Cullen Gardens

Location: Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Address: 4015 Cochrane Street
Date: Nov 2022

   There used to be a wonderful place that could be enjoyed by young and old alike. There was a beautiful garden with extensive flower displays. For the children there was a miniature village where tiny people lived and drove trains, cars and boats around the grounds. This was Cullen Gardens and Miniature Village. Sadly, it was closed in 2005. Here are some old photos from our visits and a few ways you can still see a bit of the magic today.

  

   Cullen Gardens was created by Len Cullen who owned Weall & Cullen garden centres. If you visit what is now called Cullen Central Park you will see his statue.

    Beside Len sits a tiny house which represents the 150 miniatures that made up the village that stood here from 1980 to 2005.

    A scale model of Parkwood Estate was one of the many miniature buildings. The real Parkwood Estate is located nearby in the neighbouring town of Oshawa.

 

    This house (above) looks like it could be found just about anywhere.  

  This building was always on fire and the firefighters were battling a tiny blaze on the roof.

  The Miniature Village had a main street display with cars and businesses. The Littlest Hobo even visited this street in the episode Small Pleasures. The German Shepherd star walked right onto the main street just behind the green and grey building with pillars. He then continued down the street towards the left. You knew your tourist attraction was doing well in the 1980s if the Littlest Hobo visited.  During other episodes he also visited places such as the Toronto Zoo and Canada's Wonderland.

  The gardens were a year round attraction. In the winter a miniature Santa Claus parade travelled down the main street with floats full of Christmas cheer.

  The parade always finished off with a special float for Santa Claus himself.

 

  Another special guest arrived at this building by helicopter, while a marching band performed.

 

    The long building, possibly a hotel, sat beside a remote controlled boat pond.  Different watercraft sped around the pond.

  Surrounding the miniature houses were gardens filled with seasonal flowers. A highlight was when the tulips were in bloom.

  A small CN Rail train also did laps through the gardens, going under bridges and behind bushes only to reappear further along the tracks.

 

   The shrubbery was always cut into interesting shapes and figures.

  Flowers were arranged in the shape of giant ducks or peacocks.

 

 

  Real peacocks would do their best to compete with their floral cousins.

  As you travelled deeper into the valley there was a covered bridge that crossed a small creek. The creek was known as Lynde Creek and flowed all the way down to Lake Ontario.

  The creek and the bridge are still there today.

  In the woods you might have encountered a cougar back when Cullen Gardens was open. This cougar was a model placed there on purpose. It seems to be debated if Ontario has any cougars, or how many it once had.

  We didn't see any cougars when we visited Cullen Central Park. That doesn't mean they didn't see us.

  Another relic of the past that you can see in the current park is Patly Mills. This grindstone is from the mill which opened in 1951 and processed oatmeal and flour. Cullen Gardens Miniature Village was built right where Patly Mills used to stand.

 

  Cullen Gardens also had a farming display to show you how life once was. Unlike the miniature village, these were life sized.

  Someone had built a display of someone building a cabin. Again, a life sized model of how things used to be.

  In current day, there was a cabin at Cullen Garden Park. It is possible that the Cullen family used to stay here at some point in the past.

  At Cullen Gardens there used to be Lynde House which was set up as a museum. The Lynde House was built during the War of 1812 and moved from its original location to Cullen Gardens in 1986.  When Cullen Gardens closed, the house was moved again to nearby 900 Brock Street South in Whitby.  It still operates as a museum today.

  The last section of the Miniature Village was a mini fairground that was located away from the rest of the village. It had little moving thrill rides and even a replica of the Flyer roller coaster. The real Flyer used to operate at the Canadian National Exhibition each year.

  Just when you thought the Miniature Village was no more, it rose up again. After Cullen Gardens closed, the miniature homes were sold to the town of Oshawa and sat in storage. Eventually, the homes were purchased by Niagara Parks. Many of them can now be visited at the Floral Showhouse in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

  A robin decided to live in this lovely red building.

  Scattered around the Floral Showhouse grounds are many buildings from the Cullen Gardens. More should be arriving as they complete some restoration. We are glad that the homes are back where they belong, between beautiful floral displays. You can always visit them here for a bit of that old magic.

   Oh wait, we forgot about Cullen Barns! Here is a final look above. Sorry to report to anyone who used to enjoy the displays and flowers in this store. Formerly located at Kennedy Road and Steeles Ave East in Markham, Ontario, the barn buildings are no more.

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Map of Our World
Cullen Gardens And Miniature Village

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Post # 339

La Felicita

Location: Paris, France
Address: 5 Parv. Alan Turing
Date: May 2023
Website: www.lafelicita.fr

    La Felicita is the largest food court in Europe. It features a variety of Italian eateries. Where would it be located?  In a former train depot in Paris, France of course.

 

    The former train depot was named la Halle Freyssinet and fell into disrepair when it closed in 2006.  It was formally re-opened by French President Macron in 2017 as Station F. The F is for Freyssinet.  There are still some old trains inside the eating spaces. These days the trains are covered in artwork and hanging lights.

    There were also some trains that you could go inside.  The train above had an ice cream shop inside.

    The ice cream shop had a disco ball inside to make everything even more fun. They also had Big Mamma cookbooks for sale. The Big Mamma group owns and operates many restaurants across Europe including La Felicita.

   La Felicita takes up 48,000 square feet of space. The rest of the almost 370,000 square foot Station F is taken up by offices for small business start-ups.

 

    Outside the main entrance to Station F stands the giant legs of L'Arc. L'Arc stands about 36 feet tall. La Felicita is located at the opposite end of Station F.

