Category Archives: Shopping

Federation Square (Melbourne, Australia)

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Federation Square

Federation Square, a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district, covers an area of 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) and was built above busy railway lines and across the road from Flinders Street station.

It incorporates major cultural institutions (Ian Potter Centre, ACMI, Koorie Heritage Trust, etc.) as well as cafes and bars, in a series of buildings centered around a large paved square, and a glass walled atrium.

Check out “Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia“

Melbourne’s central city grid was designed without a central public square, long seen as a missing element. From the 1920s there were proposals to roof the railway yards on the southeast corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets for a public square, with more detailed proposals prepared in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the 1960s, the Melbourne City Council decided that the best place for the City Square was the corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, opposite the town hall. The first temporary square opened in 1968, and a permanent version opened in 1981. It was however not considered a great success, and was redeveloped in the 1990s as a smaller simpler space in front of a new large hotel.

Meanwhile, in the late 1960s, a small part of the railway lines had been partly roofed by the construction of the Princes Gate Towers, known as the Gas & Fuel Buildings after their major tenant, the Gas and Fuel Corporation, over the old Princes Bridge station.

This included a plaza on the corner, which was elevated above the street and little used. Between the plaza and Batman Avenue, which ran along the north bank of the Yarra River, were the extensive Jolimont Railway Yards, and the through train lines running into Flinders Street station under Swanston Street.

This open public square had its beginnings in 1996 when the then Premier Jeff Kennett announced that the Gas & Fuel Buildings would be demolished, the rail yards roofed and a complex including arts facilities and a large public space to be named Federation Square would be built.

Lobby of Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

It was opened in 2001, in time to celebrate the centenary of Australia’s Federation, and included performing arts facilities, a gallery, a cinemedia center, the public space, a glazed winter garden, and ancillary cafe and retail spaces.

Built at a cost of approximately $467 million (over four times the original estimate of between $110 and $128 million), its main funding came primarily from the state government, some from the federal government, $64 million from the City of Melbourne while private operators and sponsors paid for fit outs or naming rights. The square was opened on October 26, 2002.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) – Australia’s national museum of film, video games, digital culture and art

In 2006, the vaults under Princes Walk (a former roadway) were redeveloped by Federation Wharf into a large bar, with extensive outdoor areas on the Yarra riverbank, with elevator access to Federation Square.

In October 2011, Elizabeth II visited Federation Square. On October 2018, an interim decision to list Fed Square to the Victorian Heritage Register resulted in the square being formally listed in August 2019.

Occupying roughly a whole urban block bounded by Swanston, Flinders, and Russell Streets and the Yarra River, Federation Square is directly opposite Flinders Street station and St Paul’s Cathedral.

The precinct’s layout was designed to connect Melbourne’s historical central district with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr, a new park.

Its complex and irregular design had gently angled ‘cranked’ geometries (predominating in both the planning and the facade treatment of the various buildings and the winter gardens that surrounded and defined the open spaces) while a series of ‘shards’ provided vertical accents.

Interconnected laneways and stairways and the winter garden connects Flinders Street to the Yarra River. The open square, arranged as a gently sloping amphitheater, is focused on a large viewing screen for public events, with a secondary sloped plaza area on the main corner.

The 1.3 m. high bronze statue of the Fearless Girl by Kristen Visbal

Federation Square: intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

Shilin Night Market (Taipei, Taiwan)

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Shilin Night Market

After our visit to Taipei 101 Mall, Vincent Chen, our Eagle Tour  guide, dropped us all off at the newly renovated Shilin Night Market where we were to have dinner and explore at our leisure.  Often considered to be the largest and most famous night market in Taiwan, it encompasses two distinct sections sharing a symbiotic relationship.

Check out “Taipei 101 Building” and “Taipei 101 Mall“

A section, formerly housed in the old Shilin Market building, contains mostly food vendors, small restaurants and surrounding businesses and shops selling other nonfood items.

The food court houses a long row of 539 fixed stalls while the second floor serves as a parking lot for 400 cars.  Taiwanese street food  or Xiao Tze (which means “small eats”) you can try here include bubble tea, fried buns, fried chicken fillet, fried siopao (NT$50), lemon aiyu jelly, oyster omelet, oyster vermicelli, peanut candy, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, wow frog eggs, grilled vegetable wrapped with pork (NT$10), misua soup (NT$30), Lamien noodles (NT$50), small sausage in a large sausage, stinky tofu (NT$50, served with pickled vegetables), and Taiwanese “tempura.”

Aside from the food court, the side streets and alleys are also lined with storefronts and roadside stands.  Also prevalent in the area are cinemas, video arcades and karaoke bars.

Here, you can also buy shoes, accessories, cheap and fashionable clothes ,Taiwanese candies, preserved fruits and toys; have your fortune told; shoot for money; play mahjong; have a massage that makes use of bamboo sticks (N$100) or knives (NT$100 for 10 minutes or NT$220 for 20 minutes)  or play an interesting game of catching shrimps.

Like most night markets in Taiwan, the local businesses and vendors begin opening around 4 PM. As students start returning home from school, crowds reach their peak between 8 PM and 11 PM, with businesses continuing operations well past midnight, closing around 1 AM or 2 AM. In recent years, due to the opening of the very efficient and clean Taipei Metro system, tourist traffic has increased.

