For years I've heard about the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Gardens. Friends have raved about it and many (many) times I've been urged to see it. Yet, until this past Sunday the closest I'd come to seeing it was through Taxi TV.
It took very little effort to convince my Mom (a Holiday Train newbie like me) and my brother and niece (avid fans) to join me on this Never B4. Unfortunately, we arrived at the Botanical Gardens (at 11am!) only to discover that we would have to wait 5 hours for the one remaining train viewing time. Everything else was booked solid.
It was a beautiful sunny day but is any winter day beautiful enough to wait 5 hours in the cold?
We didn't think so. On top of that, my brother and I know (deep down) that we've inherited my father's surprising ability to slip into places unnoticed, despite the fact that our above-average height works against our anonymity.
My Mom and niece were still up for an adventure so we trekked over to the Conservatory to see if we could sneak our way in without a ticketed reservation.
Thanks to our inherited good fortune and my brother's local knowledge of the Botanical Gardens, we convinced the security guards that we weren't at the steps of the Conservatory entrance to see the trains, but rather to admire the rain forest and desert plants that were housed in the adjacent parts of the Conservatory.
We were immediately escorted passed the crowds and lengthy lines to a serene and warm rain forest room where we wandered below dangling Spanish Moss and admired lush jungly greens. We were completely alone and relaxed while others waited in long lines. We basked in the tropical warmth and soon found ourselves strolling from the rain forest into a desert room filled with ceiling-high cactus and Venus fly traps. Then, seemingly by accident, we walked through a door smack into the center of the train display!
The train room was bustling in comparison to the serenity of the rain forest and desert but it was truly magical, just as everyone had described. It had the energy of Christmas morning and a surprise (at least for me) -- the 140 miniature replicas of the NYC landmarks that flanked the tracks were more impressive than the trains themselves!
The detail of the buildings was stunning and the size of the bridges, breathtaking. Even more impressive is the fact that all the replicas - the Brooklyn Bridge, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Yankee Stadium, the Flat Iron Building, the George Washington Bridge to name just a few - are made completely out of plant parts such as orange slices, cinnamon sticks, poppy pods and pine cones. Of course, the variety of trains and trolleys zipping by and through the landmarks were impressive as well.
As I try now to summarize this Never B4, I have this overwhelming urge to say "you have to see it!" And you do!
For those of you who aren't train fans, don't talk yourself out of going because there's so much more to see (and more beautiful things to see) than the trains themselves. Whether the beauty you enjoy ends up being the rain forest and desert plants you wander by as you sneak in the back door like we did, or the artistic beauty of the building and bridge replicas, depends on you (and your mood).
I just encourage you to add the train show to your holiday list next year. Or, if you're close to the Bronx this week you can still get in to see the exhibit until January 11th.
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