Sunday, May 20, 2012

Steam Train Nirvana

by Karsten

Here is a concept that would get you pretty close to Axel's ideal amusement park:
  1. Take a medium sized park with lots of grass and tall trees
  2. Have a ridable full sized steam strain circumnavigate the park every 5 minutes
  3. Equip the train station with a generous assortment of Thomas the Train paraphernalia 
  4. Have a pavillion in the middle of the park with a 15 person German brass band playing oompa-oompa music non-stop   
If you are thinking about building a park like this, don't bother because it already exists: Poway Midland Railroad Park. Today Axel and I made the 25 min. drive to Poway to check out this wonderous place. We were not disappointed.


  

For those that don't know, Axel talks about trains just about every.....well...all the time. Despite this most of his experiences with trains is of the toy variety. Today Axel saw his first real steam train and his reaction was a mixture of excitement, trepidation and utter bafflement. I don't think he was really prepared for all the noise, steam and loud choo-chooing. 

Here is Axel seeing the train at first: 


  Tickets are $2 for adults and $1 for kids. Here is Axel and me on the train:


It had never occurred to me before today, but traditional Bavarian music fits quite nicely with steam trains. Judge for yourself:


All in all, a great Sunday outing.

2 comments:

  1. Hahahaha! This is awesome :).

    The whole bit: The footage of Axel watching a REAL train for the first time is, of course, priceless. Then you guys riding it (cute). And to top it all off you mention that traditional Bavarian music actually goes well with steam trains, hahaha. Thanks Karsten.

    I'll either always think of trains any time we'll eat at Kaiserhof in the future (speaking of...), or "hear" Bavarian hoempa music inside my head when I'm playing with Thomas. Or both (help). Perception - it's all in the eye of the beholder dudes.... :)

    The Axeltime blog totally rocks. Screw FB.

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  2. Oh and btw - next time, I wanna come with ;) Choo-chooooooo (oompahoompa, oompa hoompa)

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