“Cincinnati Choo Choo”

Friday
Today was Jen and Jason’s last day with us before returning to Salt Lake City this evening. Jen, assisted by Laura, made us sticky toffee waffles for breakfast, then we headed downtown to catch a 10.30 American Legacy walking tour of Over the Rhine, an area of the city settled by German immigrants and which in its hey day was a huge brewing area with hundreds of bars, saloons and entertainment halls. The area went into decline, beginning with Prohibition and then the Second World War, when being German became very unpopular, and many people moved out of the area. In recent years however it has undergone a resurgence, with many of the old derelict buildings being fixed up and turned into apartments and restaurants and shops moving back into the area, along with the flourishing craft beer industry which has taken off all over the city. The tour was very interesting and informative, and included a visit underground to some of the recently rediscovered tunnels which were used by the early beer industry. Interestingly, our guide was a retired guy from Roger’s company, doing this as a retirement job. For lunch we went to Salazar, one of the newer restaurants in the area, that we went to for my birthday dinner back in October. Their prices for Lunch were quite reasonable and the food as good as dinner time.
After lunch we drove over to Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park, to see the special Christmas display, called Cincinnati Choo Choo, which has always been wonderful, but has improved even more during our 3 1/2 years in France. Ruby red poinsettias, fancy evergreens, cyclamen, amaryllis, and other favourite holiday plants filled the exhibition area, accented by “botanical architecture”, Cincinnati landmarks created out of natural components, and with a model train running throughout and over head, representing the Roebling suspension bridge. In the entrance hall, there is a huge Christmas tree also decorated with ornaments made of natural materials, and in one of the other glass houses there were little fairy houses set among the plants, similarly constructed of natural materials. As you can imagine, it is a very popular place to visit over the holiday period, and everyone wants to get their picture taken, so we had to wait a minute or so to get this picture taken of the five of us, in return for me taking one of their family! Outside, there is a life size nativity scene, including live sheep and a donkey. We just had time then to go get a coffee/hot chocolate back in Over the Rhine, before driving Jen and Jason down to the airport - all good things must come to an end as the saying goes, but it was great having both of the girls back for a few days together! After dinner, we went to a late night showing of Darkest Hour in Mariemont, which follows Winston Churchill’s early days as Prime Minister, as Hitler closes in on Britain during World War II, which we felt was very good.
One year ago: Robin