a Coast Guard cutter that survived the Pearl Harbor attack, a World War II submarine and a Chesapeake Bay lightship.
Besides history and sports, Baltimore has a steady cultural diet.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1916, is conducted by Marin Alsop. When she took that post in 2007, she became the first female conductor of a major U.S. orchestra. It performs at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Opera has been performed in Baltimore since 1752, but the Baltimore Opera Company went bankrupt in 2009. It has been replaced by the Baltimore Opera Theatre, which is trying to make opera a more family-friendly outing. It performs at the Hippodrome Theatre.
Speaking of the Hippodrome, that former vaudeville house has been renovated and is the home of touring Broadway shows and other productions. It is part of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center.
Cities and their design are works of art in themselves, but Baltimore is the home of two museums that explore great aspects of the more recognized forms of visual art.
The American Visionary Art Museum is a site that looks at art created by untrained artists. In short, these are works that emerge from the vision of their creators rather than study of a style.
In a more traditional sense, the Baltimore Museum of Art examines the work of better-known artists with its 90,000 works from the 15th century to the present. Founded in 1914, it has the largest collection in the world of the works of Henri Matisse.
