This summer Wandering Kiwi Jr and I fulfilled a dream. We are both huge Sound of Music fans – me from childhood and, well, she is a child – so we decided to indulge our inner von Trapp and experience the ultimate Sound of Music tour Salzburg. I’ve been to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Oxford is full of amazing literary experiences and film references. Explore the city of dreaming spires with the Book Film Travel Oxford walking tour. After going on many Oxford walking tours over the years, this is the half day tour I have developed to show visitors my favourite things about […]
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 […]
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 […]
On a sultry London afternoon, descending into an underground space that is cold, dank, dirty, and full of dead bodies, is normally the last thing I would recommend. But the Kensal Green Cemetery in west London is worth a visit, both as a slice of 19th century history and as […]
Do you know what Butterbeer tastes like? Would you like to wander up Diagon Alley or see the cosy Gryffindor common room? Perhaps you fancy practising your wand skills or going for a ride on a broomstick? All this and more wonders await you at the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio […]