The English Gardens

By Kelly Enright

With yesterday’s warm weather, Jenn, Mary and I decided to visit Munich’s famous English Gardens. To put it simply, the gardens are a very large amount of grass, trees, a stream and walking paths that the Germans like to enjoy on sunny days. There is plenty of space to lay down a towel and hang out with friends by the water, or even play Frisbee, volleyball or soccer. One can also walk along the many paths and stop for a scoop (or two, as I prefer) of ice cream. Now while this is all very beautiful, I had quite a shocking experience.

In Germany, nudity is far more accepted than in the States. While I have no problem with my body or even nudity in pictures and in some movies, an old man walking with his private parts flopping around is not my idea of what I enjoy doing on a sunny day. There were people lying around all over the place without any clothes on, and they definitely were not trying to hide what God gave them.

I think the thing that surprised me most is there were children running around within feet of these unclothed beings. Now I think that they should be able to have fun in the sun, and I understand this is normal in Germany. However, I certainly was not raised to see old naked people just baring it all in a public park. I feel that I could continue to rant about my very eye-opening (well in this case, they should have been closed!) experience, but I would begin to sound more ignorant than necessary.

So this was my little experience with the English Gardens. If you plan to head to a public park, either prepare yourself and your companions for quite a vision or don’t go. Because those people and their body parts certainly weren’t leaving for me. And they shouldn’t have to, because that is their culture. Maybe I will just manage to steer clear of that park next time I need something to do on a sunny day.