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If you’ve ever wanted to be a fireman, then exploring the Fire Museum of Maryland , just twenty minutes outside of the city of Baltimore, may be a great way to spend an afternoon.

The Fire Museum’s mission is to teach people about the history, the equipment and techniques, as well as about the people who have worked in fire service, collecting and preserving the artifacts and records significant to the history of firemen in the United States. Begun thirty-nine years ago, in 1971, as a private, non-profit organization, today it stands as one of the best museums on fire fighting in the U.S., and contains artifacts stretching back to 1806 to 1957.

You’ll find here a number of events specifically for children, not to mention for fire fighters and other adults who wish to learn more about fire fighting’s history and how antique fire gear was once used. There’s also fifty rigs exhibited, as well as special displays, such as a fire alarm telegraph system that still operates, and a high pressure pumping system once used in Baltimore.

Visitors will also learn about the 1904 Great Baltimore Fire. On February 7, on a Sunday, a few minutes before eleven a.m., the fire began at a wholesale dry goods store in the John E. Hurst Building. An explosion blew out the building’s walls, and distributed embers in every direction, setting fire to the nearby buildings. The fire decimated over fifteen hundred buildings and wasn’t brought under control for another thirty-six hours. It took 72 fire companies to combat the fires, 38 of them from New York City, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Wilmington, Washington, and West Chester. The losses in the fire were considered to be over 150 million dollars.

Among the other exhibitions, you’ll find the Engine Company #8′s Facade Restoration. This exhibit was added five years ago, when the museum received a grant from Preservation Maryland to restore all the cast-iron facade parts of Baltimore’s Engine Company #8. The restored doorway leads into an exhibit titled, “Life of the Fireman.”

The Fire Museum is only one of many museums located in the city. If you’re traveling, plan to stay a few days in Baltimore. Best hotels can be found throughout the metropolitan area, and allow you a chance to see The Baltimore Museum of Art , the American Visionary Art Museum, and the Port Discovery Children’s Museum, among others.

In the mid-1980s, New York City’s Chelsea Piers were marked for demolition.  But in ten short years, the Chelsea Piers project, combining public and private goals, had turned the area around, realizing the potential of the thirty acres on which the piers sat.  Today, in 2010, it’s a recreational facility unlike few others.  At a cost of a hundred million in private monies, the piers have transformed into a place for the public to come, providing recreation and access to the Hudson River.  Any traveler to New York should consider a visit there, where you will find any number of opportunities to relax and enjoy the day or night.  You’ll be able to bowl, golf, or work out at a health club, or relax at a spa.

The Chelsea Piers opened to the public in 1910, one hundred years ago.  It had taken thirty years of planning and eight years of building to complete the piers.  Great luxury ships, such as the Mauretania and the Lusitania docked at the pier, even before they opened officially.  In those days, newspapers hailed the piers as a great achievement of urban design.  For fifty years, the Piers served the New York Port; it was the city’s best passenger ship terminal; but also served as a point for soldiers to leave for World War I and World War II.  In the 1950s and 1960s, the pier became a place for cargo ships.  By the 1970s until the mid-1980s, the place had fallen into neglect.  The Piers were designed mostly for passenger travel, unable to accommodate the larger container ships; since most people now traveled by plane, they fell into disuse.  Their redesign and redevelopment in the mid-1980s, then, gave this historic site new life.

The site is as famous for the ships that didn’t arrive, such as the ill-fated Titanic and the Lusitania, as well as who left these piers, such as the US Olympic Team leaving for Germany in 1936, where Jesse Owens would win four gold medals for track.  If you’ve arrived in New York and found yourself one of the hotels, big or small, then consider including the Chelsea Piers in your itinerary, and discover a part of the city’s reborn past.

Often we do not necessarily think about where the things we have today came from.  The coffee cup, the fork, the window, the fan, the baseball bat—all of these things have simply become a part of our everyday life, and we do not usually wonder and the often strange and variegated history of such inventions.  Television shows, such as “How it’s Made” usually provide some interesting history about where things come from, and as the name of the show suggests, how it was made.  One of those things is the tennis court.  It was not always the perfect rubberized rectangle it was today, especially when it was initially created by monks in the fourteenth century.

The net originally was 5 feet tall on the left and right sides, but in the middle it was 3 feet tall.  The other things vastly different from modern day courts includes its shape.  It once looked more like an hourglass, its middle much narrower than where it started where the players stood.  Further, it was actually played indoors as the sport was considered royal, and it was the royals who often enjoyed watching the sport, especially the French who loved the game so much they called it royal tennis.  Instead of the ball being bounced on the ground, it was instead played on the walls.

Today courts are made of various materials, and obviously look different than those in the first days on tennis in Europe.  Asphalt and concrete are the most popular and cheaper forms of materials used to create the courts.  However, special types of rubber are used to make courts more comfortable for players, in particular those that play at grand tournaments, like the upcoming Australian Open Tennis.