Shilin Night  Market: No. 101號, Jihe Road, Shilin District, Taipei 111.

How to Get There: Shilin Night Market is accessible via the Tamsui–Xinyi line (Tamsui/Red Line) of the Taipei Metro at Jiantan Station (one station before Shilin). One-way fare would range from NT$20 to NT$40. The night market can be seen from the station platform. A number of bus routes also serve the area, with stops at Jiantan Station, nearby Ming Chuan University and Xiao Bei (Hsiao Pei) Street.

Dihua Street and Dadaocheng Walking Tour (Taipei, Taiwan)

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Dihua Street

After lunch at Jia Tian Xia, we again boarded our bus for the short drive to the old Dadaocheng area in Taipei City.  We all drop by the Dadaocheng Visitors, the start of Dihua Street. Here, some of the ladies in our entourage tried on traditional Chinese clothes for free and posed wearing these to spice up their Dihua visit.  After this, we started our walking and shopping tour of the district. 

The ladies (Jay, Lenlen, Joyce and Melissa) trying on traditional Taiwanese attire

The streets and alleys of this district presented us with a rich mix of East and West, history and the future, tradition and modernity.  At its heart is narrow Dihua Street which is lined with beautifully restored shophouses with southern Fujian, Baroque Revival, early Modernist and other Western architectural facades and elements, all  occupied by long-established businesses and recently opened cultural-creative enterprises.

Running south to north, parallel to the Tamsui River, Dihua Street is considered to be the oldest street in Taipei, with a few sections that date back to the period of Dutch rule in Taiwan (1624–1661), but mainly it was constructed from the 1850s. Originally called Central Street, its southern and northern sections were called South Street and North Street, respectively.

In the latter part of the 19th century, Dihua Street rose to prominence as a major commercial throughway in the bustling Dadaocheng river-port community (where one of its major industries was tea) and many businessmen made their fortunes here. By 1872, there were already five British trading firms plus a sizable Western population in Dadaocheng.

In the 1970s, the fortunes of Dihua Street and Dadaocheng, as a whole, started fading when Taipei’s commercial center shifted eastward. In 1988, in the face of heritage-preservation protests, a government plan to widen Dihua Street was shelved.

In 1996, however, the establishment of the Taipei Lunar New Year Festival’s traditional New Year goods market drew public attention back to the street.

In 1998, a heritage/renovation plan for Dadaocheng was finalized and soon cultural-creative entrepreneurs were reinventing the old buildings, using the unique structures in interesting ways. 

Though only about 800 m. long, the atmospheric Dihua Street’s many identities provides a whole day of exploration (and shopping). Its well-preserved or reconstructed buildings now house traditional shops selling dried goods and herbal medicines, chic cafés and mini art galleries.

The buildings, though narrow, are deep and often have a courtyard toward their middle that divides them into two sections. 

One of its early shophouses is a century-old building that once housed A.S. Watson and Co., Taiwan’s first Western-style drugstore built in 1917 by Lee Chun-chi as a franchise of the Hong Kong-based parent company. This building’s Modernist gray exterior has wood-frames windows with some Asian-style decorations also adorning the façade. It now houses a cute crafts and souvenir store, a bookstore and the ASW Tea House, an English-style teahouse, at the second floor, which preserved the original drugstore’s initials in its name.

A.S. Watson & Co. Building

It now serves classic Western culinary items using locally grown ingredients (dried pineapple in the scones, fruit juice in the pate de fruit, the black sesame in the madeleines, etc.), all washed down with local Taiwanese tea (except for the Ceylon BOP, which is a mixture of Sri Lankan and Taiwanese leaf). A couple of sandwich selections include an apple, cheese and olive oil creation featuring mullet roe sourced directly from Li Ly Sun, a long-established seafood and dried-goods store just down Dihua Street. 

Yongle Textile Market

Yongle Fabric Market, a Dihua Street institution dating to the Japanese colonial area, remains the largest fabric market in Taiwan. The first floor houses a small wet market while the second floor houses the actual fabric market.

The third floor is where people can take their fabric to be tailored. The 8th floor houses cultural exhibitions while Dadaocheng Theater can be found on the 9th floor. Inside, there are also several sushi bars, including one with a good range of craft beers.

Dihua Street, with new businesses constantly opening up in this area, is definitely a place that deserves multiple visits, given enough time.  Aside from the abovementioned, other places to visit along Dihua Street include:

