Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Baltimore in four days!

Couple of more thoughts! For a truly unique experience, you should visit Hausner's for lunch or dinner. It's an experience and a long standing tradition in Baltimore dining! A cavernous restaurant, it's walls are covered with oil paintings; statuary is everywhere, including busts of Roman emperors in one alcove dining area. There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to the art displayed. The rule seems to be: If there's space on the wall, hang it! Ornate gilt frames dominate. Hausner's menu is equally unbelievable with over 90 entrees, predominantly German. The food is good and relatively inexpensive. One other feature of Hausner's epitomizes Baltimore and that is its waitresses. Most are of the grandmotherly type and are sure to call you "hon" somewhere during the course of your meal. Once, dining with my then five year old daughter, the waitress after serving my daughter a plate of knockwurst said "Wait a minute, 'hon', let me fix that hot dog for you" and proceded to cut the wurst into a five year old's bite sized pieces. Check out the pastry counter at the entrance - a glance will fill you with hundreds of calories. Check out the former "Gentlemen's bar" with walls plastered with paintings of pneumatic odalisques and nymphs. Hausner's is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. It's located at 3242 Eastern Avenue, telephone 327-8365.l I'm sending you some information on Annapolis and really suggest you visit it, as well. It's a small city, population 28,000 or so, and its most historic and interesting areas encompass about six square blocks. It's eminently walkable! The drive from Baltimore to Annapolis should only take 30 to 40 minutes. First things first! How do you get to Annapolis from Baltimore? Take Interstate 395 to I95 south to the Beltway eastbound, I 695. Take I 695 east to Route I 97 south to Annapolis. I 97 runs into I 50. Roads have excellent signage. Continue eastbound on Route 50 to Admiral Rowe Boulevard, a well-marked exit. Continue to the end of the boulevard. The building directly in front of you is the state capitol. Turn left at the end onto College Avenue and continue to King George Street. The campus on your left is St. John's College, which was established in 1696. The college is a liberal arts school with no fixed curriculum. Students read assigned classics and submit to oral exams to become degreed. About ten years ago the students of St. John's decided to challenge the Naval Academy's midshipmen to an athletic contest. All of the midshipmen are jocks by nature and supremely physically fit. The Johnnies assuredly are not! A competition was set up and is now an annual event. St. John's invariably wins. The game? Croquet! At King George Street turn right and continue to the main gate of the Naval Academy (you can't miss it!). The large dome behind the high wall to your left is the Academy's chapel. THE NAVAL ACADEMY Enter the Academy; you'll have to stop at a gate with a Marine guard. If he asks, tell him you're going to the visitor's center. Once past the gate there's a large building immediately to your right and an entrance to a parking lot. Enter and park. Parking in Annapolis is metered; within the Academy it's free. Walk back to the street, turn right, walk past the building (it's the Admiral Halsey Field House). At its far end is the entrance to the Visitor's Center. As you enter the Center, Annapolis Harbor is to your left. By all means visit the Center, pick up a map of the Academy grounds and check out the exhibits. Upon exiting the Visitor's Center, note the building on the opposite side of the street. It's an athletic complex with an Olympic sized swimming pool, work out rooms and on its second floor a gallery of photographs of the Academy's past and present varsity athletes. Walk back to the Main Gate and turn right at the first street before the gate. Continue to the next corner and turn left. The houses on the left are the homes of senior faculty. The building to the right houses the Academy's electronics center with closed circuit TV for classrooms. At the next corner turn right. The huge building to the left is the home of the Superintendent of the Academy; The second building on the right is Dahlgren Hall, the student lounge which has a hockey rink in winter, dance floor the rest of the year. It has a cafeteria style restaurant and pizza joint inside. Go inside and walk up the staircase; a pre-war World War II seaplane in which midshipmen trained hangs from the ceiling. Flags of all the states are mounted on the wall behind the balcony overlooking the hockey rink. Exit the building and turn right. Continue walking to the large statue of the Indian chieftan Tecumseh. The building in front of the statue is Bancroft Hall, the Academy's dormitory. You can enter, turn left down the corridor before the staircase and visit a typical midshipman's room. Come back to the staircase, go up and enter a formal ballroom bedecked with battle flags from sea battles dating back to the war of 1812. Exit Bancroft Hall. The plaza in front of Bancroft is where the midshipmen assemble. Note the two cannons facing one another at the entrance to the plaza. One warm spring day, when the midshipmen were still wearing their winter weight navy blue uniforms, a couple of middies wired the cannons, placed a small explosive charge and filled the barrels with Ajax cleanser. The ensuing snowy blast on 4000 navy blue outfits let the administration know it was time to switch to summer whites! Tecumseh is decked out in war paint during football season and on special occasions. Midshipmen march from the plaza to the football stadium and past Tecumseh. Tradition says that if a marching midshipman with failing grades can pitch a penny into Tecumseh's quiver, he'll get a passing "C". Continue past Tecumseh into the yard and enter the Academy chapel to your left. Note the huge bronze doors. A young girl created their design! Louis Comfort Tiffany created the stained glass windows around the altar. Exit one of the doors nearest the altar and descend the staircase to the crypt of John Paul Jones, an impressive site. Exit the chapel. In front of the chapel is an obelisk, the Herndon Monument. It's greased by upper classmen at the end of the spring term, a muddy pit dug around it. Plebes (freshmen) attempt to shinny up the monument to exchange their freshman cap (called a Dixie cup) for an upper classman's hat perched atop the monument. The plebe who does so presents his prize to the Academy superintendent on the steps of the chapel. Tradition says the prizewinner will become the first admiral of his graduating class. The building to your immediate right is the Superintendent's home. He is