Miami Botanical Gardens and Holocaust Memorial

Discover and Explore- Miami

Florida is home to some of the most coveted destinations in the nation with some of the greatest attractions and activities housed in central and south Florida, specifically Orlando, Key West, and Miami. Of course, of all the cities in Florida, Miami is one of the most visited vacation destinations in the world. Miami is a tapestry woven together of culture, history, and people.

Miami Beach Botanical Gardens- Flora and Fauna

The botanical gardens immerse visitors into a tropical and dreamy sanctuary amongst the palm trees and the oasis.

While the gardens are not massive, they are free, and they are a great place to stop in for a visit. They offer guided garden tours or self-guided. We did the self-guided tour, and one of the personable staff members who run the tours gave us some fascinating facts about flora and fauna at the gardens and information about the surrounding areas while we were visiting the city.

We were able to see several iguanas roaming about which completely startled me when I saw just how fast they run and how big they are. We also saw turtles, lizards, and butterflies.

The Asian gardens were my favorite part of the botanical gardens. In the Asian gardens, there is Koi fish, a lily pond, bamboo trees and butterflies. I loved the unusual winding trees and the red arched bridge.

I enjoyed all of the flowers and trees that covered the grounds. The Ylang-Ylang tree, Plumeria, and Honeysuckles are so aromatic as they blow in the wind.

Miami Beach Botanical Garden is located next to the Holocaust Memorial so you’ll definitely want to check out the memorial after.

Miami Holocaust Memorial- Deeply Moving and Haunting

Visiting the Holocaust Memorial is a deeply moving and deeply haunting experience. Stepping onto the grounds, I felt like I was whisked away in time to a place of great mourning and complete despair.

The four-story monument that erupts out of the ground encompasses hundreds of human bodies emerging, writhing in agony. There are statues of grieving mothers holding their children close to their heart, crying children and emaciated bodies. Everything placed is so detailed and important to educate us on the history that was the Holocaust, and it’s an emotional experience. The memorial elicits the raw human emotion in us all as you walk back through time.

Walking through the archway, you can hear music playing that really heightens the intensity of everything. You can see names and pictures and stories inscribed on the walls. In the circular memorial, they have heart-wrenching monuments and displays of families, men and women, and innocent children whose faces are twisted in agony and you can almost hear the screams. The memorial pays homage to the more than six million Jews who were held in concentration camps and massacred in Auschwitz.

I’ve always believed with all my heart that anguish is a universal language.

With All My Love,
The Vintage Gypsy

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”