Hooray! Ben and I have just booked ticketed to Europe for Christmas. We will be visiting Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Hungary (if I get my way… I’m working on it) and Holland. It will be a white Christmas for us!
Travelling automatically makes me think of reading on the plane. And train… Ben and I will be travelling by rail. I would love it if I could read some of the books on the 1001 Children’s Books to Read Before You Die list that were set in the countries I was visiting, or written by a German, Austrian, Czech or Dutchman. I can read ‘The Wheel on the School’ by Melindert De Jong, which was inspired by his childhood in the Netherlands. I can dip into The Garden by Czech born Jiri Trnka while in Prague. There are plenty of German authors, quite a few Dutch writers, and a smattering of Austrian authors to choose from, but there is only one book that I can find by a Hungarian on the list, Thorn Castle by Istvan Fekete. Most of them, I assume, might take a while to track down, but that can be half the fun.
If only books didn’t weigh so much! Don’t even suggest to me trying a kindle, or shedding the books at a book swap at a hostel along the way. Books while travelling are like souvenirs, little pieces of the places you visit you can bring back with you, forever to remind you of your travels.
Have you ever read about a place while you were visiting it? Or has a book ever inspired you to travel to see it for yourself?
1001 Children's Books 
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