Good travel reads or travel shows to watch now

[cruisemom42]

Okay, so we can't cruise at the moment, but cruising isn't the only form of travel I enjoy. And in the absence of real travel, I enjoy reading first-person type travel narratives and watching interesting travel shows.

 

So how about it -- share any favorite travel books or shows with your fellow travel-deprived cruisers? 

 

(Caveat: I know there are a lot of detective series set in foreign lands, and I read several of them, but I'm looking for more of the "Eat, Pray, Love" kind of thing -- although I find that particular one a bit preachy at times.)

 

Some of my favorites:

 

A Year in the World:  Frances Mayes

Without Reservations: Alice Steinbach (also the follow up: Educating Alice)

Mediterranean Winter:  Robert Kaplan

The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain:  Bill Bryson (and other Bryson books)

Most books by Paul Theroux, but particularly The Pillars of Hercules

 

I also enjoy reading the travel adventures of early women explorers such as Freya Stark (authored a number of her books on her travels in Turkey and the Middle East) and Gertrude Bell.

 

 

How about it, any gems to share?  Or good travel shows/movies to seek out?

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by cruisemom42

[drsel]

Watch Rick Steves Europe travel videos.

Dennis Callan also

[shipgeeks]

In a different direction, Hallmark Channel is screening lots of Christmas movies this weekend, as a feel-good picker-upper. 

I would love some good travel movies, or better yet, movies set on cruise ships.  We have "The Captain's Table", and some more adventure/disaster ones such as "The Poseidon Adventure".  It would be lovely if the movie channels would air some from the 1930's and up.

[ldubs]

Death on the Nile.  

[cruisemom42]

24 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

In a different direction, Hallmark Channel is screening lots of Christmas movies this weekend, as a feel-good picker-upper. 

I would love some good travel movies, or better yet, movies set on cruise ships.  We have "The Captain's Table", and some more adventure/disaster ones such as "The Poseidon Adventure".  It would be lovely if the movie channels would air some from the 1930's and up.

 

I love the first half of the original "Affair to Remember" (the part on the ship) -- the snappy dialogue is outstanding.

[George C]

For movies “out to sea” with Walter Matthau  and Jack Lemmon 

really enjoy Rick Steves shows 

[bennybear]

Great idea!  Currently  reading  From Scratch by Tembi Locke,  a true story of a grieving widow set mostly in Sicily.   

I have also enjoyed many books about Greece such as Mani and Roumeli by Patrick Leigh Fermor.   I read these before going to Meteora last fall.  

I also enjoyed the book about La Foce in Tuscany by Iris Origo during WW2 where soldiers were sheltered. 

 

For tv series Shetland and Hinterland have lots of bleak UK atmosphere.  

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by bennybear

[slidergirl]

A book that has a title that could be a little prophetic right now: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia *****.  He's one of my favorite authors (I have read just about all of his books/short stories).  It's a long read, but oh, so good.  The "history" of a family in Colombia through the years.  I got interested in Spanish/Latin American literature when I took my AP Spanish class way back in the Dark Ages.  More and more is getting translated into English, so it makes it more accessible to all of us.  

 

Another book that sounds prophetic:  Love in the Time of Cholera, also by *****.  Set turn of the century in an unknown Caribbean port.  

 

Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel.  Set in Mexico City, kind of a good family soap opera.  

 

I might reread these!!!  

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, bennybear said:

Great idea!  Currently  reading  From Scratch by Tembi Locke,  a true story of a grieving widow set mostly in Sicily.   

I have also enjoyed many books about Greece such as Mani and Roumeli by Patrick Leigh Fermor.   I read these before going to Meteora last fall.  

I also enjoyed the book about La Foce in Tuscany by Iris Origo during WW2 where soldiers were sheltered. 

 

For tv series Shetland and Hinterland have lots of bleak UK atmosphere.  

 

 

Thank you for bringing up Patrick Leigh Fermor. I went to a talk last summer that inspired me to read some of his work and I haven't yet gotten round to it. Now may be the perfect time.

 

The author whose talk I attended is also a woman editor and traveler -- she was on a book tour promoting HER travel adventure book -- it's called "Greek to Me:  Adventures of the Comma Queen".  She loves Greece like I love Italy...

 

She spent time next door to Fermor's house in Mani.

