As the rain lashed down and the historical re-enactors stoically completed their commemorations on the Inner Harbor, I cowered under the little cover I could find and recalled my time in Baltimore. Arriving on a balmy Wednesday evening I had not known what to expect, my knowledge of the city limited to what dubious “facts” I had gleaned from The Wire. As we swept past the homes of the legendary Orioles and the Super Bowl-winning Ravens on the way in from the airport, I realised that I knew nothing about the real Baltimore and resolved to discover as much as I could in the three days I had in the “Charm City”.
Photo caption: Baltimore's National Aquarium with the USS Torsk in the foreground. Photo by Mark Crabbie.
I was invited to the city to watch the 150th Anniversary Commemorations of the Pratt Street Riot (the first bloodshed of the American Civil War). I enjoyed it immensely, happy to be surprised by the warm welcome and wide range of attractions offered by the city. My first morning was spent in the company of the charming Monee and Camila from the local tourism authorities. We first enjoyed an enormous breakfast of pancakes with bananas and strawberries in the high kitsch environs of Cafe Hon. After our feast, we were treated to a fascinating demonstration of glass blowing by the charismatic Tim at McFadden Art Glass. Watching Tim manipulate the viscous glass was mesmerising and seeing how the process built towards the final piece certainly appealed to the geek within me.
Left to my own devices for the afternoon, I explored the USS Torsk and USS Constellation, taking an especially childish delight in exploring the cramped conditions onboard the Torsk, an entirely mechanical WWII-era submarine marvellously free of electronic devices. The smell of diesel permeated the ship and the lack of space contributed to a heady atmosphere so, despite my fascination it was a relief to emerge into the bright sunlight again. Baltimore has exerted a great effort in smartening up its waterfront and these ships, along with the landmark National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center and the Visionary Art Museum at the harbour’s mouth, provide visitors with a compact and attraction-filled base from which to explore.
Photo caption: The cramped torpedo room of the USS Torsk. Photo by Mark Crabbie.
For those willing to venture further afield, Hampden in the north of the city offers a charming day’s escape from the centre of the city. The skyscrapers of Downtown seem a world away as you amble down immaculately maintained streets filled with independent stores and cafes. We popped into Ma Petite Shoe which is stuffed with limited edition shoes and has a thoroughly exclusive chocolate shop out the back. Chocolate-covered edamame anyone?
Photo caption: The quiet streets of Hampden, Baltimore. Photo by Mark Crabbie.
Each evening I would take the Water Taxi around past the aquarium to the north side of the harbour and take in the atmosphere in Baltimore’s historic Fell’s Point. Originally a heavily commercial area, Fell’s Point has been largely renovated and now its cobbled streets are home to quirky bars and restaurants. It feels like a world away from the Inner Harbor. In these bars I really felt like I was getting to know locals who were always keen to find out why I was in the city and what I thought of it.
Photo caption: Baltimore's landmark Inner Harbor at night. Photo by Mark Crabbie.
While nearby Washington hogs the majority of European visitors to the region, Baltimore is a city much visited by Americans. Known in the states for its warm hospitality, its seafood-based cuisine (how could I not mention the crab!) and as the home of the Star Spangled Banner, it welcomes American visitors by the million yet it remains comparatively unknown in Europe. The city is easily accessible from the UK and offers a completely different experience to other cities on America’s north eastern seaboard.
Note: This trip to Baltimore courtesy of the Capital Region USA
As Americans grow ever bigger and fatter, they are also voting, it appears, for smaller airline seats. At least that's what Spirit Airlines says, after putting in new seats on its newest planes, according to a Chicago Tribune article recently. Spirit will now seat you in chairs that have only a 28-inch pitch. The pitch is the distance from the front edge of your seat to the front edge of the seat behind you, or in front of you. Remember, that 28 inches of space includes the seat of the person in front of you.
