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Baltimore's Firsts and Onlys
By Sheila O'Connor
Did you know Baltimore has many of the nation's first attractions? There are some great sites worth checking out.
Take the USS Constellation. Boat lovers will delight at this battleship that's docked at the Inner Harbor, a place of vibrant life.
Check out the various decks on the ship. There's even a sick bay there but the berths were made of hard wood and it was located in the bow of the ship, one of the rockiest places on the boat. If you weren't sick when you went in, you certainly were when you came out!
American Visionary Art Museum
Battleships are one form of transportation, buses are another. And you'll see one at the American Visionary Art Museum. But this colorful, shiny bus outside the museum was made by kids.
The whirlygig beside it sports street signs and all sorts of leftovers. Creator 76-yeard old Vollis Simpson says "I had a lot of junk and needed to do SOMETHING with it,"
Check out the mosaic panels all over the front of the museum - these were all made by kids. It gives them a great way to contribute to a society you feel they once hated.
One wooden sculpture is of a man with a carved-out chest. He himself suffered from TB. The sculpture is made from an apple tree. Unfortunately he committed suicide two years after completing the sculpture.
Understandably, this museum has been voted one of the "Top 10 Places to see before you're 10" by Travel & Leisure. I'd say it's one of the top 10 places you should see, no matter what your age.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum
Don't fail to see the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, whose first stone was laid in 1828 and whose first shovel-full of dirt was dug by Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Carroll was the last signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Did you know that railroads are responsible for day time zones? Time zones were invented to accommodate the problem of arrival and departure times. The roundhouse is a real eye-catcher but its builder actually wanted to build a cathedral instead. Francis Baldwin’s roundhouse is now nicknamed "Baldwin's Cathedral" instead. Horses originally pulled carts along rails but they were eventually replaced by steam.
National Great Blacks In Wax Museum
The B&O Railroad Museum is definitely a Baltimore first, but so too is the National Great Blacks In Wax Museum that started in 1983 with just 22 wax figures. The founder, Dr. Joanne Martin, with her late husband, used to take her exhibits around Baltimore and then take them home!
Some of the exhibitions are sad and cruel - like those on display showing the slaves being processed. Some were force-fed; some were confined with iron masks on their faces as the white people attempted to turn their captives into obedient slaves. Well known blacks including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and of course our current President Obama, are all depicted in wax.
Not surprisingly, this museum has been deemed "The most visited museum in Baltimore" by Baltimore Magazine in April 2002.
Westminster Hall
From the most visited museum to the most visited cemetery, Baltimore has that too. The most famous resident here, however, is Edgar Allan Poe and every year on his birthday there is a party for him. And the reason Edgar Allan Poe is here in the first place? His grandfather purchased a plot here. Poe's grandmother actually made pants for Lafayette's troops and it's said that Lafayette himself came back to the cemetery and kissed Poe's grandfather's grave.
Edgar Allan Poe is not everyone's favorite but he was a starving artist and decided to write short stories for money. His horror stories were actually based on things he read in the newspapers. People really were being buried alive and bodies were really being stolen by body snatchers (they were sold to medical schools for a lot of money). Strangely, the jewelry was left behind - stealing jewelry was a much great offence than stealing a body!
Fort McHenry
Don't miss either the place where the National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key. Not knowing if the battle against the British were won or lost, seaman Scott Key spotted the flag through a spyglass and penciled those famous lines. More than 50,000 people had climbed on to the roofs of their houses to see what the results of the battle that would determine their future. With jubilation they saw the 15 stars and stripes flying high and proud.
Don't miss Baltimore's "firsts and onlys".
German History in Berlin and Pottsdam
By Rita Cook
When you only have a short amount of time in the Berlin and Potsdam area there are definitely some must-sees to make top priority on your agenda. While it might not seem like there is time to do it all, you can definitely hit the major hotspots and see a good portion of what the city has to offer. As most people will remember, Berlin was divided from 1961 until 1989 when the wall that separated the east from the west finally came down.
Today, Berlin is the cosmopolitan capital of the reunited Germany and with that comes just about every lifestyle imaginable. Berlin regards itself as a city of knowledge and culture and has since the days of Friedrich the Great in the 18th century. Visiting the castles and palaces both in the city and on the outskirts are excellent ways to get a good idea of Berlin's past and its future.