  • Sin Hong Choon Tea Museum – in a building, built in 1934, featuring a mix of Taiwanese and Western design elements, it once housed the area’s largest tea-processing workshop and was the Wang family’s (the original owners who moved to Taiwan from mainland China in the 1910s) base for the export of tea to Southeast Asia. Its quaint interior, with terrazzo stairs and red-brick walls, was featured in La Grande Chaumière Violette, a 2016 Taiwanese TV period drama series  which told the story of the son of a wealthy tea merchant. The museum, providing a fascinating look into the tea trade of that time, is a place to learn more about Dadaocheng’s tea trade. Here visitors get to see old tea-processing machines as well as the family’s living quarters.
  • A Design & Life Project – a modern business in an old building, it is stocked to the brim with all sorts of antique knickknacks such as vintage American and industrial-style design items (cast-iron door handles, old-fashioned keys, gold-leaf lettering, etc.) plus new redesigns created by the store.
  • Earthing Way– a dose of local-flavor nostalgia, it features aramono (a Japanese term that refers to simple, austere tools and utensils most often made from natural materials, such as bamboo baskets, wooden spoons, and ceramic bowls) from local craftsmen.
  • Museum 207– housed in a relatively new structure built in 1962, has a faux-brick and somber, red wood facade. The exhibits, focused on Taiwanese traditions such as on the art of terrazzo flooring in the past and the current show on the complex art of Taiwanese gift-giving, displays items such as mirrors with auspicious messages and lucky red envelopes. At its roof, you can take in a stunning panorama of the neighborhood and beyond.
  • Ama Museum– Run by the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, it  was opened in December 2016 to tell the story of the estimated 2,000 Taiwanese “comfort women” (it has only been able to track down 59 but has worked closely with them since the early 1990s) forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.
  • Yehjinfa Rice Mill– still owned by the Yeh family (though at one point they stopped doing business for many years), it reopened in 2016 as a boutique rice/grocery/daily-use item shop.  Its sleek and non-intrusive interior features Minimalistic, free-standing wooden trusses and wooden boxes used as display shelves. The rice selection was expanded to 10 Taiwanese grains (including red sticky rice and black rice sourced directly from an indigenous village as well as the popular Taiken No. 9 Premium). To preserve freshness, the rice is sold in small packets. The other food items, all local and/or eco-friendly, or produced using unique methods, includes curry sauce (made with ingredients sourced from Hualien County), chili oil (from a 70-year-old shop) and dried mushrooms (grown using zero-waste methods). Kitchen items that revolve around rice include bowls, dishes and steamers.
  • URS329 – located toward the north end of Dihua Street, this restaurant serves a selection of culturally representative dishes that complement rice. Its grains are milled in-house with a miniature machine.
  • Taiwan Cooking 101 School 
  • Xia-Hai City God Temple 

Check out “Xia-Hai City God Temple“

 

Dadaocheng Visitor Center (URS44 Dadaocheng): No. 44, Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103.  Tel: +886-2-2559-6802.  Open daily (except Tuesdays), 9 AM – 5 PM.

Yongle Fabric Market: 1 Minle St., Datong District, Taipei City
Sin Hong Choon Tea Museum: Minsheng West Road, Datong District, Taipei City
A Design & Life Project: Nanjing West Road, Datong District, Taipei City
Museum 207: Dihua Street, Datong District, Taipei City

Jiufen Old Street (Taipei, Taiwan)

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The scenic mountain village of Jiufen

After our arrival in Taipei and a deliciously filling lunch at Chien-Yen Shabu Shabu, we all boarded our tourist bus for the nearly one-hour drive to Jiufen (also spelled Jioufen or Chiufen), a small village in the mountains, arriving there by 2:45 PM. The weather was overcast, with some light rain. The town of Jiufen is built into the side of the hills, slightly inland from the Pacific Ocean coastline.

Check out “Restaurant Review: Chien-Yen Shabu Shabu“

Panoramic view of the Pacific coastline

In 2001, the village has been made more popular largely due to its similarity to the downtown in Hayao Miyazaki’s popular, Oscar-winning Japanese anime movie Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli. Jiufen soon became a must visit place among Japanese tourists, with many Japanese travel magazines and guide books about Taiwan introduced Jiufen. However, Miyazaki himself denied that Jiufen was the model city of the movie

The author at the entrance of Shan Yu Hai B&B

The village can be explored in under 3 hours but, as we were pressed for time, Mr. Vincent Chen, our friendly Eagle Tours guide, allotted us just an hour to explore the village. From a viewpoint at the Taiyang parking lot, we had sweeping but hazy views of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Map of Jiufen Village

I, together with Joyce Ventura, explored all the way up to Fushan Temple while Jandy and most of the group explored the bustling, 24-hour, extremely touristy and crowded Jiufen Old Street, a narrow alleyway lined up with small food stalls, authentic tea houses, souvenir shops, and pottery stores.  They got there via Qiche Road, climbing up the long series of stairs that crosses over to the heart of Jiufan.

Check out “Fushan Temple”

The approach to Fushan Temple (top right)

Jiufen Old Street is actually composed of three parallel streets – Jishan Street (which runs along the ridge line), Cingbian Road and Qiche Road.  Jishan Street is the most densely populated with snacks and specialty shops.

Shuqi (or Shuchi) Road, perpendicular to the three, runs up and down the slope of the hill and comprises hundreds of stone steps with many teahouses.

The long, steep and narrow stairway leading to the center of the village

Shops here sell street food such as beef noodle soup, fish ball soup, ice cream peanut pancakes and Jiufen’s famous country snacks such as Ah Lan Glutinous Rice Cake, Taro Glutinous Rice Cake, Hongzao (Oxo Cubes) Meatball, cold or hot Ah Gan Taro Balls,  A-Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll, Taiwanese Sausages (Wu Di ‘Flower Lady’), Zhang Ji Traditional Fish Balls.  You can also buy locally produced ginger tea and plum wine.