However, it takes more than just a comfortable court to be successful at tennis, though it certainly makes easier on the player’s feet and affects the way the ball plays off of the ground.  Tennis takes speed and agility, and if you have ever watched a match, it is in a way a form of dance.  In addition to be able to play all the different parts of the court, a player must maintain accuracy and plan for future moves from their opponent, similar to how chess masters work.  It takes both physical and mental prowess to be successful, not just a fancy tennis court.

The city of Baltimore is filled with museums, and due to the shipping industry, and the ship building industry that has supported this city for hundreds of years, many of those museums are located on, you guessed it…ships.  One such museum is located on the USCGC Taney, a ship that was originally built in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1930.  The end of this vessels career came in 1986, after fifty plus years of continued services.  Her last missions took place during the years between 1977 through 1986, when she carried out search and rescue missions as well as patrolling the waters of the Caribbean for drug runners, as well as training missions for the United States Coast Guard.  The largest drug bust in American history happened in 1985, when the crew of the Taney seized one hundred and sixty tons of marijuana.  Just one year following the ship was decommissioned in Virginia and donated to Baltimore in order to serve as a memorial to the maritime history and as a museum.

Many people choose a lunch time adventure at a Baltimore restaurant before heading out to the museum of the Taney and what better way to experience the ship, her historical duties and the city itself than to have some steamed crabs, and then head to the docks where those crabs are unloaded.  The Taney was first ported off the Hawaiian island of Honolulu.  Until the years of WWII the crew took her out in search of opium runners and on various search and rescue missions.  Often times the ship was used to run food and supplies to the American colonies living on the Line Islands.  Once the war started, the ship was fitted with guns and sonar equipment in order to locate enemy submarines.  The Taney fired at the attacking Japanese planes on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, and when the bombing subsided, took to patrolling the ocean waters for submarines.  The crews and the ship have had many years, many stories, and what may not be covered in the tour of the museum, you will definitely sense just by standing on the decks of this incredible vessel.

A great number of people know the following about Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: It’s the site where the 16th President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, gave his famous Gettysburg Address. And most people will even be able to tell you the first few words of the speech, “Four score and seven years ago,” although less will be able to tell you that means “87 years ago,” even less will be able to follow up with the rest of that sentence: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”  Unless you live in the area, you won’t know the story of Gettysburg itself, but if you were to travel to Pennsylvania State and book yourself into one of the hotels Gettysburg offers to its visitors, then you may learn a great deal more.

Gettysburg is to be found in the south of the state, and easily reached by Harrisburg, Baltimore, Carlisle and Washington D.C..  In fact, it’s only a little over two hours drive from Philadelphia, and so there’s little excuse not to miss this historic site.  Here, you’ll find The Gettysburg Battlefield.  If you’re a Civil War buff, this is a must-see destination, the spot where the war turned in 1863, where the North, under the command of General George G. Meade, successfully conquered General Robert E. Lee’s army.  It was a bloody three day battle, leaving behind over 46,000 dead or dying men.  Every Fourth of July, there’s a three day reenactment of the battle that preserved the Union.

The town was founded in 1786 and bears the name of a tavern owner, Samuel Gettys.  In 1859, the Gettysburg Railroad Station opened after a line was built to Hanover; while service of this famous railway stopped in 1942, today the station operates as a museum.  In addition to the battlefield, the town has over a hundred restored buildings of the time period, plus double-decker tours, as well as ghost tours, which take people to various “haunted” locations.  A terrific place to visit!

Find a room at one of the best hotels Lisboa Portugal has to offer. This is a great capital city of Portugal and is the wealthiest city in the Iberian Peninsula. It has great financial, economical and political importance in this country. Like many other old world cities this has a long list of cohabitants that have come and gone over the years. The Roman Empire ruled this city from 205 BC but this town was already a thousand years old. Julius Caesar spent time here and then the Germanic tribes ruled the area in the fifth century until it was taken by the Moors in the eight century. In 1147 the Christians came as the Crusaders under the leader ship of Afonso Henriques. This is when the city took a major hold has the capital of Portugal.

There are some historical sites to see like the Castle of Saint George. Visitors will have to travel up the hill over the city to get a walk across the bridge into this sixth century castle. It was inhabited by a number of royal families. The Romans, the Visigoths and the Moors all housed their royalty here over the many years. The first King was of course Afonso Henriques. The castle was named after the saint of England by the Anglo-Portuguese pact of 1371. It did have it’s battle with natures earthquakes where it collapsed but was rebuilt.

Visitors come to this oasis and spend peaceful times enjoying the history. There are statues of the King and of course cannons and wear showing the early history of the place. There is an exhibit call the Olissiponia which is a great multimedia exhibit. This is a great way to learn about the history of the city. There is even a simulator of the earthquakes and the tidal waves that have hit this city. Visitors find there way up to the Tower of Ulysses to see the Camara Escura which projects the images of other notable sites that are located around the city.