Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Relax like a royal at European green spaces
Put your weary feet up in Luxembourg Garden, a picturesque area to recharge in Paris. It’s a busy but still relaxing place. the city — sit on a foundation of history. These inviting green spaces, once the domain of kings, are now the sunbathing grounds of commoners. Hyde Park, a 600-acre expanse in western London, was originally Henry VIII’s hunting grounds. Today, it’s the perfect place for museumed-out tourists to play and run free; it’s filled with lush greenery — along with paddleboats, a lakeside swimming pool, rental bikes, a tennis court and a putting green. On Sundays beginning around midday, visit Hyde Park’s Speaker’s Corner to see grassroots democracy in action. Here you’ll hear all sorts of passionate souls rant and rave about goings-on — and hecklers with opposing viewpoints.
Adjacent to Hyde Park, beautiful Kensington Gardens was once the private playground for royals living in Kensington Palace. It’s ideal for strolling, with memorials, fountains, statues (including a bronze Peter Pan) and a Peter Pan-themed play area for the kids.
West of London is Kew Gardens, with 300 acres and 33,000 types of plants. For a quick visit, spend a fragrant hour wandering through three buildings: the Palm House, a humid Victorian world of iron, glass and tropical plants; a Waterlily House that Monet would swim for; and the Princess of Wales Conservatory, a meandering modern greenhouse growing countless cacti, bugmunching carnivorous plants and more.
Spain’s second-biggest city is a crowded tourist mecca — but you’ll find respite in its biggest, greenest space — Citadel Park — an oasis of wide pathways, verdant trees and grass, and a zoo. Originally the park was the site of a much-hated military citadel, a symbol of Spanish rule over Catalunya. In 1888, Barcelona transformed the fort for a Universal Exhibition (world’s fair). The stately Triumphal Arch at the top of the park served as the fair’s main entrance — symbolically celebrating the citadel’s removal. Enjoy an ornamental fountain that the young Antoni Gaudi, the city’s most famous Modernist architect, helped design; consider a jaunt in a rental rowboat on a lake; and take in the tropical Umbracle greenhouse and the Hivernacle winter garden.
Sometimes Americans pack too much into their itineraries. Relax — you’re on the other side of the world playing games in a continental backyard. Enjoy Europe’s green spaces to catch your breath, get away from the crowds, and hear yourself think.