Stepping off the tourist trail in search of The Wire on a trip to unlikely hotspot Baltimore



The windows are steaming up inside Baltimore's official city tour bus. It's unseasonably cold.



There's no more than a dozen people on board and we're all handed kitchen roll to help wipe the fog from the windows.



The bus is painted up to look like one of the old streetcars that General Motors, Firestone Tyres and Standard Oil conspired to wipe out of existence in the 1940s.



On a chilly autumn day like this, there aren't many tourists in Baltimore, Maryland's coastal city, just north of Washington, and those that do come are a hardy bunch. And, mostly, they are American.

Infamy: Baltimore is the secret star of the crime series The Wire with Dominic West and Michael K. Williams

Our bumptious but friendly guide talks us through the high points of Baltimore's history – the War of 1812, the writing of The Star Spangled Banner, the success of freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad - as we chug along the streets that have been spruced up, perhaps especially for our arrival?



As the bus clatters along, painfully trying to impress us, that sense of American optimism which has evolved after the country's people faced catastrophe and numerous seemingly insurmmountable obstacles over all these years is what stands out the most.



'Look!' Baltimore is collectively saying. 'No-one can sink us into Chesapeake Bay. We'll just keep plugging away.'



I never knew that Edgar Allen Poe died here after purloining ether from a dental school and getting (too) high. He made it to the steps of the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital but that was the end of him. Now the local American Football team is called the Ravens in his honour. His grave is well worth a visit and so is the sprawling, historic hospital.



Literary connection: Edgar Allen Poe died at the Johns Hopkins Hospital

I also never realised how much of a railway town Baltimore was. Trade and transport were vital to this, one of America's oldest settlements – which was started by a group of Catholics from Britain. So when the shipyards and the docks and the railways plunged into decline after World War II, Baltimore was in trouble.



When the heavy industry shifted abroad or to the West, the city faced ruin. It lost half its population and has been something of a ghost town ever since. Only recently have young people started to come back.



Like Detroit, the starkness of that abandoned city – of those boarded up row houses and cracked streets and trees growing where they shouldn't is all a spooky attraction in its own right. Not that the city fathers agree with that. They are desperate to keep visitors away from the surreal neverland of neighbourhoods ringing the sugary partly-gentrified centre of town like a doughnut.



What I did know about Baltimore is that The Wire was shot there – in those neighbourhoods. It's ten years since filming began and if you can find someone who worked on the programme you can get a look round the sketchy but utterly fascinating places where they filmed it.



Even if you can't, there are maps and guides online with routes and directions so you can find the places yourself. They say don't walk around but it's not that dangerous – especially in the morning when everyone's 'either in bed or at school' according to one local.



But if you plan on an afternoon or evening whizz round, perhaps hiring a car would be more sensible.



Traces of The Wire are difficult to find – the city's bosses seem embarrassed and afraid that the deaths and criminality portrayed on the show will dissuade people from coming. They've got that very wrong – part of the reason you choose to come here is to see those places the show showed with such honesty.



This city is unpretentious – it's a slice of real America that isn't entirely dressed up for the benefit of visitors.

Let the game begin: Camden Yard is home to the Orioles baseball team

There are bars galore (thank the sailors, the dockers and the Irish for that) and a lively arts scene.



The exhibits at the American Visionary Art Museum are a bit crummy but the building and the intention is fun and laudable – and kids love this place, as the giggling school groups attest to as they play around on a 'fart machine' installation next to the toilets in the basement.



Baltimore's sports teams – like its architecture, its city politics, and its transport system are a bit of a flop too. But they have some gorgeous grounds. Oriole Park, home of the lacklustre but loved Orioles baseball team is a handsome field built on the derelict railway sidings at Camden Yards.



The Ravens' stadium is a looker too. And the city has followed in the footsteps of Monte Carlo and Singapore by hosting a motor racing street circuit – this time for Indy Cars, the American answer to F1.



The city has heart and soul in spades. You won't find it in the places 'they' want you to go – you'll find it in the speakeasies of Fell's Point, like Max's, and in the neighbourhoods that have endured grinding poverty totally at odds with the riches that flushed the rest of this country.



You'll find it in the people who're totally mystified that you're in their city for fun, but always ready to help once they get past their suspicions. Those people inspired the good characters in The Wire. As viewers of the show know, there are also a good few baddies in this town – gangsters, crooked cops, dodgy councillors, lying journalists and poor folks on the take.



But that's part of frontier life in the 21st century. Don't ever be too scared to come here, because you'll miss out on something unique.



Travel Facts



Fly from London Heathrow to Baltimore with British Airways ( www.ba.com ) from



The Hilton Baltimore ( www.baltimore.hilton.com ) has rooms from £105.77 per room per night