I was given this when I asked in an Irish bar if they had wi-fi. To be honest, I’ve seen slightly more memorable passwords….. I remember that it worked fine as I thought for a while they were just amusing themselves getting customers to type it in multiple times thinking they’d made a mistake.
This impressive brick built tower in Baltimore was the tallest structure in the United States when it was completed in 1828 and it wasn’t over-taken until 1846 when Trinity Church in New York opened.
The purpose of the shot tower was to make lead shot, which was done by dropping molten lead from the top to then plunge into cold water at the base of the tower. It remained in operation until the turn of the twentieth century when more efficient production methods were discovered.
The structure was added to the National Historic Landmark register in 1971 and it is one of only three remaining shot towers in the United States. Unfortunately the tower only opens at weekends, and I wasn’t in Baltimore on a weekend…. But, maybe I’ll get to go back and see inside one day.
As some context for this post, my second trip to Baltimore was in the summer of 2015. I liked my first trip to Baltimore, although it was apparent that there were some issues with regards to poverty and exclusion.
In April 2015 there were some substantial riots which took place in Baltimore, with tens of buildings being looted, 150 vehicles destroyed by fire, multiple buildings damaged by fire and 250 arrests. It wasn’t a great time for the city, and it caused significant damage to the economy of Baltimore.
Anyway, I was in my hotel one early evening, which was the Holiday Inn Express downtown. There was a loud bang, and I looked out of my window to see the below.
My first thoughts were that there was some form of dispute going on, as the city were keen to stop any form of unrest very quickly to avoid the reputation of Baltimore being damaged any further.
So, now deciding that I could be an inner-city riot reporter, I bravely went down to see what was going on. Although, I’d add that it was with the safety of tens of police officers in front of me.
The actual incident was though something a little more mundane (although not to the people involved) as a car had been accidentally driven into a building next to the hotel. It was on the local news that the fire brigade were concerned that there might be a fire or building collapse, which is why there were more fire fighting vehicles than anything else.
All told though, it was an interesting little piece of drama for the evening….
Located next to the World Trade Center building in Baltimore is this memorial to all those who died in the 9/11 tragedy in New York in 2001. This memorial was unveiled in 2011 to mark the tenth anniversary and the names of 68 people from Maryland who died on the day are inscribed.
The steel on top of the memorial comprises of three beams which were once part of the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. I didn’t realise at the time the significance of this, but around the marble there are times of what happened during that dreadful day, and on 9/11 every year the shadow from the sun corresponds with that time of the day.
This post is more just to upload the photos than anything else, as I can’t remember much else about the flight now. I flew from London Heathrow T5 to Baltimore on an A380 in August 2015. Unfortunately, the photos aren’t very clear, but since they’re the only ones I’ve got of that flight, they’ll have to do.
I was travelling in Club World and obviously I wasn’t paying since otherwise I’d have been in World Traveller.
The aircraft at Heathrow T5.
The Club World cabin during the boarding process.
This happens too often….
The starter and salad.
Corn fed chicken, mashed potato and batons of carrot.
Some sort of mousse.
An ice cream from later on during the flight.