Red lanterns were everywhere….

The century-old, richly decorated and picturesque, multi-storey A-Mei Teahouse, said to be the inspiration behind the Bath House in Spirited Away. Popularly known as the Grand Tea House, it is the most famous structure in all of Jiufen.  Perched on top of a hill, it is strategically located just a little off the main street. From its balcony, it has a picturesque view of Keelung Mountain to the right and northern shores of Taiwan on the left. You definitely need to book ahead if you want to have a tea here.

Souvenir store

Another noted teahouse is the City of Sadness Restaurant, an eatery overlooking the square, where A City of Sadness, another critically acclaimed movie (and the first film to touch on the February 28 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred, then a taboo subject in Taiwan) by Hou Hsiao-hsien was filmed.  This film masterpiece bagged the  Golden Lion Award during the 1989 Venice Film Festival.

Railway tunnel

Jiufen was also known as a gold mining town.  In 1890, flakes of gold were discovered by workmen constructing the new Taipei-Keelung Railway and the resulting gold rush hastened the village’s development into a town.

Jandy beside a statue of a miner

During World War II, Kinkaseki, a POW camp for Allied soldiers captured in Singapore, was set up in the town and the POWs here were made to work in the nearby mines.

Mine entrance leading to the Taiwan Sweet Potato Teahouse

After the war, gold mining activities declined and the mine was shut down in 1971 for safety reasons.  A graffiti-filled mining tunnel, located right next to the A-Mei Teahouse, serves as a quaint entrance to Taiwan Sweet Potato Teahouse.

Teahouse at Taiyang parking lot

At Jiufen Gold Ore Museum, you can learn more about Jiufen’s history as a mining town.

Jiufen Police Station

Jiufen Old Street: Jishan Street, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 224. Tel:  +886 2 2496 8978.

Eagle Tours: +886-910-130-180 (Mr. Vincent Chen) and +886-932-013-880 (Ms. Joyce Chen). 

How to Get There: Take the MRT blue line to Zhongxiao Fuxing Station Exit 1, then take bus 1062 to Jiufen Old Street Station. The town is served by buses that run from Keelung, Taipei, etc. The nearest train station is Rueifang Station of the TRA Yilan Line, which is 15 minutes away by bus.

Nakamise-Dori (Tokyo, Japan)

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Nakamise-Dori

After our visit to Senso-ji Temple, we proceeded to the approximately 250 m. (880-ft.) long Nakamise-dōri (仲見世通り), the best place in Tokyo to buy souvenirs.  One of Japan’s oldest streets, this shopping street leads, from the gorgeous Kaminarimon (“Thunder Gate”), to Sensō-ji temple itself.  Items sold here range from outrageously cheesy items to authentic and useful souvenirs.  For centuries, Japanese pilgrims and tourists who visit Sensō-ji every year flock here to shop at its small stores.   This stone-paved pedestrian street, retaining the feeling of old downtown Edo and the cultural florescence of the Meiji era, started during the Genroku and Tempo periods of the Edo era when horse carriage operators were granted the right to set up shops next to the east side of Niomon as compensation for cleaning the temple compound through forced labor.

Shops near the Kaminarimon Gate of Senso-ji Temple

In the early 18th century, Nakamise-dōri (translated as “inside street”) was said to have come about when neighbors of Sensō-ji were granted permission to set up shops on the approach to the temple. However, on May 1885, the government of Tokyo ordered all shop owners to leave but, on December of that same year, the area was reconstructed in Western-style brick. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, many of the shops were destroyed.  In 1925, the shops were rebuilt using concrete, only to be destroyed again during the bombings of World War II.

The surrounding area had around 89 small traditional shops, many of them run by the same family for many generations.  I admired the shutters painted with different seasonal vistas. Stores sold traditional Japanese items such as chopsticks, yukata, geta, wooden combs, maneki neko cat statuettes (a traditional good luck charm), hair accessories, elegant fans of all colors and sizes; handmade umbrellas; geta (traditional footwear), masks, folding fans, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints); kimono and other robes; samurai swords; and Buddhist scrolls.  You can also shop here for Godzilla toys, t-shirts and mobile phone straps. The shops at both sides of the last stretch near the temple sell official Senso-ji merchandise – omamori amulets, scrolls, incense to burn at the huge burner in front of the temple’s stairs, books about the temple (in Japanese) and o-mikuji fortunes.

 

Nakamise-Dori is a good place for visitors to try tabearuki (“walk-and-eat”) and enjoy Japanese street food such as tempting traditional kibi dango (sweet and soft rice cakes in a stick covered with millet flour), oden, (a winter snack), imo yokan (sweet potato jelly), odango (a sweet snack), kaminari okoshi (sweet puff rice crackers), colorful candies sold in beautiful traditional patterned cases; ningyo yaki (little sponge cakes filled with red bean paste and shaped like dolls, birds and the famous Kaminarimon, Asakusa’s symbolic lantern), deep-fried manju (a bun stuffed with red-bean paste), kibidango (a millet dumpling), freshly toasted sembei crackers, juicy fried meat croquettes, sweet melon pan bread, cooling matcha green tea ice cream and other green tea-flavored treats.

