Probably not many Baltimoreans know that they can ride a bus to York, Pennsylvania, for a daytrip, getting there and back for less than the cost of driving. York’s transit system, called Rabbit Transit, operates a morning and afternoon commuter bus, the rabbitExpress, for Yorkers working in the northern Baltimore suburbs. If you can get to downtown Towson by 8:10 a.m. on a weekday (the latest of three morning schedules), you can ride the bus returning to York for $5. I hopped the Express last Friday, one of only three passengers on a big, new, comfortable coach. The 50-mile journey takes an hour and a half because the bus meanders through some small Pennsylvania towns en route. So what’s in York that’s worth a $10 roundtrip? Well, the downtown is old, charming, and historic: York was briefly the U.S. capital during the Revolution—the Articles of Confederation were drafted and signed there. York was also the northernmost city captured by the Confederates in the Civil War. (Some amateur Civil War historians claim that honor for St. Albans, Vermont, but the “St. Albans Raid” was little more than a coordinated robbery of three small banks in that tiny town by rebels who snuck in from Canada.) You can also watch the York Revolution play pro baseball at Santander Stadium. (Although the stadium is on Brooks Robinson Way, the Revolution is not an Orioles farm team or even affiliated with the major league baseball system, but rather is part of the independent Atlantic League.) Or, if you prefer active exercise to spectator sport, you could bring your bicycle on the bus and then ride home on the 40-mile rail trail that runs from York almost to Hunt Valley, just north of Baltimore—the trail passes adjacent to the York transit center where the bus ride terminates. For me, though, York’s main attraction is the beautiful old (1888) indoor city market, similar to our Lexington Market or Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market. It’s officially open only on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays, but I found a coffee shop and an Italian diner open for breakfast, after which I strolled around the empty stalls. If you’re contemplating dinner in York, there are several good options, including a brewpub, Mudhook Brewing Company, adjacent to the market. But you’ll have to spend the night, as the last rabbitExpress leaves at 3:58 in the afternoon, and the last Greyhound bus at 6:30. There’s a new Rodeway Inn right downtown if, like me, you like traveling on a backpacker’s budget; a classier option, also downtown, is the Yorktowne Hotel. My Friday itinerary, however, took me on to Harrisburg, about 20 miles north by Greyhound ($10; there’s also a $3.50 rabbitExpress to Harrisburg, but its schedule did not suit mine). After a late lunch at the Federal Taphouse (100+ taps) in downtown Harrisburg, I walked across the Harvey Taylor Bridge, checked in at the EconoLodge, and took a short nap. The Susquehanna River, the largest by flow volume on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, is over a mile wide at Harrisburg, so the walk was a good workout. I had come to Harrisburg for 3rd in the Burg, a cultural event that takes place on the third Friday evening of every month, along 3rd Street downtown. I went first (after walking back across the bridge) to 3rd and Harris Streets, where a convocation of food trucks was underway. There I enjoyed some pork BBQ with baked corn (think mushy cornbread, sort of) and a homemade creme soda. Next I visited the Midtown Scholar bookstore, which, claiming over 100,000 books on its shelves, is almost as big as our Book Thing of Baltimore, though the prices are a bit higher. The Midtown Scholar also has one thing Book Thing lacks, namely, live music: for 3rd in the Burg, a traditional Irish group called Seasons was playing. After some listening and some browsing, I walked to Buddha Buddha, Harrisburg’s premier specialty cocktail bar, and had a drink called “A Leaf Grows in Central Park,” consisting of Woodford Reserve bourbon, sweet vermouth, orange bitters, a fig and brown sugar reduction, a splash of cabernet, and an orange twist. The “Leaf,” I guess, refers to the fig component, but I don’t get the substitution of Central Park for Brooklyn. Perhaps a New York mixologist out there can explain it to me. Anyway, it was good. And it fortified me for one last walk across the bridge for the evening, which I ended early so as to be well rested for the next leg of my overnight trip, from Harrisburg to Philadelphia—to be recounted in a future post.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 21:10:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015