   Back inside La Felicita we decided to figure out what we wanted to eat and found a seat in between the trains and plants and hanging art.

    The restaurants are all cashless and you have to scan a QR code to order and pay from a menu. This one restaurant had France's favourite private investigator holding a giant ice cream on a stick. It was Magnum holding a Magnum.

 

    La Felicita also hosts many event nights and often has deejays and other performers. The night we visited it was up to the crowd to entertain us. We visited on Karaoke night and were surprised by the mostly English music selections.

  There are plenty of drink and food options. One restaurant had a brightly lit wall highlighting its drink selection.

    Anyone can come inside and enjoy the decor of La Felicita. You don't have to eat or drink. If you find yourself passing this neighbourhood of Paris be sure to check out how new life has been brought to this giant space.

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Map of Our World
La Felicita

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Post # 338

Ted Lasso In Amsterdam

 

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Address: Raamgracht, 1011 KK
Date: May 2024
Website: iamsterdam.com

    Ted Lasso is a television show starring Jason Sedeikis as the title character. It is about an American college football coach who ends up coaching a British football team called AFC Richmond. In England, football is the same as American soccer. In season 3 episode 6, Ted Lasso's team take a trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We also found ourselves in Amsterdam and while we were there we visited a few of the filming locations from this episode.

 

Higgins & Will

    The first storyline we will look at follows Leslie Higgins, the Director of Football Operations, and Will the new equipment manager. Leslie brings Will to the Prins Hendrik Hotel to explain his love of jazz music.

    Leslie explains to Will that it was Chet Baker who got him interested in jazz. Chet Baker is a well known jazz trumpet player and singer who died at this hotel. Jeremy Swift who plays Leslie Higgins is also a skilled jazz player and he proves that later in the episode on the double bass. The monument that Higgins shows Will explains that Chet died here on May 13, 1988.

    Chet fell from a second floor window of the hotel. His photo has been placed in the window. He had a history of drug addiction and his death was ruled as an accident. Higgins says, "We only know this. Drugs are bad."

Jamie & Roy & Bond

   Roy Kent wants Jamie Tartt to get some training while in Amsterdam. Jamie Tartt is a new star on the team while Roy is a veteran player and now coach of AFC Richmond. Jamie makes Roy chase him around the city. One place they visit is a bridge known as Skinny Bridge or Magere Brug. This bridge only allows pedestrian and of course, bicycle traffic to cross.

 

    Jamie points out to Roy that this bridge was seen in the major motion picture, James Bond's Diamonds Are Forever. In that movie, a canal boat passes under the bridge while Mr Wint and Mr Kidd stand on top of it taking pictures. The boat tour gets a little more than they bargained for as they see the police fishing a body out of the river. That reminds us of a boat ride we took down the Thames in London, England. Mr Wint and Mr Kidd's comments lead us to believe that they are responsible for the body in the canal.

   When Roy politely asks Jamie to stop for a second they are at the boat cruise stations beside the Rokin Canal.  Rondvaart in Dutch means cruise. There is another Bond connection here as the Rederij P. Kooij tour company provided the canal boat for Diamonds Are Forever.

    Even better, the exact boat is still operating. It changed its name from Prins Willem-Alexander to Koning Willem-Alexander when the real Prince Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands in 2013. The boat can be found in the Rokin canal next to the little Dutch elephant with long, yellow braids.

  Roy Kent catches his breath while sitting down on one of the concrete posts in front of the Diamond Factory. He sits on the last post which can just barely be seen (in the photo above) on the far right, between the planter and the street light. It is here that he points at the Diamond Factory windmill and declares that all windmills are fake.

    Jamie decides to round up some bicycles and go and find a windmill. It turns out that Roy has never learned to ride a bike so Jamie teaches him in front of the Allard Pierson Museum. After a little frustation, a few falls and a thrown bike, Roy finally gets the hang of it. The pair goes off in search of a real windmill.

Colin & Trent

  The next storyline follows another AFC Richmond player named Colin. He leaves the rest of the team at the hotel deciding what to do and heads out into Amsterdam by himself. He ends up at a gay bar named Prik and runs out when Trent Crimm, a reporter who is writing a book about the team, sees him there. Trent tells Colin that he knows his secret and they end up sitting at the edge of the canal near Westerkerk (the Western Church). When the bells of the church toll, Trent mentions that Anne Frank heard those same bells every night.

     Colin says she lived very close to this big pink triangle. They are sitting in front of Homomonument which was placed here in 1987. It commemorates gays and lesbians who are persecuted because of their sexual orientation.

 

Rebecca & The Man With A Houseboat

    The final storyline has Rebecca, the owner of AFC Richmond, going for a stroll through Amsterdam. She stops on this bridge where Groenburgwal canal meets Raamgracht canal because she answers a phone call.

    You can see the houses behind her. The light purple one on the left really stands out.

    As bicycles whiz past Rebecca, a man on the houseboat on the left whistles at her and says, "I have to say something to this beautiful woman."

 

     A bike rider comes close to hitting her and Rebecca loses her balance. She flips over the railing and into the canal.What is it that the mystery man wanted to tell her?  "You're walking in the bike lane."

    Rebecca gets out of the canal and the mystery man welcomes her into his houseboat. She takes a shower while her clothes dry and ends up enjoying a nice dinner and a few drinks. Her and the mystery man end up spending the night talking and having a great time. The next day she joins the rest of the team on their bus. Everyone from Ted Lasso had a great time in Amsterdam and so did we.

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Map of Our World
Roy Kent Learns To Ride A Bike , Rebecca Falls In The Canal

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Post # 337