Tag: England

Lacock Abbey- www.afriendafar.com #england #lacockabbey #harrypotter

Film Inspired Travel in England

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Inspiration for travel can come in so many different shapes and forms. Hearing stories from fellow travelers, photos of beautiful places, learning the history of faraway places, and looking through magazines. One way I’m inspired is by books I’ve read and TV series and movies I’ve watched. Visiting England and specifically the countryside had been on my list for a while- in large part because of my love of Jane Austen books and films. When planning the trip, my sister and I mapped out our must see houses and sights to visit. Here are a few to keep in mind if you’re visiting Europe soon and are interested in film inspired travel in England:

Film Inspired Travel in England- www.afriendafar.com #england #UK #Britain

Jane Austen Sights

jane austen house

The first Jane Austen sight we visited was the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton. It’s open every day from 10:30am to 4:30pm and is the only house Jane lived in that is open to the public. It’s where she spent the last 8 years of her life – during the time period when Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma were published. In nearby Winchester, visit the beautiful Gothic cathedral founded in 1079 to see where she is buried.

Bath's Circus- www.afriendafar.com #bath #england #circus

Bath is a fantastic city to visit if you’re a Jane Austen fan since the author lived there, and two of her novels, Northanger Abbey (my favorite) and Persuasion, were set in this historic city. Go on a self-guided walking tour of the city to see the streets and buildings Jane writes about and be sure not to miss the Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths, the Circus (pictured here), and the Assembly Rooms. We actually skipped the Jane Austen Centre except for poking around the gift shop since we’d already visited the House Museum and wanted more time for our walk.

Great Houses of Pride & Prejudice

Chatsworth House- www.afriendafar.com #chatsworthhouse #janeausten #england

Next we started our tour of the great houses of England, including the Chatsworth House, used in film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. The Chatsworth House is located in Derbyshire in the Peak District and was used as Pemberley in the 2005 movie. It is thought that Jane Austen based her idea of Pemberley on the Chatsworth House while writing the novel. Interestingly enough, the house is mentioned by name in the book as one of the estates Elizabeth Bennet visits before arriving at Pemberley.

princess bride house

Next we went to Haddon Hall in Peak District National Park. It was used in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice as the Inn at Lambton, in the 2011 version of Jane Eyre and Prince Humperdinck’s castle in The Princess Bride. The outside of the medieval manor house is stunning, but it was also fun to stroll through the interior and the gorgeous Elizabethan gardens set next to a picturesque river.

Lyme Park- www.afriendafar.com- #lymepark #janeausten #england

Our final Jane Austen film site was Lyme Park in the Peak District. It was used in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and has amazing grounds to wander around. There’s a beautiful rose garden, and you can see the reflecting lake where Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy met Elizabeth Bennett. If you’re super fans like we are, you can also go for walk in the field to see the pond Darcy emerged from. When we were there it happened to be the 200th anniversary of the book’s publication, therefore to celebrate there was a giant Darcy in the lake!

Downton Abbey

Highclere Castle- www.afriendafar.com #england #highclerecastle #downtonabbey

We visited England at the height of the Downton Abbey series craze, so of course we had to make a stop at Highclere Castle. We arrived too late to tour the inside of the house, but walking around the grounds and gardens admiring the house was perfect. It was also lovely that we went to the little shop to buy a cup of tea to sip while admiring the beauty of the house! [Photo: Laura Brown]

Harry Potter

Harry Potter Platform- www.afriendafar.com #london england #harrypotter

No visit to England would be complete without seeing a couple of Harry Potter filming sites. King’s Cross Station in London is an easy place to pop over to while you’re out and about in the city for a nice photo op at Platform 9 and 3/4.

Lacock Abbey- www.afriendafar.com #england #lacockabbey #harrypotter

En route to Bath, you can also make a nice stop at the picturesque village of Castle Combe to visit National Trust property Lacock Abbey, used as a filming site in the first two and sixth Harry Potter films as Hogwarts. The Abbey’s side rooms and cloisters were used as classrooms and halls of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was also used as filming sites for movies and TV shows including the 1995 BBC Pride & Prejudice, Cranford, and Downtown Abbey.

