Feel cultivated these days? Poets never sleep, and that’s why we offer you some trips that will definitely delight your cultural vein. Take a look!
– London (England): England’s capital has a tremendously enviable cultural offer as far as literature’s concerned . In fact, it’d never end if we tried to enumerate everything. Of course, we can’t leave London without a route to any of its hundreds illustrious writers, like William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens. But there’s a special one which will catch your attention, cause you can take a tour following the footsteps of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Irresistible, right?
And if you want to stop for a minute and drink a Martini for example, we recommend you the Dukes Bar, in whose Martinis Ian Fleming was inspired to make it become the official drink of James Bond . To continue with the cultural walk don’t forget to stop by the British Library, where you can enjoy all the literary treasures remaining there. Here they aren’t locked up but exposed for everyone to see them, as it should be.
– Edinburgh (Scotland): If something stands out above all in Edinburgh is its literary atmosphere. Over five hundred novels were born inspired by this city. The literary tradition’s simply amazing, from the verses of the poet Robert Burns in the eighteenth century to contemporary writers such as Ian Rankin. Literary tours are infinite, and you can visit various pubs which inspired authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, explore the dark city of the Inspector Rebus created by Rankin, or know the depressing Edinburgh reflected in Irvine Welsh‘s novel, Trainspotting.
Although undoubtedly you can’t miss the Writers Museum of the city, located in a beautiful building from the seventeenth century, which pays tribute to three of the greatest writers of Scottish literature: Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. Take a look at Robert Louis Stevenson Experience, a tour of the city where you’re told the whole story of the great writer, including fragments of his novels and… a free whiskey!
– Paris (France): To begin, you can take a walk through the cemetery of Père-Lachaise, where there’s one of the most visited graves in the world, Oscar Wilde‘s, and where it’s tradition to leave the unmistakable trace of a red lipstick. The Irish writer wasn’t the only foreigner who sought inspiration in such illustrious city, so it’s not hard to find any other author in an unforgettable cafe in Saint Germain, the beautiful Les Deux Magots . And to top it off, you can take a walk through the Latin Quarter, seeking the essence of its literary places.
But don’t forget that this is France, which has its more than enviable own writers. So it’s a must to pass through the museum houses of Honoré de Balzac and Victor Hugo. And to complete this literary journey, you’ve the perfect hotel to stay, Le Pavillon des Lettres, with twenty rooms, each devoted to a letter of the alphabet and a famous writer.
Photos: Abariltur, Delaville, Alin Meceanu and Laura.
