While driving home to South Carolina from the Atlanta airport last week, I passed on an opportunity that has me kicking myself this week. Before leaving the terminal building, I carefully plugged “home” into my GPS and set out. However, while exiting the airport I found myself in the wrong lane with no prospect for getting myself over to the correct one before it was too late. Immediately, my GPS re-routed me adjusting my estimated travel time from 4 hours to 4 1/2 hours. I thought about taking an exit to turn myself around in an effort to get back to the airport and the original route. But, I decided 30 extra minutes was not going to make too huge of a dent in my day, so I settled in for the drive home.
Somewhere along I-20 heading towards Augusta, Georgia, I stopped for lunch – at Chick-fil-A, of course. (When in the South and when in Georgia in particular, right?) Once I got back on the road, my GPS changed its mind and decided that, indeed, I needed to head home via I-16 after all. It immediately took me off the interstate and began sending me south along some of Georgia’s back highways to I-16. The scenery was magnificent – all lush and green forests and fields. I was thoroughly enjoying my decision to just give myself over to the GPS’ whims until it directed me to make the sixth turn onto a different road. By this time, I was off state highways and driving along county roads. While I was driving on paved roads, they were roads with no markings painted on them.
I was starting to think about how far I was getting out in the “back woods” of Georgia on the route. Just about the time I was marveling that my phone was still streaming music in the middle of what felt like “No Where, Georgia,” Pandora lost its signal. As the GPS signal lost its map data, I began to wonder if we still carried a road atlas tucked back with the spare tire. I was probably not much more than an hour or so outside of the metro Atlanta area, but I had no idea where I was or where I was supposed to be going. I came to an intersection, and saw a sign wanting me to turn left for the “Original Whistle Stop Cafe.” The GPS wanted me to continue straight, so I paused for a moment to consider my options.
Much of the traveling Todd and I do tends to be influenced by books and movies. The list of places in the world I still want to see is heavily shaped by both books I read and films I saw decades ago, as well as more recent offerings. You can find many articles and blogs listing the “best movies and books to inspire travel,” and I’m not sure I know the “best” options, but I do know what has inspired my wanderlust over the years. My list is always a “working” list, and it is long. But here are a few of our favorite places we have been, and a few places where we intend to go, that have been inspired by books and movies:
Death on the Nile (1978)
Death on the Nile is one the first movies I remember seeing that made me want to see the story’s setting for myself. It’s an adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels. The plot involves the murder of a young newlywed heiress who is sailing with her new husband on a luxurious cruise down the Nile River. Naturally, all the passengers on board have a motive for the murder and Poirot must find the killer before the boat arrives at its destination.
Early in the movie, the heiress and her new husband tour sites in Egypt including the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the temples at Abu Simbel and Karnak, and I remember being mesmerized by the images on the screen as a young girl. I immediately wanted to travel to Egypt and see these wonders for myself, and I still do. In recent years, Egypt has been rife with political upheaval, demonstrations, and terrorist activity. Naturally, Egypt’s once popular tourism industry has taken a severe hit as a result. Lately I’m beginning to read articles about travelers slowly returning to the country, but travel warnings continue to caution against certain areas in Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula and the Western Desert. We will get there one day – maybe just not right now.
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Seriously, who doesn’t want to impulsively purchase a villa in Tuscany and painstakingly restore it? The entire plot of Under the Tuscan Sun is straight-up, middle-aged woman porn, and Diane Lane embodies the fantasy for all of us so well on the screen.
Tuscany is lavishly splashed across the screen all through the movie, and it is stunningly beautiful. But to me, the scene stealer in the movie is the Amalfi Coast. Once Frances visited Positano with Marcello, I knew where I was going. When Todd and I finally got there a couple of years ago, it absolutely lived up to my expectations. The Amalfi Coast is quite possibly one of the loveliest places we have ever visited.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1998)
I loved this book, and have wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail ever since I first read it. I love Bill Bryson’s sense of humor. He is a delight to read. I do have to say that I skipped over the movie that was released a few years ago based on A Walk in the Woods. It garnered mediocre reviews, and I had enjoyed the story so much that I didn’t want the movie to tarnish my memories of the book nor my ambition to hike along the trail one day.
Same Time, Next Year (1978)
Same Time, Next Year is a movie I’ve seen more times than I can count. If you can overlook the fact that the couple the story-line has you rooting for is actually engaged in an extra-marital affair, it’s a delightful comedy/drama film. Originally a Tony Award winning play, most of the movie’s scenes are staged as interiors. When the story finally moves the action outside, however, it is a spectacular view. The view took my breath away the first time I saw it, and it never left me.
The movie’s exteriors were filmed at Heritage House Inn in Little River, California which lies on the coast in Mendocino County. Today the inn is operating and actually features a “Same Time, Next Year” cottage available for booking. Todd and I stopped for a lovely breakfast and look around the grounds while on a trip along the Pacific Coast Highway. The views did not disappoint even all those many years later.
Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Although a television show rather than a movie, Game of Thrones delivers locations worth visiting and experiencing first hand like nothing else on the small screen. With filming locations that include Ireland, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, and Spain, visiting all the worthy locations featured on the show could be a full-time job. In fact an entire cottage industry of bloggers who are on the GoT trail has popped up everywhere. I’ve long wanted to travel to Croatia, and watching GoT has only served to heighten that desire in me. I look forward to when we finally get there one day soon. Who wouldn’t want to go to King’s Landing?
The Mystery of Mont Saint-Michel by Michel Rouzé (1955)
For as long as I can remember, my mom, a teacher, would tell us about Mont Saint-Michel. She’d learned about it from a children’s book she read with her second grade students. As I remember, she never really shared the book’s narrative with us so much, as she would just tell us about the power of the island’s tides. With a bit of research, I think I’ve narrowed down the book in question to The Mystery of Mont Saint-Michel. My parents rarely traveled, but my mom always talked about wanting to see Mont Saint-Michel, and we finally made the journey to the coast of France with my parents when they came to visit our family while we were living in Europe.
Mont Saint-Michel is our favorite place in the world. I’m sure that has something to do with my mom and the happy memory of a near perfect day that we all shared there together, and also because of the island’s beauty that is absolute. From the castle to the picturesque French countryside that surrounds the island, the views are so striking that they stay with you long after you leave.
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
As I came to that intersection in rural Georgia and saw the sign wanting me to turn left for the “Original Whistle Stop Cafe,” I didn’t know where I was exactly, and had just happened upon the area quite by accident. I thought about how many times I’ve seen Fried Green Tomatoes over the years, and how much I also enjoyed the book on which the movie is based. It’s not the kind of movie that has a stunning backdrop that draws you in. But rather, I have a comfortable familiarity with the setting having seen the images on the screen so many, many times, and the cafe plays a major role in the movie’s story.
Reading up on Juliette, Georgia and the cafe later, I discovered that the original The Whistle Stop Cafe building was a general store that opened in 1927 and served the community until 1972. The building was rented out for many years afterwards and housed various businesses. When Hollywood came knocking, it was home to an antique shop. After the filming concluded, the owner along with a partner, decided to open up The Original Whistle Stop Cafe in the building.
I should have stopped in and I can’t believe I didn’t! But instead, I continued driving home figuring I was already 30 minutes behind my time. If I find myself in that neck of the woods again, I won’t be passing it by. In fact, now that I know it’s there, I’m probably going to have to make a special trip one of these days. After all, they probably have really good pie.