The rest of my Baltimore trip
Aug. 27th, 2006 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hildy89I don't think I ever finished off my Baltimore travelogue from August. The day I left off was my busiest day on Sunday. In retrospect, I should have pushed myself to do some of it on Saturday, rather than cramming it all in one day. I don't know whether it was just the muggy awful weather condition or what, but I just didn't have the same energy I had hoped for.
I had wanted to go back to Fell's Point and see if I swing a tour through Little Italy on my way back. Both areas featured prominently in the second Baltimore based Nano novel, so I wanted to refresh my memories. So I hopped onto the water taxi and rode over. The ride was cool and refreshing compared to the muggy weather in the city proper. If you don't have any issues with boats, the water taxis provide a good way to get around the Baltimore area and orient yourself. You see the older derelict buildings, like the Domino Sugar factory. And right alongside them will be new construction & developments sprouting up like weeds. I like Baltimore's older wackier architecture, what can I say?
If you've watched "Homicide: Life on the Street", you've seen at least one building in Fell's Point: Recreation Pier. The old building served as Homicide headquarters. However as the passing "Ride the Ducks" tour reminded me (I kept bumping into it on my journeys), the Pier wasn't actually a police station, confused further by the entrance marked "police". In my book "Alter Egos" I turned it into the glitzy old Euclid ballroom, taken actually from a memory Giardello has in one episode of the Homicide building's former life. I took quite a few photos of the old building, along with the docks. You can see the remnants of the streetcar tracks there at Fell's Point, so some of my less wealthy cast could easily take on right up to the Euclid steps.
In one of the gift shops, though, I did discover something lovely. Along with the usual postcards, they were selling notecards of old photographs by A. Aubrey Bodine featuring old Baltimore. There's a treasure trove of visuals for my research purposes.
One store I didn't get to my last time in the city was the mystery bookstore, Mystery Loves Company. With the loss of the two Mystery Books stores, they are the last independent mystery book dealer in the DC area with a second store out in the Eastern Shore. Most have been driven out of business by the larger or online competitors. Besides the local writers section, they also have a historical mystery section and an "imports" section and some used books. I found a few more Carola Dunn mysteries - a fluffy series of 1920s English flapper mysteries I can devour on a nice leisurely weekend. I also bought the first of Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura series with a Japanese American heroine. The bookseller recommended reading them in order because things change rather rapidly throughout the series. I wasn't that impressed with the one staff person, but the store was nice and I would definitely go back. (I just would go in with a list ahead of time, rather than hoping the bookseller would know.)
After pizza at the BOP (Brick Oven Pizza), I headed up to the other locale featured in "Alter Egos" -- Little Italy. I just missed the annual film festival. This place is chock full of restaurants and eateries. One thing I hadn't realized was how cramped it was, compared to other Baltimore neighborhoods. Very similar to the narrow European streets. I visited on a Sunday afternoon, so it wasn't probably the best time to see it as its heights.
And then the long walk back to the Radisson Lord Baltimore. I discovered to my regret that the hotel restaurant wasn't just having a bad night the first time I was here. They appeared to only have two servers and the kitchen seemed more focused on the room service than the people in the restaurant. Regrettably I still haven't visited Federal Hill or seen if they've finished redoing Charles Street since my earlier visit. The latter will be amusing since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ariadnesthread has actually said that the Euclid reminds her more of the old Belvedere ballroom. Judging by those pictures I can see why, although I imagined the room being a bit larger. "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman" actually shows a very nice ballroom as Penguin's swanky nightspot. Yes, I've screencapped that scene. You never know...
I had wanted to go back to Fell's Point and see if I swing a tour through Little Italy on my way back. Both areas featured prominently in the second Baltimore based Nano novel, so I wanted to refresh my memories. So I hopped onto the water taxi and rode over. The ride was cool and refreshing compared to the muggy weather in the city proper. If you don't have any issues with boats, the water taxis provide a good way to get around the Baltimore area and orient yourself. You see the older derelict buildings, like the Domino Sugar factory. And right alongside them will be new construction & developments sprouting up like weeds. I like Baltimore's older wackier architecture, what can I say?
If you've watched "Homicide: Life on the Street", you've seen at least one building in Fell's Point: Recreation Pier. The old building served as Homicide headquarters. However as the passing "Ride the Ducks" tour reminded me (I kept bumping into it on my journeys), the Pier wasn't actually a police station, confused further by the entrance marked "police". In my book "Alter Egos" I turned it into the glitzy old Euclid ballroom, taken actually from a memory Giardello has in one episode of the Homicide building's former life. I took quite a few photos of the old building, along with the docks. You can see the remnants of the streetcar tracks there at Fell's Point, so some of my less wealthy cast could easily take on right up to the Euclid steps.
In one of the gift shops, though, I did discover something lovely. Along with the usual postcards, they were selling notecards of old photographs by A. Aubrey Bodine featuring old Baltimore. There's a treasure trove of visuals for my research purposes.
One store I didn't get to my last time in the city was the mystery bookstore, Mystery Loves Company. With the loss of the two Mystery Books stores, they are the last independent mystery book dealer in the DC area with a second store out in the Eastern Shore. Most have been driven out of business by the larger or online competitors. Besides the local writers section, they also have a historical mystery section and an "imports" section and some used books. I found a few more Carola Dunn mysteries - a fluffy series of 1920s English flapper mysteries I can devour on a nice leisurely weekend. I also bought the first of Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura series with a Japanese American heroine. The bookseller recommended reading them in order because things change rather rapidly throughout the series. I wasn't that impressed with the one staff person, but the store was nice and I would definitely go back. (I just would go in with a list ahead of time, rather than hoping the bookseller would know.)
After pizza at the BOP (Brick Oven Pizza), I headed up to the other locale featured in "Alter Egos" -- Little Italy. I just missed the annual film festival. This place is chock full of restaurants and eateries. One thing I hadn't realized was how cramped it was, compared to other Baltimore neighborhoods. Very similar to the narrow European streets. I visited on a Sunday afternoon, so it wasn't probably the best time to see it as its heights.
And then the long walk back to the Radisson Lord Baltimore. I discovered to my regret that the hotel restaurant wasn't just having a bad night the first time I was here. They appeared to only have two servers and the kitchen seemed more focused on the room service than the people in the restaurant. Regrettably I still haven't visited Federal Hill or seen if they've finished redoing Charles Street since my earlier visit. The latter will be amusing since
ariadnesthread has actually said that the Euclid reminds her more of the old Belvedere ballroom. Judging by those pictures I can see why, although I imagined the room being a bit larger. "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman" actually shows a very nice ballroom as Penguin's swanky nightspot. Yes, I've screencapped that scene. You never know...
