Monday 23rd Feb: Balboa Park

This has to be one of the most stunning parks anywhere. It’s the USA’s largest urban cultural park and was created in 1915 to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal. It contains 15 major museums, performing arts venues, beautiful gardens, and the San Diego Zoo.

This is the impressive central mall.

Along this elegant walkway one passes magnificent buildings in the classical Spanish style, for example.

Some of the gardens run beside the mall. This one contains geometric beds and small fountains that reminded us of the Alhambra in Granada. All part of California’s Spanish heritage: just as well it wasn’t the Egyptians or they’d all be slabby pyramids.

This is another view, looking from the main mall to the orchid house that is our next port of call.

My photos can’t do justice to the huge variety of orchids on display. This is probably as close as it gets with this starfish orchid. That’s my description of it- I don’t really know what it’s called and it wasn’t labelled. It’s one of over 22,000 different orchid species in the world so my internet info tells me, so your chances of guessing the right one are about the same as winning the lottery.

It was such a lovely day we decided to stay outside rather than visit the museums, so more gardens now, the Japanese Friendship Garden. It’s sponsored by Yokohama city, which is San Diego’s sister city and hence the ‘Friendship’ bit of its name. The object is to create a space of tranquillity through harmony. This is a good example using a stream, rocks and a bridge. Might there be a modern designer who could create this sort of serenity using plastic bags, used beer cans and a gutter?

The Japanese Garden was created with the rest of the park in 1915 but at a different location and with a Japanese tea house. This was run successfully by a local Japanese family for 30 years, until 1942, when all United States residents of Japanese origin were interned following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941.The garden and tea house was revived in 1955 at its present site with the involvement of the city of Yokohama.

Now another delicate and expected element- bonsai. This is one of the many tiny trees on show in a wooden arbour.

The main garden trees weren’t generally in blossom, to show the garden at its best, but we came across one that was so gives some idea of how it would look. The garden is built on different, steep levels, which adds to the idea of being immersed in a peaceful setting. You also need to watch you don’t end up at the bottom of the peaceful setting sooner than you planned.

We walked back through the main thoroughfare of the Park to catch the bus back to the campsite, stopping to take in just one more beautiful Spanish-style view.

This had been a delightful day out, and we could have spent many more days discovering the Park’s numerous other attractions.