The Metro Transit Green Line opens on June 14, linking Minneapolis to St. Paul via light rail. Among the trains’ 21 stops are several gems worth (re)discovering close to the tracks.
1. Witch’s Hat Water Tower
The 110-foot Witch’s Hat in Tower Hill Park pokes up from the hillside looking just as its name suggests. The tower’s observation deck is open only once each year (the first Friday after Memorial Day), but its base offers a secluded, meditative space and fantastic city views.
2. Global Eats
The intersection of Raymond and University avenues offers a global potluck between Foxy Falafel, Keys Café & Bakery, and the Dubliner Pub, which hosts live music six nights a week and Irish dance lessons on Wednesdays.
3. Ax-Man Surplus Store
The Snelling shop has long delighted oddity lovers, inventors, and artists with its under-one-roof assortment of hardware, doodads, and party-favor-caliber weirdness. Where else can you buy both circuit components and, at one time, famously, an inflatable airplane evacuation slide?
4. Capitol
The Capitol is hardly hidden, but it’s an often-forgotten spot for an afternoon immersed in Minnesota history. Hourly free tours cover art and architecture—with visits to the legislative and Supreme Court chambers and, weather permitting, the gold-leafed rooftop quadriga chariot.
5. Union Depot
This gorgeously restored, early 20th-century rail station is once again an important transit hub, with free tours once a week—plus proximity to Lowertown and the farmers’ market.
