B & O Museum

Fyi:  Baltimore has free bus service on 4 routes that depending on what you are doing can save time and money with trying to park at certain places.   It's called the Charm City Circulator and consists of four separate routes—the Green Route which runs from City Hall to Fells Point to Johns Hopkins Hospital Campus, the Purple Route which runs from 33rd Street to Federal Hill, the Orange Route which runs from Hollins Market to Harbor East and the Banner Route which runs from the Inner Harbor to Fort McHenry. The HC consist of 3 routes – HC1 which connects Maritime Park to Locust Point: HC2 which connects Canton to Fells Point: and HC3 which connects Pier 5 to Harbor View.  A simple google search can get you more information.   I never knew about it until my niece told me - she'll attends Johns Hopkins and uses it all the time as do I when I visit.

-Greg

If you are concerned about being a victim of a random act of violence, consider the larger risk you take riding/driving a car.

The B&O RR Museum is really something, and well worth the trip.   There are a lot of wonderful places nearby, also.

I lived in Baltimore in the inaugural year of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  A great place to see a ballgame.  That long warehouse that runs along the outfield was a railroad warehouse, built to run trains in one end.  You can see the two bricked-up entrances where the tracks went in.  It was the longest building in the world when built, then eclipsed by a sister building built in Cincinnati that was even longer.

Stumbled across a gem a few years ago right near the inner harbor, the Industrial Museum of Baltimore.  A working belt-driven machine shop, and a working Linotype machine -- absolutely fascinating bit of machinery on which our printing presses relied from the 1930s until the 1980s

https://www.thebmi.org/exhibitions-2/

Outstanding soft-shell crab sandwiches and much more may be had at the Cross Street Market.

The Hippodrome is a wonderful old theatre that was falling apart and hosting punk shows in the early 1990s, but has been restored to full grandeur, and is a wonderful place to see a show.  Saw the fascinating stage production of "War Horse" there several years ago.  Looks like Steely Dan is playing there on 10/25.

Not sure if it is still open to tours, but the Baltimore Shot Tower is worth seeing, if you can catch it open.

Baltimore has had its troubles, but if you pick a hotel near the Inner Harbor, you should be fine, and in walking distance from nearly everything mentioned here (if you don't mind a good walk).

Have a great trip!

David

Finish your crab cake dinner with a piece of "Smith Island Cake". Unbelievably good.

Thanks to everyone for all the great ideas. After reading all your posts, so far besides the B & O Museum. We are going to try and get to the Aquarium, the Industry museum, Fells point. We are only going to be there for 2 days.  

Keep the ideas coming as nothing is set in stone. We still have to get a hotel

My wife and I visited the B&O Museum a few years ago, and had a very pleasant day there.  The exhibits were top notch and the staff and volunteers were friendly.  Some are retired railroaders and one of them noticed my Santa Fe ball cap and the way I was checking out the exhibits and surmised that I was a railroader.  We had a very interesting conversation.  The only disappointment was that the EA unit was off limits, as it was under restoration.  Despite the significance of all the other displays, the EA was the locomotive I really wanted to see.  Oh, well.  In spite of that, I'm glad we went, and I bet you'll be glad you went, too.  Who knows, maybe we'll go again and actually see the EA.

@MJ53 posted:

Finish your crab cake dinner with a piece of "Smith Island Cake". Unbelievably good.