meadow

He visited every bookshop that carried melancholy German poetry in translation, and every art gallery that showed sentimental watercolors of mountain lakes and alpine meadows.

Sheep-dotted meadows were hardly a novelty to three English children who lived on a country estate, but seeing the landscape flick by through the windows of a fast-moving train certainly was, and they were captivated.

But instead of Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, the illustrations showed crystal-blue alpine lakes and edelweiss-covered meadows populated with snow larks, mountain hares, and other wildlife of that Swiss ilk.

As the title promised, the volume was lavishly illustrated with thumbnail-sized watercolor paintings, most of which depicted wildflower meadows and snowcapped mountain peaks.

The road cuts through a thick oak forest and opens briefly near a meadow where sturdy and patient Basque horses graze and pose for photos with passers-by, mostly Camino pilgrims.