Same with the area around Golden Gate Park in SF, being close to so much well-maintained and curated nature is delightful. The place is a real treasure.
The words "well-maintained" and "curated" don't usually rhyme very well with "nature", IMO. Real nature is by definition unmaintained. When it's maintained it becomes a park/garden, and loses more or less all its diversity. Fine, if you just want to look at some green leaves (which is great in a city) but we shouldn't call it nature just because something is alive there.
Berlin has trees. I find it really dreary though. I clearly perceived some sort of “guilt heaviness” that pervades the area, with world war 2 monuments scattered around. I got a vibe that because a lot of people are children of people who were Nazis, they felt bad even though they didn’t personally commit the war crimes. It was pretty startling honestly coming from Northern California. Landing at SFO felt like returning to heaven.
