An empty road winds through bucolic farmland in the green Waikato region of New Zealand. I don’t pass another soul for twenty minutes and then, suddenly I drive around a bend and there’s a hive of activity! By which I mean 20 people (New Zealand is never very crowded) enjoying […]
I received a Christmas card from my mother-in-law in New Zealand that features a postmark “From Middle Earth”. Does that give you an idea of how big a deal the filming of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movie series was for New Zealand? The landscapes of this little […]
This Spring or Summer spend a golden afternoon with in Oxford, discovering the magical world of Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll with the Mad Hatter Oxford. Where else to discover the real inspiration behind the Alice in Wonderland books than in the English university town of Oxford? And who […]
Readers of my blog will know that I love to walk in the footsteps of my favourite authors and witness the settings of favourite novels. From Dickens and Shakespeare to Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Alice’s Oxford, stepping into the shoes of literary heroes and places described in novels is […]
The Judas Trees bloom in April surrounding the Alhambra. With purple blossom glowing in the warm air of springtime in southern Spain, and the cool snows of the Sierra Nevada as a backdrop. I think this collection of broken towers, palaces, dungeons and gardens is one of the most Romantic places […]
Toledo’s most famous resident is a fictional one. Just 70 kilometres or half an hour by immaculate fast train from Madrid’s Atocha Station, Toledo is a magnificent historic city known for many things, but perhaps most of all for Cervantes’ anti-hero Don Quixote. So take a walk with me through […]
Watching The Sound of Music was part of my childhood. It was often on television around Christmastime each year and I knew the songs off by heart. When I finally got a chance to visit Salzburg and see the Austrian setting where the von Trapp family drama took place it […]
Connections with great literature are rife in Oxford, and make for a wonderful theme to base your exploration of this beautiful city with its golden stone facades and historic ‘dreaming spires’. Perhaps the city of Oxford in the United Kingdom surely offers one of the richest seams of literary travel experiences anywhere […]
Are you planning Myanmar travel or just interested in this fascinating south-east Asian country emerging from half a century of oppression and isolation? I did a lot of reading around my trip to Myanmar and here are the 7 books I recommend travellers should read, either before, during or after […]
You may not have heard of the Wiltshire village of Lacock in England but I can almost guarantee you have seen it, or part of it! The village is almost entirely owned by the English National Trust (a heritage organisation that protects historic buildings and landscapes), all but about six […]
Hi, I'm Natasha von Geldern and I'm here to share travel inspiration based on books I've read and films I've seen. If you're a book nerd or a film geek, this is the blog for you!