Trying out vanilla ice cream in a melonpan at Asakusa Sakura

Vanilla ice cream in a melonpan bun

There are also eating places that feature traditional dishes (hand-made noodles, sushi, tempura, etc.). For lunch, we dined at Tatsumiya Restaurant. Here, we were seated in a traditional Japanese setting – no shoes and on low tables with mats.

Check out “Restaurant Review: Tatsumiya Asakusa“

Dining, Japanese style, at Tatsumiya Restaurant

During the holidays, the arcade is decorated with seasonal trappings – silk plum blossoms and kites during New Year’s Day, bright foliage during fall and cherry blossoms in spring. Running perpendicular to Nakamise-Dori is Shin-Nakamise (“New Nakamise”), a covered shopping arcade lined by various shops and restaurants.

Shin-Nakamise (New Nakamise)

Nakamise-Dori: 1 Asakusa, Taitō-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Open daily, typically from 10 AM to 7 PM but hours depend on the individual shops.

How to Get There: Nakamise-Dori, a 2 minute walk from Asakusa Station, is served by the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line and Tobu railway lines. It is also a 10-min. walk from Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line. Take A3~A5 exit for Nakamise. This shopping street is traditionally approached via the Thunder Gate.

 

Baltimore’s Inner Harbor (Maryland, USA)

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Inner Harbor

The Inner Harbor District, a historic seaport, tourist attraction and landmark of the city, is located within walking distance of Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, at the mouth of Jones Falls, creating the wide and short northwest branch of the Patapsco River.

The name “Inner Harbor” includes any water west of a line drawn between the foot of President Street and the American Visionary Art Museum plus the surrounding area within the approximate street boundaries of President Street to the east, Lombard Street to the north, Greene Street to the west, and Key Highway on the south.

The author (lower right corner) walking along the waterfront

The Inner Harbor, with its historically shallow water (prior to manipulation through dredging), was not conducive to large ships or heavy industry and, in the 1950s, suffered from the economic decline with the arrival of container ships after World War II as well as restructuring common to many industrial cities in the United States, ending both its freight and passenger use.

Jandy crossing a pedestrian bridge

To reverse the city’s decline and reconnect Baltimore with its waterfront, the Inner Harbor was gradually transformed with award-winning parks and plazas surrounded by office buildings, hotels and leisure attractions, starting with the adoption of the 13 hectare (33-acre) Charles Center project.

Children frolicking at a fountain

Between 1958 and 1965, Baltimore renewed this center of its business district with office buildings, hotels and retail shops. In 1963, the redevelopment program was expanded to include 97 hectares (240 acres) surrounding the Inner Harbor with corporate headquarters and hotels being built around the shoreline, with a public park and promenade added for leisure activity and community gatherings.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Following the U.S. Bicentennial, other tourist attractions were developed such as the National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center and the Harbor Place Festival Marketplace (opened on July 4, 1980 and operated by The Rouse Company). The nearby Baltimore Convention Center and Hyatt Regency Baltimore Hotel added to the services, resulting in increased population density and attracting a huge number of tourists.

In recent years, Inner Harbor East, the area along the waterfront to the east of the Inner Harbor (in the direction of Fells Point and Little Italy), has been developed with mixed-use developments incorporating office space, condominiums, street-level retail space, restaurants and hotels.

In the 1970s and 1980s, with the success of the renewal of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the city became a worldwide tourist destination and a model of urban renaissance, planning and development in cities around the world, influencing more than 100 other cities and winning more than 40 national or international awards.  In 1984, the American Institute of Architects cited it as “one of the supreme achievements of large-scale urban design and development in U.S. history. In 2009, the Urban Land Institute described it as “the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world.”

Federal Hill Park

Federal Hill Park (300 Warren Ave.), a former lookout during the War of 1812 and the Civil War located on the south side of the Inner Harbor, allows visitors to take in ​a dramatic view of Baltimore’s cityscape from the top of the hill.

National Aquarium in Baltimore

The National Aquarium in Baltimore (501 E. Pratt St., Pier 3 and Pier 4, Inner Harbor) has a collection of more than 16,500 specimens representing 660 species, with exhibits including a multi-storey Atlantic coral reef, an open ocean shark tank, a 4-D immersion theater, a tropical rain forest, a glass pavilion with Australian wildlife, and a mammal pavilion that holds Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.

Check out “National Aquarium in Baltimore“

Sloop-of-War USS Constellation

The Historic Ships in Baltimore (Piers 1, 3, and 5) features four historic ships permanently docked in the harbor that visitors can climb aboard and experience – the USS Constellation (first launched in 1854, it is the only Civil War-era ship still afloat), USCGC Taney (last fighting ship still afloat that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor), the USS Torsk (a Tench-class submarine, it is the last ship to sink an enemy vessel in World War II) and the Lightship Chesapeake (a U.S. Coast Guard lightship from the 1930s) plus the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse.

