I've been trying to do a lot of "I've lived in Cleveland but never ______" this summer; not so much 'bucket list' stuff, just I've been here long enough so there's no excuse. Until a month or so ago, I'd never been to an Indians game and then when the One World Festival was announced for the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, I thought it'd be a great time to finally check them out. The Cultural Gardens are located near University Circle, primarily along a 1.5 mile stretch along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard (main north-south artery), with some gardens connecting adjacent roads (East Blvd., etc.) as they have a terraced layout. The entire stretch represents the largest charitable contribution to Cleveland left by John D. Rockefeller.
Until recently, MLK was viewed as the quickest way from I-90 along the Lake to University Circle - a recent streetscaping made it more accessible for people wanting to visit the gardens. I'm hoping to go back to the gardens we missed sometime soon, but for now, here's what I saw. For more info, visit
http://www.culturalgardens.org/gardens.aspx
Obligatory skyline shot en route:
The Temple on East 105th, which has quite an interesting history:
One of the main features are the stone bridges along MLK Blvd. - this happens to be my hands-down favorite:
This bridge isn't too shabby, either
We made it to our first garden, the Irish Cultural Garden - note the layout is a Celtic Cross. I'm of Irish-German descent so this was a treat.
Croatian Garden - one of the 'next time, we'll spend more time' spots:
Shakespearean Garden entrance:
One of several grand homes along East Boulevard:
Over to the Hebrew Garden:
Not easy to see here, but the layout is in the Star of David:
Next up is the Hungarian Garden:
German Garden - wrapped up my ancestry in one trip
This is the largest statue in the Cultural Gardens:
More homes along East Boulevard:
A good friend sculpted a few of the pieces in the Lithuanian Garden:
One thing I really enjoyed about the festival was the occasional 'mash up' - see the Indian group? They're performing in the Greek Garden
Over to the statue of Dante in the Italian Garden - I loved the Italian Garden but that may have had something to do with the bar serving Peroni on a hot summer day
Next up, the Slovak Garden which is undergoing renovation - to their credit, the people there were in full-on traditional costume and happy to share the new plans as well as their history in Cleveland:
That's hand embroidered folks:
This was a first for the Gardens to have a full blown 'festival' - hope they do it next year (and the year after):
Another half-mile, another beautiful bridge:
Another sculpture - this is in the Azerbaijan Garden:
Next up is the Serbian Garden:
Shrine to Nikolai Tesla in the Serbian Garden:
At this point, we had to head back:
The African-American Garden - for now, a rendering - in the future, who knows?
Next door, the Ukrainian Garden:
Sculpture at the Latvian Garden - the cutout is the silhouette of a traditional Latvian woman's garb:
Next door is the Estonian Garden:
Next up is the Finnish Garden:
And of course, next to Finland is the Indian Garden
Probably my second favorite bridge along the route:
But of course, nothing beats this beauty - hope you enjoyed!
CLEVELAND - Around the World in the Cultural Gardens
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