Do you have any other sites to add in England or elsewhere? How have books, movies and TV shows inspired your travel? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Stephanie at A Friend Afar

Stephanie grew up road-tripping across the U.S., but her first flight was to Australia, and she’s been hooked ever since. She lived abroad in Thailand, where she met Meagan, and in Ghana with Peace Corps and has been to over 30 countries on 6 continents. She travels for the adventure, the stories, and nature.

http://www.AFriendAfar.com
Quote of the Week- Pat Conroy Travel Quote- www.afriendafar.com #travelquote #haddonhall #england

Quote of the Week

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Quote of the Week- Pat Conroy Travel Quote- www.afriendafar.com #travelquote #haddonhall #england

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” Pat Conroy

Stephanie at A Friend Afar

Stephanie grew up road-tripping across the U.S., but her first flight was to Australia, and she’s been hooked ever since. She lived abroad in Thailand, where she met Meagan, and in Ghana with Peace Corps and has been to over 30 countries on 6 continents. She travels for the adventure, the stories, and nature.

http://www.AFriendAfar.com
The Joy of Getting Lost - Venice, Italy - www.AFriendAfar.com

The Joy of Getting Lost

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We put a lot of effort into not getting lost in our daily lives. We put even more effort into avoiding it while traveling.  We use the GPS apps on our phones. We take guided tours in foreign cities. We stop and ask for directions at every turn. We make sure to get from one important location to the next, and we take the easiest and the fastest way possible. We don’t even notice the buildings, the scenery, the restaurants, and the people who we’re rushing past. Sometimes, however, we get really, hopelessly lost.

Below, you’ll find two great reasons to enjoy those times when you’re not quite sure where you are and two of our favorite stories about what we’ve discovered when we’ve been lost. We hope they’ll inspire you to be both curious and calm when you can’t find your destination. Maybe they’ll even inspire you to put away the map and get intentionally lost!

Live like a local.

My husband and I honeymooned in Italy, and we were lucky enough to spend 5 days in Venice, far more than the typical tourist schedule of a quick day trip. We had just spent the last week and a half in Florence and Rome, checking off those must-see museums and historic sites. By the time we arrived in Venice, we were ready for a change of pace.

I know what you’re thinking. Venice is full to the brim with tourists! How could we possibly find a change of pace or any peace and quiet?

Once we checked into our darling bed and breakfast, which was wonderfully located away from the crowds on a quiet street and quiet canal, we made our way out into the city. Unlike every other tourist we met, though, we weren’t headed to the Rialto Bridge or the Piazza de San Marco. We weren’t even headed to Lido or the Guggenheim, Murano or Burano. We decided to just wander along through the alleys with no map in hand. We discovered empty streets that ended at canals lined with archways and window boxes overflowing with flowers. We found great bars where we enjoyed an aperol spritz and a gelato. We ate dinner in a great restaurant, and we honest to goodness didn’t hear anyone else speaking English. We watched beautiful boats pass singing gondoliers. We sat along the canal and watched daily life pass us by. We saw Venice, but we saw it without the rest of the summer crowds jostling past us.

Don’t worry. We had more than enough time to see everything that one goes to Venice to see. We even took time for a Vivaldi concert. That first day in Venice, however, was one of the best days of our trip.

Discover some place unexpected.

It’s one thing to set out with the intention of getting lost. Well, as lost as one can get on a small cluster of islands. It’s another thing altogether to have a limited amount of time and not be able to find the destination that you’re most excited about. This is what happened to my husband and I while we were in London.

To add to the stress of not being able to find the British Museum, we were chaperoning nine of his high school students on their first trip abroad. It was not an easy feat. You might be thinking, “How hard can it be to find one of the most popular museums in the world?!?” I would have agreed with you prior to our attempt to get there from whatever random spot we were dropped off at, but we were given wrong directions twice, and someone even said, “I don’t know which museum you’re talking about; they’re all British,” and he MEANT it. Yes, thank you very much. (I should note that we landed a few hours earlier, and neither my husband nor myself were at the top of our travel game because, as I mentioned, we were dragging nine exhausted teenagers behind us.)

This ended up being a great learning lesson for our students. We helped them step out of their comfort zone and ask for directions, and we also talked to them about how to stay optimistic and not get scared when things go wrong. But do you know what the best part of our extra long walk to the museum was? Just when our students said “we have no idea where we are,” we looked up to see a street sign. We were on Drury Lane! Yes, DRURY LANE where the MUFFIN MAN lives! It was the best detour ever!

The Joy of Getting Lost - London, England - www.AfriendAfar.com

So there you have it: some of our favorite stories from getting lost abroad. Do you have any similar stories? We’d love to hear about them! Tell us your favorite stories about getting lost in the comment section.

 

 

Meagan Martz at A Friend Afar

Meagan grew up in the North Georgia Mountains and spent her first trip abroad in Italy. She’s been traveling all over the world ever since, learning Spanish, Japanese, and Thai. She travels for the food, the culture, and the history.

http://www.AFriendAfar.com