 

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/travel-guide/a29390952/patrick-leigh-fermor-house-greece/

 

[SuiteTraveler]

I love these shows about gardens.  I garden a little but I'm not THAT into it, but these shows are absolutely inspirational in their telling the stories behind these famous gardens.  Even non-gardeners will find the stories amazing:

Monty Don's Italian Gardens

Monty Don's French Gardens

Monty Don's Paradise Gardens

Monty Don's Japanese Gardens

Monty Don's American Gardens

The Secret History of the British Garden

[Essiesmom]

CMV is acquiring two ships from P&O Australia and renamed them for adventurous women in history.   One  is named for Ida Pfeiffer.  She traveled in Europe/Middle East in the 1840s + and published accounts of her travels.  I downloaded two of her to my Kindle, although I haven't yet read them.  They are free for Kindle.  I also highly recommend two books very similar to each other.  That is because the first book, The Ship Dwellers: A Story of a Happy Cruise by Albert Bigelow Payne was written as he tried to recreate the voyage Mark Twain wrote about in The Innocents Abroad.  Payne's father had read the book aloud to them as a family in the 1860's when it was newly published.  He took his own voyage in 1909.  Both are free for Kindle.  I read Payne first and really prefer it.  It is more mature.  After reading Payne, Twain read like a reckless frat brother let loose without adult supervision.  EM

[RSLeesburg]

Simon Winchester - The River at the Center of the World

[drsel]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

Death on the Nile. 

 Not the right time to watch Titanic in 3D

Edited March 21, 2020 by drsel

[cruisemom42]

9 hours ago, drsel said:

 Not the right time to watch Titanic in 3D

 

No, nor the Poseidon Adventure.  We have enough disastrous news daily about cruising. 

[VMax1700]

15 hours ago, slidergirl said:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia *****

What is wrong with the name M@rquez  (I am just posting to see if it gives a load of ***** or if it shows the name)

 

OK it won't show the original spelling m a r q u e z but will show it with an @ instead.  Idiotic!

Edited March 21, 2020 by VMax1700

[lenquixote66]

It is fine to read books about Travel but how about reading books about anything.

[cruisemom42]

1 minute ago, lenquixote66 said:

It is fine to read books about Travel but how about reading books about anything.

 

Not sure what your point is?  This is a thread about wanting to keep enjoying travel -- if not in person than vicariously.

 

I read plenty of other books as well. 

[lenquixote66]

7 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Not sure what your point is?  This is a thread about wanting to keep enjoying travel -- if not in person than vicariously.

 

I read plenty of other books as well. 

Yes,I realize that.However,I am sure there are books that you may always have wanted to read but have never had the time.Now all we have is time.

 

[cruisemom42]

2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Yes,I realize that.However,I am sure there are books that you may always have wanted to read but have never had the time.Now all we have is time.

 

 

Then you should observe CC rules and start another thread -- not hijack this one.

[lenquixote66]

2 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Then you should observe CC rules and start another thread -- not hijack this one.

Sorry ,I did not think I was hijacking .I have a very limited time to be on this planet .I am just trying to offer a suggestion.

[slidergirl]

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

What is wrong with the name M@rquez  (I am just posting to see if it gives a load of ***** or if it shows the name)

 

OK it won't show the original spelling m a r q u e z but will show it with an @ instead.  Idiotic!

I didn't even notice that.  It was the CC Censor who did that.   Thank you for inserting a workaround!!

 

I have the time to read my new cookbooks:

Food of Southern Italy by Katie Perla (yes cruisemom, I got the cookbook)

The Immigrant Cookbook, compiled by Leyla Moushabek.  Stories and recipes from immigrant chefs in the US who came from around the world

Soup for Syria, compiled by Barbara Abdeni Massaad.  Recipes from chefs around the world, photos of the beautiful people of Syria.  

 

Another book: Out of Kenya (or watch the movie).

 

I can only read for so long before my eyes start to hurt.  I have to alternate it with some TV for now.  Going to look for some good travel shows/movies or good shows/movies set in places I'd love to travel to someday.   

Edited March 21, 2020 by slidergirl

[drsel]

Sorry ,I did not think I was hijacking .I have a very limited time to be on this planet .I am just trying to offer a suggestion.

Omg, why a very limited time to live?

[lenquixote66]

31 minutes ago, drsel said:

4 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Sorry ,I did not think I was hijacking .I have a very limited time to be on this planet .I am just trying to offer a suggestion.

Omg, why a very limited time to live?

I have an illness for which there is no cure.I have several other medical problems related to this illness.

[rkacruiser]

Brian David Bruns has at least 3 books of a series called Cruise Confidential.  I have read the first two and have enjoyed them very much.  Book 2 Is titled Ship for Brains:  This ain't no galley tour.

 

Three reviewers said:  "I thought it was hilarious"--Peter Greenberg (who was once on the Today Show.)  Booklist's review:  "This is a very funny, behind the  scenes exploration of a cruise ship".  USA Today's review:  "...the real party is going on in the crew's quarters".  Some think Mr. Bruns is writing somewhat "tongue in cheek".  Regardless, the two books that I have read are entertaining.   

 

 

[jocap]

This might not sound like a travel book to you in the US, but to me James A Michener's "Chesapeake" opened my eyes to that area, where I'd love to travel. We once flew from the UK to Florida, travelling down the coast after NY, and I was almost standing in my seat to peer out at that amazing place! It starts in 1583, and follows families into the 20th century.

In similar style, Edward Rutherford follows families from the earliest times in his books "London", and "New York".