The industry average pitch is 31 inches, the article says, and I recall not too long ago it was 32 inches. Regional jets, the smaller planes, have pitches usually of 29 or 30 inches. You may recall I wrote here about RyanAir's peculiar boss talking of selling standing room on his planes, or maybe just boards on which people could lean while standing the entire route they fly, laughingly called "partial standing." Think of stalls for horses, or coops for chickens.
One airline, Je Blue, has an average pitch of 34 inches, bless them. Their A320 has 150 seats, while Spirit's identical aircraft has 178 seats, for instance. According to the article, when asked if they will take smaller seating in exchange for paying $10 or $20 less, "people are saying yes."
Not this "people." I still predict we'll be flying stacked like cordwood some day, probably anaesthetized and/or nude while doing so, treated worse than pets in their cages, with luck as nicely as cargo in the hold.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
Even as the Mexican Tourism Board inceases its spending on promotion in the USA, the U. S. State Department adds more places there that they warn our citizens against visiting. The State Department recently added four more Mexican states to its "no-go" list, making now all or parts of ten states in our southern neighbor places to stay away from. (For a complete list, go to www.travel.state.gov.)
Last year, 111 Americans were killed in Mexico, according to The Los Angeles Times, compared with only 35 in 2007. Other Americans, the article says, "were kidnapped from hotels, carjacked at gunpoint and targeted for extortion." Among the areas we are supposed to stay away from are the resort town of Acapulco and the states of Tamaulipas and Michoacan, and parts of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Jalisco.
Most places are safe, say the Mexican tourism officials, and even our State Department agrees that violence is less common in the ritzier resort areas and tourist destinations than it is in the border regions, where the drug cartels are most active.
While the reason behind the violence in Mexico is that government's attempt to rein in the drug trade, the real reason behind the anti druglord war is the insatiable craving for drugs here in the good ol' USA.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
Frommer's Iceland authors, Jane Appleton and Lisa Shannen, report from the ground in Reykjavik, getting the inside track on the latest Volcanic explosion.
A new episode in the Icelandic lava saga began on Saturday May 21st 2011 as Grímsvötn, Iceland's most active volcano, exploded its icy top and sent a massive plume of ash into the clear blue skies above Iceland. A warning of the impending eruption started at exactly 6pm, less than an hour before any sightings were confirmed, with a sudden increase in seismic activity. Travellers staying in Höfn, a small town just south of the eruption, must have thought Doomsday had really arrived when they were treated to a succession of small earthquakes followed by an impressive display of volcanic action framed inside their own hotel windows.
Grímsvötn is a sub glacial volcano in the south of Iceland and has erupted more than 20 times in the past 100 years, with the last eruption in 2004. Rising to 55,000 ft above Vatnajökull (Europe's largest glacier) the ash plume of the latest eruption in Iceland has reached heights not achieved since Hekla erupted in the year 1947. The ash, which has already started to fall in the nearby towns of Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Höfn, is coarser than that from last year's volcano and was not at first thought to pose any problems for air traffic; however, the latest news and scientific evaluations suggest that this eruption is clearly massive and powerful and they cannot rule out the chance of some disruptions.
I never used to understand football fever, but when I found myself living in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup, I was well and truly swept up in it all. I had my cheeks painted with flags, and red, yellow and black flower garlands round my neck (well, the Germans lasted longer than the England team after all).
A sweltering heat wave kept the beer gardens humming all night long and I enjoyed watching fellow Brits happily toasting Berliners like their new best friends. Overnight, Lederhosen, sausages and the Second World War legacy made way for a new vision of Germany: of friendly, helpful locals, contemporary arts and trendy nightlife. Tourism in the country never looked back.
Photo Caption: FIFA Fan Fest in Berlin, 2006. Courtesy of the German National Tourist Board.
