Christmas Eve day. We left the house at 9AM and didn’t get home until 7 or 8 that night. LOTS of adventures!
We started our day at Grand Central Station where we caught a Metro North train to the Bronx and the train show at the NY Botanical Garden. http://www.nybg.org/exhibitions/holiday-train-show-2011/index.php. Before we left the station, we visited the Apple store there--a very neat location and typical of Apple’s great customer service. The store was on the balcony opposite this one.
The train was spiffy and took us directly to the garden.
We wandered the grounds a little bit before it was time to visit the train show. Despite cold temps and bare trees, it was easy to imagine what a beautiful oasis this place must be for much of the year. Even in winter, it is impressive. We stopped off to see the gingerbread house display in the Children's Garden. Not as impressive as the one we saw last year in Asheville, NC, but it smelled just as good, thanks to demos showing the children how to grind spices for the dough. Yum!
The train show is located in the huge conservatory building, seen here through the trees.
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| The real conservatory |
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| The model. Wow. |
It’s much more than a train show, actually. The space is filled with detailed small scale reproductions of well-known NYC landmarks, all made of natural materials. We were even able to see a new one under construction in the “artist’s studio” space.
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| St. Patrick's cathedral |
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| Back left--the Chrysler Building |
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| Look closely for the train on the bridge |
The buildings are nestled among plants and flowers that only add to their charm, and yes, there ARE toy trains that run around the whole display, though most have only one car.
John thought this was WAY too small to be a train!
Later, we visited the train display at the Transit Museum--a much more typical toy train setup.
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| He thought THIS was much more like it. |
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