Albuquerque Botanical Gardens.

For various reasons we had missed out on the Botanical Gardens in Houston and Fort Worth so we made sure to go to the one in Albuquerque. It is fantastic.

We were pleased to see that they had anticipated Welsh visitors and we were greeted by a smoke breathing dragon, although it did look a bit pale.

It was the entrance to the Children's Magical Garden, populated by giant bugs, carrots and pumpkins with strange insects. 

There is also a Spanish Moorish Garden,

a Rotunda which we were pleased to see honoured the Juggler

a rose garden

a Japanese Garden,

a Lake,

two enormous greenhouses of mediterranean plants and cacti and seasonal gardens.

Most of the peonies had gone over  but some remained.

The Model-maker would however thought all this eclipsed by the railway. There are in fact two model railways. One the size you can sit on taking people between the gardens and the adjacent zoo and aquarium and another  G-Scale Railroad Garden. Apparently there were no model railways like this in America until the 1970s. I think the Model-maker has some competition from this one though.

Out side they had more bugsy wind-vanes but not I think as good as the buffalo.