Check out “The Historic Ships of Baltimore,” “USS Constellation Museum”  and “USCGC Taney“

Harborplace and the Gallery

Harborplace and the Gallery (Light and Pratt Sts.) are two pavilions with a mix of local and national restaurants and stores, plus Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium (has 500 of Ripley’s trademark “oddities” in seven different galleries, plus a mirror maze and a 4-D movie theater)

Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditorium

Maryland Science Center (601 Light St.) has 3 levels of exhibits, a planetarium, and an IMAX theater plus a special exhibit on blue crabs.

Maryland Science Center

Top of the World (401 E. Pratt St.) an observation deck on the 27th floor of the Baltimore World Trade Center, offers sweeping a 360-degree birds-eye views of the city. On the pedestrian promenade outside the building is a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Baltimore World Trade Center

Port Discovery Children’s Museum (35 Market Place), on the site of the historic Baltimore Fish Market, is a children’s museum with a three-story jungle gym specifically designed for kids ages 2-10.

Holocaust Memorial

American Visionary Art Museum (800 Key Highway), a mosaic-clad museum, has a  collection of offbeat, innovative art produced by self-taught individuals, plus free outdoor movies and the Kinetic Sculpture Race.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African-American History and Culture (830 E. Pratt St.), the largest of its kind on the East Coast, is dedicated to preserving the stories of the Maryland African American community, past and present.

Baltimore Civil War Museum

Baltimore Museum of Industry (1415 Key Highway), located in an old cannery, holds exhibits on various types of manufacturing and industry from the early 20th century. one of its star attractions is the Baltimore, the oldest surviving steam tugboat and a National Historic Landmark.

Baltimore Visitors Center

The Baltimore Visitor Center (401 Light St.), just north of the Maryland Science Center, has touch-screen kiosks that tell visitors where to go, and staff can help clue you into events happening in the city. It also has public restrooms inside.

Philips Seafood

Power Plant Live! (601 E Pratt St.), the former Pratt Street Power Plant  located 2 blocks north of the Inner Harbor, is an entertainment complex that comes alive at night with bars,  clubs, restaurants and music venues that includes Phillips Seafood, Rams Head Live!,  Hard Rock Cafe (opened July 4, 1997) plus Barnes & Noble and Maryland Art Place (a contemporary art gallery for Maryland artists).

Hard Rock Cafe

Other places to visit here include the Lloyd Street Synagogue (the third-oldest synagogue in the United States, now the Jewish Museum of Maryland), Civil War Museum (President Street Station), Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, Dr. Samuel D. Harris Museum of Dentistry (University of Maryland), Babe Ruth birthplace and museum, Oriole Park at Camden Yards (home of the Baltimore Orioles), Camden Yards Sports Complex, Columbus Center (home of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute), Bnai Israel (a Moorish Revival synagogue now open as a museum), Holocaust Memorial  (E Lombard and S Gay St.), Lockwood Place, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (a privately owned pop culture museum at Camden Station opened last September 2006), M&T Bank Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens), Royal Farms Arena and the Pier Six Pavilion (a music venue at 731 Eastern Ave.)

Pier Six Pavilion

Blue and white water taxis (US&6-12), from 17 locations, connect passengers from the Inner Harbor to Fells Point, Canton, and Fort McHenry.

Check out “Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine – Birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner

Water Taxi

You can explore the Inner Harbor on a traditional paddle boat (US$12 per half-hour rental) or the colorful Chesapeake Bay ‘Chessie’ Monster (US version of Scotland’s ‘Nessie,’ US$20 per half-hour rental),  both classic childhood favorites. Both boats hold up to four occupants. If you don’t feel like paddling, there’s the electric boat (half-hour rental – US$10 for one person or US$15 for two).

Cheska, Jandy, Grace and Kyle in a Chessie

Visitors can also explore the harbor via the red and purple-bottomed Cruises on the Bay by Watermark (US$6-17) and the larger yacht Spirit of Baltimore (US$42 and up); the bright yellow speedboats of Seadog Cruises (US$20 range) and the wood-paneled pirate ship The Fearless by Urban Pirates (US$20-25).

Spirit of Baltimore

Cruise ships also offer narrated, 45-min. tours of the Inner Harbor where you’ll learn about the city’s maritime and industrial history as well as the resurgence of the waterfront, Federal Hill, and Fells Point.  You can also avail of 60-min. tours focusing on Fort McHenry, 90-min. cocktail cruises and spectacular 60-min. “city lights” tours. 

Bulacan Pasalubong Center (Malolos City, Bulacan)

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Bulacan Pasalubong Center

After our visit to the Alberta Uitangcoy-Santos Ancestral House, participants of the AAP Drive Caravan proceeded to the Bulacan Pasalubong Center, one-stop shop for marketing, promotion and selling of Bulacan-made products.

They include beverages; breads and pastries; chips and seeds; dairy products; processed meat and fish; relishes; condiments and dips; specialty food; sweets and candies and sweet preserves; bags and wallets; fashion and fine jewelry; garments; holiday and home décors; native products; toys; wearables; and health and wellness products.

Check out “Alberta Uitangcoy-Santos House”

Bulacan-made furniture

Managed by the Bulacan Provincial Government through the Provincial Cooperative and Enterprise Development Office (PCEDO), it offers foreign and local tourists a wide variety of Tatak Bulakenyo products.

