Posts

Last night

Image
My train was 20 minutes late leaving Baltimore.  The train was originally scheduled to arrive at Newark Airport railway station just after 6pm, so I'd booked my dinner reservation at Classified for 7pm, thinking that an hour would be plenty of time to get to it, even if the train was a little bit late. It was almost 6.40pm by the time we arrived, so I emailed them to let them know I might be a bit late. Since I've made this trip into Newark airport so many times before, I knew exactly where I was going.  I was able to get the airtrain along to terminal Cand go straight to the fast-track security line.  I'd already prepared for security by emptying pockets and putting everything in my bags whilst still on the train,. I also remembered which other restaurant I had to go to get into my destination restaurant.  Thanks to all of that, I actually turned up at precisely 7pm, so I needn't have emailed them after all! There were two other tables in use, but after half an hou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Final day in Baltimore

Image
With my train ticket booked for the 3.48pm train to Newark Airport, I had only three or four hours spare in Baltimore on Friday morning. Every other time I've visited Baltimore, the viewing platform in the World Trade Centre  building has been closed for one reason or another.  It's closed Monday-Wednesday anyway, plus it tends to be closed around 11th September too.  It also closes for private events from time to time. It's only $8 to go up to the 27th floor and it has windows on all five sides for looking out over the area. Oriole Park in the distance; M&T Bank stadium is just betweeen the two skyscrapers This is an actual WTC working office building, so there's a special lift that doesn't go to the other floors that you have to use, although it wasn't very busy so I didn't have to wait to go up. It was a hot day again, so it was nice to spend over an hour in this building, even though there's not all that much to do except look at the sights, read...
Post a Comment
Read more

Final game: San Francisco Giants @ Baltimore Orioles (game 3)

Image
 A day game! With a 1.05pm start, this is only the third day game I've had, and I was quite surprised to see the stands as full as they were.  Even though it's a Thursday afternoon, there appear to be lots of school-age children here.  There's a lot fewer empty seats on the club level too.  The upper deck is very sparsely populated though. Today, I had a turkey carvery at the ballpark.  On a burger bun.  I could have had the beef instead, but I think I'm going to be having that for dinner this evening, so I had something different. I also sat in my allotted seat today, even though it was crowded, as it wasn't as humid.  However, it has been the hottest day of my holiday today, with the temperature mid-afternoon at 30C/86F.  Mike Yastrzemski didn't lead off the third game in a row with a home run.  In fact, there was no scoring until the fourth inning when Michael Conforto hit a 2-run HR for us, only for Baltimore to score 3 in the bottom of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Francisco Giants @ Baltimore Orioles (game 2)

Image
During Tuesday's game, it was actually drizzling throughout the game, although fortunately, I was just about under the overhang of the top deck, so my seat wasn't wet and I wasn't rained on.  It was warm and humid again this evening and rain started to be in the air as I was walking along to the stadium. When it's raining the ushers in each club level section accompany you to your seat and dry it off for you, and most people tip a $1 per seat for this service.  I didn't need that service yesterday, though.  However, when I found where my seat was, it was the one empty seat in the middle of a full row. I was so hot that I decided to stay in the air-conditioned concourse instead for a bit to recover.  In the end, I walked all the way around looking for a chair in one of the alcoves all around the club level, but they were all in use at the time - I took this photo after the game was over and everybody was streaming out of the park. In the end, I found an almost ent...
Post a Comment
Read more

Harbour Walk

Image
Today, I walked around the northern side of the harbour as I did last year, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time as I wasn't feeling ill. There is a path along the waterfront, that occasionally had to go a block inland to avoid maintenance works. There are lots of flowers in the planters that were dotted at occasional points along the path.  A lot of the housing looked very expensive. I stopped off at Fell's Point on the way.  There are lots of shops for tourists here, including restaurants that I've eaten at before. Many seem to have shut up shop, although it's hard to tell whether that's just for the season or permanent.  I note that the Riptide by the Bay, a restaurant I once ate at, now seems to have closed down, going by the padlock on the door. I was able to get an iced coffee at a bakery, though and have a croissant.  That's the kind of place that locals use a lot. I had made a reservation for 4pm at the Rusty Scupper, because I've been there before ...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Francisco Giants @ Baltimore Orioles (game 1)

Image
Tuesday was my first complete day in Baltimore, and I spent most of it in my room trying to sleep.  The workmen using a pneumatic drill on the street below all morning did not help.  I'm on the 5th floor. I don't think I want to take another overnight flight like that again, because I've felt sick through exhausation all day.  Although it was a first class seat, it is just a seat. If I was to do a west-east overnight flight again, I'd fly San Francisco (or Los Angeles) to New York, because United treats those flights like the transatlantic flights and uses those planes with Polaris seating. That would have been a much better experience with proper individual flat bed seats - and then I could still have taken the train to Baltimore, just heading the opposite direction. Returning to the same stadium in consecutive years all feels very familiar. I was ill last year, and I just hadn't noticed that the sponsor on the top of the scoreboard was no longer the Baltimore Sun ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Baltimore arrival

Image
Since the last time I flew into or out of Dulles, the new Silver Line extension has been completed!  That means you no longer need to take a bus/coach along to the end of the line and transfer to the train.  It all looks very new still. I was able to reload my Smartrip smart card for the trip to Union Station, for my onward journey to Baltimore.  I boiught a a coffee at McDonald's, which seemed to take ages for them to make.  I caught the midday train.  It's really bizarre - they don't announce the platform/track for the train until the last minute, but have you queueing up along the concourse, back around corners, for miles.  Occasionally, people would come around the corner and ask "is this for [train number] 134??"  "Yes!" "Oh." It doesn't take very long to get to Baltimore, but this time, I knew exactly where I was going when I got there.  So I got the free Purple Circulator bus down to a block away from my hotel. I was able...
Post a Comment
Read more