With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin has seen its fair share of political and cultural developments in the last few centuries. At the same time too, the city has also remained a cutting edge metropolis for architecture, fashion and art in Europe.
For your first stop, make it a visit to the baroque-style Charlottenburg Palace, once the largest palace in Berlin and owned by the Hohenzollern dynasty. These days the palace is a museum of both art and of history. In 1695-99 the central middle section with eleven window axes was built by Johann Arnold Nering and was used as a summer palace for the Electress Sophie Charlotte and named in her honor. Later, in the early 1700s the palace was enlarged and a Mausoleum was added in of 1810. See all of this and be sure and spend some time in the baroque gardens as well.
In addition to Charlottenburg Palace, one of Berlin's top 10 sights, other options include the Berlin Cathedral, which is the largest 19th-century Protestant church boasting a Sauer church organ and the Hohenzollern family crypt; the Brandenburg Gate symbolizing Berlin's reunification; the German Cathedral, which is home to the permanent exhibition "Questions on German History" and the East Side Gallery, which is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall and the world's longest open air gallery. Of course, the Olympic Stadium built for the 1936 Games, the Reichstag Parliament Building; Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church destroyed in 1943 and rebuilt; Berlin's highest tower, the Fernsehturm am Alexanderplatz with a revolving restaurant and Victory Column are also on the top 10 list too.
From a historical standpoint there are many memorials that visitors can visit from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to the Berlin Wall Documentation Center, the Sachsenhausen Memorial and the House of Wannsee Conference-Memorial and Education Site.
Above all, don't miss a drive by to see Checkpoint Charlie. The old wall is now only marked on the street with a line of bricks, but a copy of the booth and sign that once marked the border crossing was later erected where Checkpoint Charlie once stood. There is also a private museum worth visiting which opened in 1963 and augmented with a new building in the 1990s.
Finally, for a relaxing evening in Berlin have some dinner and take in one of the many cultural offerings; opera, symphony, a concert or just a theater revue. If its summer, there will be many festivals and open-air cinemas so take some time to enjoy life among the Berliners and remember too, in Berlin there is no closing time.
As for Potsdam, this little German town is best known for the signing of the Potsdam Treaty in 1945 by Truman, Churchill and Stalin, which divided Germany into four zones.
Frederick the Great is also synonymous with Potsdam and his desire to cultivate plums, figs and wine there around the mid-1700s saw him designing terraced gardens in Sanssouci Park, he also made this his summer residence as well.
A splendid place to visit, tourists will enjoy the New Palace with art and culture everywhere and outside there is the terrace and the flower and vegetable gardens. Today, you will also find Frederick II's tomb on castle hill. The king also enjoyed lavish waterworks, which he really only enjoyed once in his fountains as the water system did not work correctly until after the 19th century.
The main attraction in Potsdam however, is the palaces and parks that take visitors back to the time when this town was the summer residence of the Prussian kings. In addition, there is also the historical districts in Potsdam; the Dutch quarter, the Russian colony of Alexandrovka and the exclusive residential area of Babelsberg.
The main building and the terrace of the Marble Palace in Potsdam's New Garden is a quick trip in which you can see how this palace rises above the banks of Heiliger See Lake and offers a panoramic view of the Havel River landscape reaching as far as Peacock Island.
In fact, Frederick William II chose this palace as his summer residence on the late 1700s, also serving as the residence for Emperor William (II) and his wife until the completion of Cecilienhof Palace in 1917. Of particular note is the English Wedgwood ceramics at this palace as well.
Indeed, world heritage sites abound in both Berlin and Potsdam and history is around every corner. Whether it's the 20th century or a period long before, this part of Germany definitely offers it all.
Where to Stay:
Brandenburger Hof Hotel
Eislebener Strasse 14
10789 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 214 050
www.brandenburger-hof.com
Relexa Schlosshotel Cecilienhof
Neuer Garten
14469 Potsdam
Tel. +49 331 37050
www.relexa-hotels.de
Getting There:
The national airline of Germany is a
must; Lufthansa
www.lufthansa.com