Five years on, and Germany is hosting another major football tournament. But this time it's the girls -- the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. Ok, so it might not generate the same kind of following as the men's World Cup, but women's football is steadily growing in popularity. The sacking of British football commentator Andy Gray over his sexist remarks earlier this year proves that football might be growing up and shedding its lads' mag image. FIFA have reported record ticket sales for the opening match, to be held in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
So, can the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup generate the same level of excitement as the men’s event in 2006? And will it give us reason to explore more of Germany than the usual hotspots of Berlin, Munich and Cologne? Here’s my round-up of some of the host cities that you might not know so much about:
Sinsheim, the smallest of the host cities, a 15-minute drive from Heidelberg. Famous for…its 30,000m² Car & Technology Museum where you can poke about inside the very first Concorde.
Photo Caption: Stadium & Museum Bacschleben, Sinsheim. Courtesy of the German National Tourist Board.
Bochum, at the heart of the Ruhr valley, about half an hour on the train from Düsseldorf. Famous for… its former mines, steel factories, and power stations now converted into trendy contemporary art venues, like the Jahrhunderthalle festival hall.
Photo Caption: Bochum: Jahrhunderthalle (century hall), in the evening. Courtesy of the German National Tourist Board.
Wolfsburg, between Berlin and Hannover. Famous for…cars. Wolfsburg gave us Volkswagen (the Vorsprung durch Technik one) and over 2 million people visit its Autostadt complex every year. But there’s one thing that they produce more of….sausages. They even make their own Volkswagen Ketchup on site.
Dresden, on the banks of the River Elbe, virtually in the Czech Republic. Famous for…Its domed Church of Our Lady, which was completely destroyed during the Second World War, only reopening in all its former glory as recently as 2005.
Photo Caption: Dresden: Canaletto view of "Florence on the Elbe" with paddle steamer. Courtesy of the German National Tourist Board.
Mönchengladbach, right next to the Dutch border (thank goodness they haven’t qualified). Famous for… the city’s oldest building, the Minster, dating back to the 12th/13th century. And since then residents have also been brewing their local Altbier, best sampled in a leafy beer garden after a match.
Liked Germany so much you don’t want to leave? If you’re thinking about staying on after the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, these two major sporting events might just sway you: a week after the final match in Frankfurt, the Ironman European Championship takes place in the city on July 24. Or you could head to the Nurburgring, 150km away, for the German Grand Prix, also July 24.
Will you be in Germany for the FIFA Women’s World Cup? What do you think about the women’s game?
Despite the death of Osama bin Laden, the people at TSA aren't getting any less strict at the screening gates. According to the newsletter put out by Global Traveler (www.globaltravelerusa.com), special behavioural officers are stationed at 161 nationwide airports. The TSA says, the report indicates, that "behavior detection officers are screening passengers for involuntary physical and physiological reactions that people exhibit in reponse to a fear of being discovered...individuals exhibiting specific observable behaviors may be referred for additional screening at the checkpoint to include a handwanding, limited pat down and physical inspection of one's carry-on baggage." For what it's worth, I've had all those "additional screening" processes applied to me, several times each.
I suppose that may include those of us who feel guilty simply because we fear someone might think we are guilty at any kind of inspection procedure, whether it be customs where you have absolutely nothing to declare, a DUI barricade when you haven't had so much as a liquor-filled chocolate candy before driving, or the TSA gate, where you worry about that new dental implant causing a reaction.
And don't even think about sweating or looking quickly around. Just stare straight ahead and smile sweetly at the screeners.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
A colleague of mine a couple of years ago went through a terrible experience, having caught cutaneous leishmaniasis while on assignment as a travel photographer in Costa Rica. He was there for 16 days in 2008, and didn't notice any symptoms until about 45 days after returning from his trip there.
He spotted a small lesion on his ear, and it was only afer biopsies and many false diagnoses that boils on his leg and back caused his doctors to turn to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), the government specialists in Atlanta. They confirmed that his problem was cutaneous leishmaniasis, a flesh-eating parasite-caused disease common to tropical climates, and prevalent all the way from Texas to Argentina in the Americas.
The photographer, the well-known and prize-winning Steve Bly, had to take powerful anti-fungal medicines, with serious side effects a possibility, for two months before he could get on with rebuilding his life. He lost 26 pounds in the first year of having the disease.
