After a weekend of trekking through Gettysburg, me and my mom arrived for a day in Baltimore.  It was a fun experience.

First thing to note, Baltimore is filled with crime. The local news said that 27 people had been shot that week alone and many stores had been robbed. So If you go to Baltimore, be very careful.

The first part of the day we spent going on several historic ships in the city’s harbor. They included the submarine USS Torsk, which sank a Japanese ship during the last days of WWII, and the Coast Guard cutter Taney, which is a survivor of the attack at Pearl Harbor. They were both extremely interesting and I would definitely recommend visiting them.

The next stop was Fort Mchenry, which was a former U.S. Army fort guarding the harbour entrance. It offers excellent views of the city and ships in the harbor, the buildings are well preserved and a replica of the famous Star Spangled Banner flies above the site. The next place we wanted to visit was the WWII era merchant mariner SS John Brown, however it turned out to be closed.

What was interesting in trying to reach the old WWII merchant marine ship is that we passed by some modern ones. There were two large cargo ships in Navy service docked there. What was even more interesting is that there was a truck carrying a U.S. Army Stryker infantry fighting vehicle. I presume it was to be loaded up onto the ship for deployment overseas.  

For a late lunch/early dinner, we stopped by a very good seafood place called Philips. The calamari was decent and the fish and chips were to die for. The fish was fried perfectly and the fries were nice and soft, however I just wish they were thicker.

After a nice long day in the city, we returned to our hotel near the Baltimore-Washington Airport and crashed for the rest of the evening.

I enjoyed Baltimore, I would definitely recommend visiting it. However, definitely be on your guard while in there. I have always heard that Baltimore is not exactly what could be called a safe city, but the fact that 27 people were shot is quite shocking. You must be very careful when visiting, we stayed near touristy areas, so we did not run into anything suspicious. Just err on the side of caution when visiting. However don’t let that deter you from visiting, you will not regret it!