an admiral who will serve a two-year term as academy Superintendent. The buildings directly across the yard are classrooms. Turn left and walk to the corner. The building across the street and to your right is Preble Hall, the Academy's museum. By all means, visit it, particularly to see the astounding collection of magnificent ship models, some of which were carved from beef bones by French prisoners. Return to your car, exit the lot and turn right. Drive past Halsey Field House then left along the sea wall. To your left is Bancroft Hall and athletic practice fields. To your right is Annapolis Harbor. The radio towers across the way form the communications network for the Navy's Atlantic fleet. At the far end of the sea wall to your right is a ship's mast. It's one of the two masts from the battleship Maine, sunken in Havana's harbor in 1898. The other is in Arlington cemetery. At the point is a beacon with a glass globe that contains waters from the seven oceans of the world. Turn left. Across the river is the Navy's Research and Development Lab. You may see some small patrol boats moored there. These are the boats in which the midshipmen learn navigation and command. The building at the far end of the road is the Academy's yachting center. Turn left then right. The sailboats moored in the anchorage coupled with the yard boats from across the river constitute the world's eleventh largest Navy! The larger ocean-going sailboats have either been donated to the Academy or confiscated by one of the governmental agencies, DEA, FBI, IRS, etc. Continue to the end of the drive and turn left. The building to your immediate left is Rickover Hall, the Academy's library. To the right, across College Creek, the Academy has a hospital and cemetery. Just past Rickover Hall the next building is a 5,000-seat theatre and auditorium. Just to your right and across the street is Worden Field, the Academy's parade ground. Turn left to the end of the street, and then take a short right then left past the chapel. Turn right and return to the parking lot. ANNAPOLIS Walk to the main gate, exit and turn left onto Randall Street. A short two-block walk will take you to the City Dock. Note the Flag House on your right as you commence your walk. It's a B&B that posts the state or country flags of its guests. When you come to the open area at the end of the two blocks, note the building on the corner to your right. It's the Middleton Tavern and dates to the mid-1700's. Colonial patriots used to meet there on Thursday evenings to discuss current political affairs. Present day politicians still do, a tradition that's held for over 200 years. Right next to the Tavern is McGarvey's Saloon, a good spot for lunch. If you go there, keep an eye out for Walter Cronkite. When sailing Chesapeake Bay, he frequents McGarvey's. Just past McGarvey's is the tobacco prise building, where in colonial days, tobacco leaf was tamped into 400 pound hogsheads to be loaded onto ships sailing to England. Just past it is the Shiplap House, so named for its unique siding. If you continue to the end of the street you'll end up at state circle and the State House. For now, back up to the corner. The long single story building just to your right across the street is the Market House. It's been a farmer's market, waterman's market and at one time a slave market. Just past it you'll see a plaque in the sidewalk commemmorating the arrival and sale of Kunte Kinte of Roots fame. To your immediate right are a row of stores and restaurants; Riordan's is the least formal restaurant and like McGarvey's, another good spot for lunch. At the corner, there's a traffic circle. Opposite and all the way to your left, the brick building on the far corner is the Maritime Museum and worth a visit. At one time, when tobacco was being shipped to England, the building served as a warehouse where foodstuffs for crews were stored before being loaded onto sailing ships in the harbor. The museum has a diorama of the city in the mid-1700s. Interestingly, many of the buildings in the diorama still exist and can be seen from the front steps of the museum. Across from the Market House is the City Dock (known to residents as Ego Alley because of the yachts that are moored there on weekends). If you walk towards the harbor alongside Ego Alley you'll note a kiosk on your left. It can provide you with a map and tourist information. At the end of the dock, you'll either see the boat "Harbor Queen" or signs for it. I wouldn't bother taking a cruise on it; it's costly and doesn't go anywhere you haven't been! It leaves the harbor, sails along the Academy seawall, turns up the river by the Academy Yachting Center then turns around and returns to the City Dock. You've been that route by car. Backtrack on Randall Street towards the Academy. At the first street, Prince George Street, turn left. At 186 Prince George, you'll find the William Paca House which dates from 1763 and has a beautiful formal garden. Gardens and house are open to the public. There is an admission fee. Paca was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the early governors of Maryland. Continue on Prince George Street to Maryland Avenue and turn right. There are two magnificent homes, the Hammond-Harwood House at 19 Maryland Avenue and the Chase Lloyd House across the street at 22 Maryland. Hammond-Harwood reportedly has the most beautiful entrance of any colonial home in America. It is open as a fee based museum. Interestingly it was built by a prospective bridegroom for his intended wife. He got so wrapped up in its construction that she got fed up and broke off the engagement. Hammond never lived in the house he built for her. The Chase Lloyd is not a musuem. Turn around and walk back on Maryland Avenue to State Circle. You'll pass antique shops, crafts shops and art galleries on the way. At State Circle you'll find the state capitol. Enter and you'll find the room where George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary forces. Check out the dome, it's wooden and the largest one in the states and was constructed by a cabinetmaker rather than an architect. The legislative rooms are open to the public. Exit the capitol and take any of the streets immediately in front of you back to the City Dock and the Academy parking lot. You can take a virtual tour of Annapolis at www.capitalonline.com. You can follow this itinerary, excluding the Naval Academy, on a map online and click on most of the sites I've mentioned. Incoming midshipmen (plebes) undergo 8 weeks of basic military training during the summer. You should see them on the academy grounds. You may also see a formation in front of Bancroft hall at noon time and possibly a parade at Worden field. You might check at the visitor's center for details.