A leading world health authority told me she had heard that some American soliders in Iraq had "tried to catch the disease by sleeping outdoors in the sand at night, in order to be sent home when they were diagnosed as being ill." You should be aware that sandflies, which spread the disease, are about one third the size of a mosquito, so are very hard to see, and they do not buzz or make any other kind of noise. They feed off dead animals and feces, are most active in the evening at dusk, during the night and in the morning around dawn. They appear in cities, jungles and on beaches.
There is no vaccine. More than 1.5 million people are affected by the disease yearly. Bly says that his doctors in Boise treated seven cases the year before he saw them. In the tropics, you may be safer on a concrete patio than on a sandy beach, I guess, but that's only a maybe, not a certainty. Bly says he doesn't know how he picked up the parasite. "The sandflies are so small they go right through mosquito netting," he says.
This information was originally reported in the SATW Traveler, the publication of the Society of American Travel Writers.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
Those pre-flight announcements made by flight attendants, pursers and such are so boring to many frequent flyers that they pay little attention to what's being said. Most of the time, we hardly hear that part about "federal regulations" and blah-blah about smoking in the lavatories. But what isn't sometimes spelled out is that the flight attendants have a lot more power than most of us know.
That includes the power to have the captain radio ahead to have police waiting to arrest anyone who causes a ruckus on the plane. I had an acquaintance who tried to smuggle her dog into England back when bringing in an animal required advanced notice, a six-month quarantine and other restrictive measures. She drugged her pet, but flight delays caused the medicine to wear off and when she opened her bag to check on Fluffy in mid flight, the animal leaped out and raced across chairbacks, upsetting trays of meals and drinks, etc. When the plane landed in London, the lady was arrested, her pooch taken away for six months, and she ended up in court the next judicial day, paying a large fine and barely avoiding time in the clink.
More recently, a Scottish man whose arm was in a splint refused the flight crew's request to keep it out of the aisle on a US to London flight, the argument causing the jet to be diverted to Boston. So instead of arriving in England, the passenger spent time in the Boston jail and was later to appear in court on charges of refusing to follow orders on the plane. No word on his punishment yet.
Moral of story: Be nice to the flight attendants or you might end up in the pokey.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
There’s no doubt about it. There’s a tangible sense of excitement in the Frommer’s Unlimited London office today. Tomorrow we have an extra public holiday plus the May Day holiday on Monday. That Friday feeling has come one day early and doubly intense thanks to the four-day weekend.
Ah yes, and there’s a royal wedding too.
Having my morning cuppa in front of the television this morning, I was bombarded by commentary from royal family experts and images of flag-waving royal family fans camping in the streets. Royal wedding memorabilia on sale online and in the shops includes the usual commemorative china, coins and stamps, plus Royal Wedding Ale, steak branders, sick bags and condoms. There’s nothing we Brits love more than a hearty serving of pomp and ceremony, coupled with a slap-up dose of protocol and lashings of royal waving.
Or do we? Let’s check the stats.
Photo Caption: Bunting outside an East End pub. Photo by Helen Spiropoulos.
A Poll
A recent poll reveals that 53% of British adults are very or fairly interested in the royal wedding. Fifty-six per cent say they are likely to watch the ceremony. Almost a quarter say they definitely will not watch the event, tying in neatly with the almost 20% of British adults who are in favour of Britain becoming a republic.
Sadly, I can’t find any statistics on how many of the republican 20% will stand by their principles and refuse to take tomorrow as a public holiday. A quick poll of six of my colleagues reveals: two have plans to watch the wedding; two couldn’t care less about why we’ve got the day off but are pleased that we have; and two republicans with absolutely no intention of coming into work tomorrow. Poor show, republican chaps. I bet the Queen never let her love of a lie-in get in the way of an opportunity to make a moral point.
