Back in the saddle

Took a trip down to Baltimore this weekend to visit my good friend Double R. I hadn't gone on a road trip in a while. After a dozen years globe trotting like a desperado, my feet have been firmly planted in Brooklyn for the past few months. I'd forgotten what its like to walk into a rest stop covered in tattoos; in some places, people still gawk, point, grab their children and recoil in horror.

Double R lives in this wonderful little neighbourhood called Seton Hill, which was once known as Baltimore’s French Quarter.

Seton Hill is approximately ten blocks north of Camden Yards and the University of Maryland...


And it's very Euro; lots of cobblestones, little Dutch-looking rowhouses, gothic revival architecture, crunchy October leaves in September fallen from shady trees which canopy St. Mary's Street and the majority of the homes standing today, which date from the early 1800’s, were built in the Federal or Victorian architectural style of 19th Century row houses.

It's all quite quaint and placid, nestled in the shadow of St. Mary’s Seminary. Some homes still show evidence of secret underground tunnels connecting with the old seminary building and used to transport food from the kitchens and believed later to be part of the Underground Railroad.

I'll always have a soft spot for Havre de Grace but I must admit I fell in love with Seton Hill and we barely even left the house.