Our family recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Paris, Rome, and Munich. It was a great chance to get a taste of the treasures and wonders of these incredible cities. In Paris, we visited the Sacre Coeur Basilica , the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomph. We ate scrumptious dinners in sidewalk cafes each evening and sampled bread from boulangeries all around the city. In Rome, we toured the Colosseum, the Vatican, and St. Peter’s Basilica; gazed up at the Sistine Chapel ceiling; climbed the Spanish Steps, made a wish at Trevi Fountain, and stuffed ourselves with exquisite pasta dishes. In Munich, we saw the marionette show in the Marienplatz and browsed the market stalls in the Viktualienmarkt. A real highlight was a day trip from Munich to Salzburg, Austria for a Sound of Music tour.

But for me, some of the most enjoyable hours of the trip were those I spent wandering aimlessly around Munich's English Garden. And oasis of green at the edge of this bustling German town, the Englischer Garten (opened in 1792) spans over 900 acres and features woodlands, ponds, bubbling streams, waterfalls, open fields, and of course, its iconic white gazebo. In the poem below, Richard Aldington expresses well the happy peace I felt while roaming the English Garden’s beautiful grounds.

How grateful I am to all those who have envisioned, created, and maintained natural oases such as this one even as the world around them went on cutting down, paving over, and building up the artifices of urbanization.

Au Vieux Jardin

by Richard Aldington (1892-1962)

I have sat here happy in the gardens,
Watching the still pool and the reeds
And the dark clouds
Which the wind of the upper air
Tore like the green leafy boughs
Of the divers-hued trees of late summer;
But though I greatly delight
In these and the water-lilies,
That which sets me nighest to weeping
Is the rose and white color of the smooth flag-stones,
And the pale yellow grasses
Among them.