They include pastillas (carabao milk candies), minasa (cassava cookies), ensaymadang Malolos (cheesy brioche with salted egg), inipit de leche (pressed custard sponge cake); barquillos (biscuit rolls); putok pan de sal de Baliwag (milky bread roll); crispy mushroom flakes and bits; chicharon (pork rind crackling); sukang Bulacan, longganisang Calumpit, buntal products, gowns and barong; jewelry and furniture.

Barong Tagalog and gowns

Here, we had a taste of the mouthwatering local glutinous rice cakes (sapin-sapin, kutsinta, biko, etc.) and arroz caldo (Filipino congee).

An assortment of rice cakes

Bulacan Pasalubong Center: BTTBAC Bldg., Provincial Capitol Compound, MacArthur Highway, Malolos City 3000. Open Mondays to Saturdays, 8 AM to 5 PM. Tel: (044) 791-0884.

Automobile Association Philippines (AAP): 28 EDSA, Greenhills, San Juan City.  Tel: (632) 655-5889.  Fax: (632) 655-1878.  E-mail: info@aap.org.ph. Website: www.aap.org.ph.

Graben Street (Vienna, Austria)

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Graben Street

The exclusive and pulsating Graben, one of the most famous streets in Vienna‘s first district (the heart of the inner city  centre), is one of the most important promenades and shopping streets in Vienna.

Isko, Cheska and Vicky at Graben

It begins at Stock-im-Eisen-Platz (next to the Palais Equitable) and ends at the junction of Kohlmarkt and Tuchlauben.

It is crossed by Wipplinger Straße by means of the Hohe Brücke, a bridge about 10 m. above street level. The origin of this street dates back to the old Roman encampment of Vindobona.

This shopping street and pedestrian area is surrounded by popular alleys, streets and places such as Stephansplatz, Kohlmarkt, Naglergasse, Tuchlauben and Petersplatz.

Vicky and Cheska

Most of the buildings here, where you can find finest traditional shops with a long tradition and already popular in the times when Austria was ruled by emperors, had origins from the 17th and 18th century.

The Palais Bartolotti-Partenfeld, palace of the Barons Bartolotti von Partenfeld, the only Baroque structure on the Graben that has survived to this day, was first erected between 1794 and 1795 by Peter Mollner and Ernest Koch and was rebuilt in 1831 by Josef Klee.

Formerly the site of Leopold Kozeluch‘s music shop, it was acquired in 1894 by Assicurazione Generali who renovated the facade and added a penthouse. The showroom of Knize (a prominent tailor), occupying the ground floor, was built by Adolf Loos. 

Graben-Hof Building

The Grabenhof (also known as the Thienemannhof), built between 1873 and 1874 by Otto Thienemann and Otto Wagner on the site of the old Arkadenhof, is today owned by Österreichische Beamtenversicherung.   Its roof was rebuilt in 1947 by Alfons Hetmanek and, since 1991, the building has been used as a site for cultural events.

Headquarters of Erste Osterreich Spar-Casse

The present headquarters of the Erste österreichische Sparkasse, designed by architect Alois Pichl, had its origins in 1825 when the bank moved into the house at Graben 21. The bank later purchased three neighboring houses, tore them down and, between 1835 and 1839, had their headquarters built.

H&M (E. Braun & Co. Building)

The E. Braun & Co. building, originally constructed in 1887 for an American insurance company (hence an eagle seen on the top of the building), was originally the flagship store of the clothing company E. Braun & Co. (whose name we can still see on the façade of the building).Today, H&M continues the building’s tradition as hosting a clothing business.

Plague Column (Petsaule). The column’s basic message is that the plague and the Ottomans’ Second Siege of Vienna (1683), both of them punishments for sin, were averted or defeated by the piety and intercession of the Emperor Leopold I.

The Plague Column (German: Pestsäule), or Trinity Column (German: Dreifaltigkeitssäule), a Baroque memorial, is one of the most well-known and prominent sculptural pieces of art in the city.This Holy Trinity column was erected by Emperor Leopold I following the Great Plague of Vienna in 1679.

The top of the column

Right next to Graben and just west of the Pestsäule is the Baroque-style Peterskirche (St. Peter’s Church) on Petersplatz, which is largely obscured by the surrounding buildings, and can only be seen clearly from directly in front.The street Jungferngasse cuts through the pedestrian zone and leads directly to the church.

Peterskirche (Peter’s Church)

Begun around 1701 under Gabriele Montani (replaced by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt in 1703), the church was the first domed structure in Baroque Vienna and its design was inspired by the St. Peter’s Basilica of the Vatican in Rome. Francesco Martinelli was the main architect. It was finished in 1733 and consecrated to the Holy Trinity.

Lowenbrunnen (Lion Fountain)

Two fountains are found on the Graben. Josefsbrunnen, the first fountain, in the southwest, has a statue of St. Joseph and was presumably built in 1561. The Löwenbrunnen (lion fountain), standing on the northwestern end of the Graben, has a statue of Leopold and is decorated with the four lion’s heads.

Statue of Emperor Leopold I

The two fountains were rebuilt, at the behest of Leopold I, with sculptures executed by the sculptor Johann Frühwirth and, later, replaced with lead figures by Johann Martin Fischer. Frühwirth’s statues have since been lost.