Street Parties
A time-honoured measure of public enthusiasm, street parties are traditionally held in Britain to commemorate royal occasions. Thousands of street parties will celebrate the royal nuptials tomorrow. As I write, bunting is being strung between lamp posts and the crusts cut off cucumber sandwiches in every corner of this fair land. Almost.
Residents of Glasgow have not made a single application to close a street for a royal wedding party. Neither have residents of Barking and Dagenham in London. On the other hand, the remaining London councils were deluged with over 850 applications. Around 5,500 applications for street closures have been made across England and Wales so that partygoers can celebrate without being run over.
That’s not a fair indication of the true extent of the festivities though. Revellers planning parties in cul-de-sacs, parks or common land don’t need permission from the council and the red tape doesn’t yet stretch to private garden and house parties. Cities nationwide will broadcast the ceremony on big screens to huge crowds, apart from Belfast where “technical issues” mean the screens won’t be ready.
Photo Caption: Street party bunting. Photo by Helen Spiropoulos.
Republicans
Revellers unlikely to indulge in dewy-eyed sentimentality tomorrow include those attending the “Not the Royal Wedding” street party in central London. Thrown by anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, the event will be a celebration of “democracy and people power rather than inherited privilege”. About 300 people are expected to attend.
Republic is using interest in the royal wedding to highlight their cause and has seen a surge in interest since Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement. Hundreds of new members have joined and the number of fans of their Facebook page has grown to nearly 10,000. No doubt a significant number of them will display Republic’s posters in their windows, stating slogans such as:
“I want a vote, not a wedding.”
and
“I paid for this wedding, all I got was this lousy poster.”
Photo Caption: Shop window dummies. Photo by Helen Spiropoulos.
Cheek!
Tongue-in-cheek celebrations top the bill. T-Mobile’s advert shamelessly cashes in on the royal wedding hype but not without forcing a few snorts of laughter out of my colleagues this morning. Meanwhile, bookies around the country are taking bets on various aspects of the royal wedding. On Paddypower.com you can bet on:
First to cry: Kate Middleton 5/2; The Queen 16/1; Sir Paul McCartney 50/1
The colour of the Queen’s hat: pink 5/1; light blue 7/4; black 33/1
The aisle music: "Bridal Chorus" by Wagner 4/1; "Wedding March" by Mendelssohn 20/1; "Forever" by Chris Brown 100/1
Royal divorce: To be divorced by 2020 8/1
Regardless of whether or not we support the monarchy, there’s an air of anticipation pervading the nation. Royalists get to tirelessly toast the queen, repeatedly. Republicans are excited about the chance to vent their spleen. Everyone apart from the Archbishop of Canterbury and those working in security has an extra day off work and a brilliant excuse to start drinking before midday.
That hole in the roof of a Southwest Boeing 737 that scared passengers on April Fools' Day may have been due to manufacturing error, experts say, according to The Seattle Times in a recent article. The paper said a report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) indicated rivet holes on one layer of the plane's aluminum fuselage did not line up properly with an underlying layer, which led to premature damage from metal fatigue.
Five other planes in the Southwest 737 fleet have also shown cracks when examined. The six planes were all made by a Boeing plant in Wichita KS between 1994 and 1996. Boeing says it has finished examining 80% of the remaining 190 aircraft in the 737 series and found no other problems. Critics say that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows Boeing to do its own inspections, becoming "judge and jury" on its own.
Observers say that Boeing, when selling the planes, indicated they would not need to be inspected before at least 60,000 cycles (taking off and landing), whereas the plane with the hole in the roof had completed only 40,000 cycles. In other words, Boeing overestimated the safety lifetime of these planes by more than 33%.
The moral of this story is, I suppose, that newer airplanes, once they have been properly tested and then flown for about a year, may be safer than older ones. But I always cross my fingers when my plane, whatever it may be, takes off or lands.
Note: I blog here exclusively on travel health and safety, backed by my work as pro bono vice president of the not-for-profit charity, the International Association for Medical Assistance toTravellers, www.iamat.org.
