Shocking statement of the decade: I’m one of those readers who like to blur the line between fantasy and reality. When I read about a particularly dreamy setting, my internal voice turns into Liz Lemon, whispering, I want to go to there.
I’ve been lucky enough to fulfill a few of those bookish travel dreams in the past ten years. I visited the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco because the October Daye series told me I could enter a faery knowe by crossing the Moon Bridge. I searched for selkie stories on the Aran Islands, just as David Thomson did in People of the Sea: A Journey in Search of the Seal Legend. And I did my best to push the trapped shopping cart the rest of the way through Platform 9 ¾ in London’s King’s Cross Station.
Er, the magical auras in this spot tend to mess with photographic quality.
But my literary bucket list is still giving me a major case of wanderlust, and I’ve decided to make it my New Decade’s Resolution to experience at least a few of the following book-inspired adventures in the next ten years.
Postcards from La-La Land 
So far one of my best literary adventures was going to the lake country of England and having a Swallows and Amazons themed boat tour with my family. We loved the Swallows and Amazons books. On that same trip we also went to Haworth and walked through the Bronte house and up onto the moor. Oh, and every time we go to London we visit whatever incarnation of 221B Baker Street has been set up as we love that particular combination of fiction and reality.
The lake district and moors sound wonderful! I have an indirect fondness for the Swallows and Amazons books because the main character in Kit Pearson’s Awake and Dreaming was so enchanted by them.
Holy Cumberbatch, I can’t believe I forgot about the 221B museum! My personal Sherlock Holmes tour would have to include a side trip to the prehistoric ruins in Dartmoor. There was something so cool about the idea of Sherlock camping out in one of the stone dwellings in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
What a good idea for a bucket list. I need to plan more of my travel around books. The Fairy Tale Route sounds amazing. 🙂
Thank you! It’s all part of my master plan to insinuate books into every aspect of life. 😈
Sadly, I don’t have anywhere I would like to go. I guess I read too many fantasy novels or science fiction novels that take place off world or in an alternate version of Earth. Now, I will say this, I’m adding some of your spots to my travel list. Who knows, maybe there will be a writer’s retreat at one of the hotels some day! One can hope and dream and plan. 😀
Yes!! We need to do a trip to the bookish beach hotel. Lici and I may have to fight for the Harry Potter room, though 😄
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