Segafredo Cafe

The side streets around Graben, including Dorotheergasse, Stallburggasse and Bräunerstrasse are brimming with boutiques selling Baroque armoires, renaissance chests, footwear, fine carpets, magnificent timepieces, paintings, court perfumery (Nägele & Strubell, etc.), porcelain (Augarten, etc.) and antique court jewelry (Heldwein, etc.).

Dior

Top international labels (Hermes, Mont Blanc, H&M, Escada, etc.) and high end retailers have also zeroed in on this exclusive shopping street.

Giorgio Armani

Unlike other similar streets, shoppers can also take, between shopping trips, a quick respite at quite a number of high-end cafes (Segafredo, Hawelka, etc.) and restaurants (Julius Meinl, etc.).

Burberry

Graben: Vienna, Austria. Shop opening hours: 10 AM – 7 PM, Mondays – Fridays;  10 AM – 6 PM, Saturdays. Some shops open already at 8 or 9 AM and start to close from 6 PM.

How to Get There:Metro U1 and U3 station Stephansplatz.

Cordillera World (Baguio City, Benguet)

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Cordillera World

Cordillera World

Before we left the ever-popular Mines View Park, Melissa, Almira, Albert, Jandy and I visited the nearby Cordillera World, one of the newest attractions in the City of Pines located on the left side of the Mines View Tourism Office.

The narrow stairs leading up to the museum

The narrow stairs leading up to the museum

Wooden sleepers on a gravel bed

Wooden sleepers on a gravel bed

A pet project of Mr. Roland Cayat, this travel destination was opened last March 2011 through the help of some local investors and the support of the members of the Mines View Barangay Council.

Registration area and donation basket

Registration area and donation basket

A showcase of the rich heritage of the original mountain tribes of Northern Luzon, it is also an excellent vehicle to support a local advocacy and special program that helps out-of-school youths to go back to school or to finance and support their young families. There is no entrance fee but voluntary contributions from generous visitors to support the project are accepted.

Cordillera World (1)

Cordillera World (4)

We entered this second floor mini-museum/souvenir shop via a narrow wooden stairway whose risers feature salutations of “welcome” in five local dialects. Once inside, we had to register our names before taking photos. Do go around the displays, we walked on wooden sleepers laid on a gravel bed..

Cordillera World (2)

Cordillera World (11)

Here, we learned more about the lifestyle and culture of the highlands, seeing and sometimes touching ancient tools, clothing and accessories used by different tribes of the Cordilleras.

Cordillera World (7)

Cordillera World (8)

Visitors can even wear colorful, woven native costumes and feathery headdresses, as well as of being armed with hand-made bows, arrows and spears, and take photos as many times as they like.

Jandy and Almira in front of the replica of an Ifugao hut

Jandy and Almira in front of the replica of an Ifugao hut

At the center of the museum is a life-size replica of an Ifugao house decorated with animal skulls, woven tapestry and palay. From a viewing deck, we enjoyed the same spectacular view of the Cordillera mountains as seen from Mines View Park.  Beside it is their version of a “wishing well” (actually a pan filled with water).

Almira, Jandy, Albert and Melissa enjoying the mountain view

Almira, Jandy, Albert and Melissa enjoying the mountain view

A "wishing well"

A “wishing well”

Unique souvenirs sold here include Ifugao wine, CD that contains local Ifugao music to savour the culture even more, wood carvings and statues, pure honey, feathered headdresses and dream catchers that are hung around the place.

Cordillera World (10)

Cordillera World: Gibraltar Rd., Baguio City, Benguet.

Eker & Ely Lucban Longganisa and Pasalubong (Lucban, Quezon)

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From the church, Jandy, Maricar, Violet, Lanny and I walked towards Eker & Ely Lucban Longganisa and Pasalubong, situated just behind the church where, we were told, we could buy the best Lucban longganisa.  It was raining heavily, so we brought our umbrellas with us. Established in 1958 (incidentally the year I was born), Eker & Ely is one of 10 longganisa makers in town.

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Their Lucban Longanisa is sold by the dozen –  P150 for big longanisa and  P55 for small.  I bought two dozen packs of the former while the others bought packs of the latter.  It’s a good thing we arrived here in the morning as their longganisa is usually sold out by afternoon.

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Longganisa hung on poles for buyers to see

Aside from their bestseller longganisa, the store also sells different delicacies made in Lucban and other parts of the country.  The list includes macaroons, coco jam, broas (the local version of ladyfingers), uraro, miki lucban, piaya, pastillas, mazapan, galletas (egg cracklets) espasol, achara, espasol, coco vinegar, peanut brittle, peanuts, cashews, etc.

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Lanny, Violet and Maricar deciding on what to buy for pasalubong

Eker & Ely Lucban Longganisa and Pasalubong: 114 A. Racelis Ave., Lucban, Quezon. Tel: (042) 540-3304.  Mobile number (0920) 237-9056.

How To Get There: Lucban is located 160.36 km. from Manila and 23.7 kms. north of Lucena City. From Manila, it can be accessed via the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX, exit at Turbna) and the Manila East Road.