Blogger: Rachel Kent
I have many travel dreams that are born from books I’ve read and that I hope to fulfill someday. I have been to quite a few places in my life, but currently travel isn’t as easy with young children and a very busy daily life.
I would like to travel to England because of Jane Austen’s books. I’d love to see Bath, the province of Kent, the Lake District, London and many other locations. I have seen some of author Julie Klassen’s pictures of her travels, and it looks so fun! I’m not sure I’m ready to dress in a regency gown and go to a ball, but I could watch and clap from the sidelines. Some of our agents (not me this time) are going to tour England with Julie this year. It should be grand!
I also would love to go to Prince Edward Island because of the Anne of Green Gables books and Liz Johnson’s Prince Edward Island Dreams series. What a beautiful place it must be! L.M. Montgomery and Liz Johnson paint a wonderful picture of the timeless island in their books.
Robin Jones Gunn’s Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes made me want to travel to the Netherlands. I want to see the fields of tulips, Amsterdam and Corrie ten Boom’s Hiding Place. An added bonus to traveling to the Netherlands would be to see my husband’s extended family. My mother-in-law was born in Holland.
I have many other lofty travel dreams, but I’ll go ahead and admit this lowly wish: I would like to go to the Universal Studios Wonderful World of Harry Potter someday. Not nearly as beautiful as the Lake District or Prince Edward Island, I’m sure, but it looks like a fun experience, and I did enjoy those books.
I got to experience Maui, Hawaii while on my honeymoon. I had dreamed of going to Maui since I was a young teenager and read Robin Jones Gunn’s Christy Miller Series. I knew of many places to go on the island because of the books and loved experiencing the famous road to Hana that Christy drove when her boyfriend Todd was stung by a bee.
How about you? What books have inspired travel dreams for you?
Have you traveled anywhere because of a book?
Have you been to any of my dream locations listed above? Anything I should know?
What an interesting post, Rachel. I will gladly join you on your trek to Prince Edward Island.
*Let me add another side to this discussion. Every summer, my father would pack the family into the car and hit the road. We saw America. When I read books that are set in places I’ve been, it is a trip back: I see the cotton fields, the ocean waves, the mountain cabins, the bustling cities and broad vistas in books the same way I saw them in life — a road twice traveled.
Rachel, I’ve always wanted to visit PEI. The series of Anne books brought that place to life in my mind’s eye.
*Robin Jones Gunn’s sisterchicks book that takes place in Helsinki makes me want to visit there.
There are other places I’d love to visit too, but these two are high on my list.
*Rachel Hauck’s royals series takes place in an imaginary island in Europe…she’s written it in such a way that I’d love to visit that too.
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot
* Earlier in life I rather fancied myself a Ulysses – “I cannot rest from travel, I will drink life to the lees…” – and much of that peripatetic bent was fueled by books.
* What I did not realize is that every traveller is seeking something he or she has lost, and that the main part of the journey is not the pursuit of that chimerical grail, but the discovery of its identity. And that identity may be beyond words.
* I’ve been remarkably fortunate; life and illness have led me to a hermitage atop a mesa, and I cannot now leave except in greatest need (last time I went anywhere was to vote, last November). My travels are proscribed by a failing body, but I’ve finally found the heart’s peace that allows me to live each day with gratitude and, I hope, some measure of good humour.
Andrew,
Your gratitude and good humor shine through everything you write. Your words and perspective enrich and deepen my thinking.
Peggy, thank you so very, very much.
Your attitude is so amazing, Andrew. I love your positive perspectives even in the midst of your struggles.
And your situation brings to mind another reason to love books! They can take us places we cannot go.
Thank you so much, Rachel…and you’re right, that books carry me to the places that I can never again visit.
I’ve gone on more than thirty 2-week camping trips, visiting every state except RI, CT, AK, and HI. We took the kids camping in every state in the lower 48 west of the Mississippi, logging 2K-5K miles each trip. We’ve been to Hawaii, but we didn’t drive the pick-up there. Business trips took me to big cities, so I can visualize many US book locations. It’s been pure pleasure to see so much of the US, and it makes books set in places I’ve seen more fun.
*For my own writing, I’d love to visit the museums in Europe that have Roman exhibits, especially Naples with its Pompeii displays, and the Roman archeological sites. Many museums have online tours, but it’s not the same as seeing the real thing from many angles.
*If I had a time machine, I most definitely would NOT go back to visit the Roman Empire. It would be easy enough to travel on the legion-build stone roads or sail the Mediterranean, but I have no desire to spend time in a society where human life was held so cheaply. I do love writing about how people are pulled out of the darkness by the light of Jesus held out by the Christians who take risks to help them.
I adore camping and road trips around the US! I am looking forward to having a slightly older family so we can do more adventuring!
We started when our son was 4 and our daughter 2.5. Small ones travel and camp easily.
Carla Laureano’s book Five Days in Skye made me want to go to Scotland. I even toured her locations through Google Earth. And I loved the Harry Potter series. I only saw the movies, but my girls read the books too. We went to Universal Studios … and the Wonderful World of Harry Potter did not disappoint. It was marvelous. The rides–amazing. Grand. I want to go back. 🙂
Thanks! Can’t wait to go someday. 🙂
And Scotland sounds wonderful!
Rachel, here’s an aural trip to Scotland – Paul McCartney and Wings, with ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5626WzsfMw
Oh, I forgot about that one! I really enjoyed Five Days in Skye.
Oh yes, Prince Edward Island for sure. I read all 8 Anne books and would so love to go. Ireland, thanks to BJ Hoff. The Shire… but I’d settle for New Zealand. I researched several novellas that my publisher wanted in specific settings and after learning all about ancient theme parks, the little mermaid, Danish Danishes (spoiler alert…the pastry originated in Austria!) the Elgin Marbles, Greek butter cookies, the Parthenon, and a fascinating collection of caves…I now have Athens and Copenhagen on my list … and Siberia, but that is a different story. I too would love to go to Hogwarts and Lori Wick as well as Jane Austin made me long to tour England. I’m so glad that we have books, so that even when our kiddos are little and purses are tight, we can still go on adventures.
I’ve been to PEI quite a few times, and Hubs and #4 were there last weekend for hockey. Trust me, go in the summer.
We live about 3 hours from the Confederation Bridge that links New Brunswick to PEI. Fly here first, and then you and the gang can borrow my van. Mid – July to mid-August is warmest, but from Labour Day on, the prices for everything drop like crazy. September there is gorgeous.
When I read Jeanette Windle’s books set in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and the jungles of Bolivia and Colombia, I wanted to go there. And a few years later, I did!! I had been to the Amazon long before I read her books, but her storyworld was so exact I think I was sweating, just reading the books.
Oooh … I’m writing an article right now over the Amazon. 🙂
The bugs were HUUUUUUUUUUUGE.
So were the green tree pythons.
The Amazon would be too much for me. I hate bugs and snakes. 🙂 You are truly an adventurous soul.
Most of our exotic travel took place to research or promote my novels, so that has been a most delightful result of my writing. However, for the past 14 years, having been immersed in intense daily parent care, my husband and I have had our wings clipped. Still, we have scheduled and enjoyed some lovely vacations, but we have learned to live day by day without hoping too much for the freedom to follow our dreams.
Yes, there are times in life for travel and times for staying home. I’m in a stay home time, too. But if we look for it, we can find the joy God brings to every day. 🙂 And there are books to take us places we can’t go.
Absolutely, Rachel. And what an upbeat, spirit-renewing way to look at it! Thank you!
I’ve been to England, a four-day visit to the Salisbury Plains, including Stonehenge, Bath, and other places. Alas, when I was in London another time it was for a week of business, and didn’t see much except from Heathrow to Basingstoke on a bus. Need to get to Yorkshire and the Cotswolds to see where my ancestors came from. As far as anything to know: don’t drink the spa water in the restaurant at Bath. It’s not worth what they charge you.
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We went to the Harry Potter world exhibits in Universal Studios in Orlando, about 8 years ago. Enjoyed the Three Broomsticks. I understand it’s much expanded since then.
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At the moment, I’m drawing a blank of traveling to places inspired by reading. Maybe St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. Enjoyed what I read about them in Nicholas and Alexandra and Herman Wouk’s Winds of War and the sequel.
As a kid, I read Osa Johnson’s “I Married Adventure,” which was about she & her husband, Martin, going to Africa. That started the dream. God orchestrated events … One evening, I got a call from a recruiter: “Would I …?”
My wife, pregnant w/our 2nd child, said yes (a miracle in itself)! Eleven mos. later, I began a 2-year contract working–in my field–in a southern African country.
What experiences, plus great opportunities for ministry! Subsequent to that, I’ve had other opportunities for contract work abroad. Also, lots of material for a book or two, much of which I already have written.
I was born on the Autobahn, and that was only the beginning of my travels. Both my father and my husband were career active duty (30 and 26 years, respectively). We thoroughly explored the environs wherever we were stationed. Europe is small enough that this meant multiple countries when stationed there.
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As much as I loved seeing new places and things, and as much as I appreciate my upbringing, my dream was always to settle down and NOT travel. Now that my husband is retired, I like to think my dream’s come true. To be honest though, we still travel the country to visit friends and family.
Elissa said: > “I was born on the Autobahn”
WHAT?
Okay, I need to hear/read more of this story. Do tell…
I loved the sister chicks books and would have loved to travel with any of those fictional characters.
Reading the Bible, and the Zion series by Bodie Thoene made me want to travel to Israel. I’ve been blessed to go twice.
I read Susan Branch’s A Fine Romance – Falling in Love with the English Countryside and am inspired to travel to England, especially the Lake District.