Travel with the Legends

For many passport holders, late spring means planning summer travel. But before you choose your next destination, put aside the guidebook and consider a more artistic itinerary. I’m talking less about must-see monuments and tourist traps and more about your favorite artists starring in your own pop culture pilgrimage.

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Drink & Dine with Dickens

Yes, London’s calling for fans of one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era, where modern watering holes become literary landmarks tied to the master who gave us David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

After visiting his museum on Doughty Street near Russell Square—in the very home where he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby—it’s time for a Dickens-inspired pub crawl.

The George and Vulture near Bank Station is a great place to start. With origins dating back to the 13th century, it was frequently mentioned as the headquarters of the Pickwick Club in Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

South of King’s Cross, your next stop is The Boot, which served as headquarters for anti-Catholic rioters in his historical novel, Barnaby Rudge. Today, it’s an Irish pub, but back in Dickens’ day, his characters often “repaired to The Boot” for “good company and strong liquor.”

Next, head south across London Bridge to The George Inn, the oldest surviving galleried coaching inn in London. Mentioned in Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend, Dickens admired inns like these as “great rambling queer old places” worthy of “a hundred ghost stories.”

Now head east to Limehouse for the 18th-century pub, The Grapes. Many passages from Our Mutual Friend take place here, with its Thames-side setting and dark, cozy corners invite intrigue and mystery. Disguised as The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters in the novel, today the pub is partly owned by Ian McKellen.

Finally, travel north to Hampstead Heath for The Spaniards Inn. Originally built in 1585, it offered a rural retreat for Dickens’s intrepid travellers in The Pickwick Papers. Some say it’s haunted by several spirits, although sadly, none of them are Charles Dickens.

Bonus Bars:

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese near Blackfriars, rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of London, was reportedly a favourite drinking spot of Dickens, who allegedly preferred the ground floor with its welcoming fireplace.

The Lamb and Flag, the oldest pub in Covent Garden, was another Dickens favourite in its early days, when it was nicknamed the “Bucket of Blood” because of its infamous bare-knuckle boxing matches.

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Get Gaudy with Gaudi

Barcelona is your base for seven captivating sights created by the astounding architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi, the world’s greatest champion of Catalan Modernisme.

Your two hour walking journey begins with the Palau Güell, the urban mansion commissioned by Gaudi’s favorite patron, Eusebi Güell, just off La Rambla a few minutes north of the Christopher Columbus Monument. The impressive arches allowed the Güells to arrive home by horse and carriage. Perhaps restrained by Gaudi standards on the outside, the real splendor lies behind those walls.

A twenty-five minute walk northeast brings you to another early Gaudi work, Casa Calvet. Used by the Calvet family as both a home and a textile factory, it’s overlooked by many Gaudi tours, although its curved balconies and marvelous masonry hint at what’s to come. The ground floor now houses a restaurant so lap up a latte before moving on.

Less than a kilometer north, on the city’s elegant Passeig de Gracia, sits the far more chaotic Casa Batlló, with its skeletal façade and roof designed like the back of a dragon. And don’t miss the shark-skull balconies. Known locally as the “House of Bones,” it was the home to aristocrat Josep Batlló.

Casa Mila is next, a mere 500 meters farther north. Also known as La Pedrera (The Quarry), you could be forgiven thinking The Flintstones borrowed inspiration from this Gaudi masterwork. Completed before Gaudi devoted the rest of his life to Barcelona’s great basilica, its stone structure and whimsical chimneys will make your head swim and your heart soar.

Don’t be disappointed by Casa Vicens, a twenty-minute walk north. Less curvaceous and sensual than the others, it was Gaudi’s first major commission and still dazzles with its vibrant colors and strong Moorish influences.

Zigzag north for another twenty-five minutes until you reach the city’s finest public space, the Park Güell. Wander through the lizard-like pavilions, then rest your feet on the famous mosaic benches while taking in sweeping views of Barcelona. Originally conceived as a garden city for the city’s aristocrats, it’s now a playful escape for anyone with a bubbling imagination.

Don’t be disappointed by Casa Vicens, a twenty-minute walk north. Less curvaceous and sensual than the others, it was Gaudi’s first major commission and still dazzles with its vibrant colors and strong Moorish influences.

Zigzag north for another twenty-five minutes until you reach the city’s finest public space, the Park Güell. Wander through the lizard-like pavilions, then rest your feet on the famous mosaic benches while taking in sweeping views of Barcelona. Originally conceived as a garden city for the city’s aristocrats, it’s now a playful escape for anyone with a bubbling imagination.

Rested? Good.

Now walk straight down the hill for thirty minutes until you reach your final stop, the still-unfinished Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia (or Sagrada Familia). The word “spectacular” feels inadequate here because there simply aren’t enough words to describe the most-visited monument in all of Spain. Enter through any of its three grand facades—the Nativity, the Passion, or the near-completed Glory—and you may never want to leave.

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Big Apple Albums

Yes, you could lap up London’s best album cover photos with the pedestrian crossing outside Abbey Road Studios for The Beatles’ Abbey Road or Soho’s Berwick Street for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis.

But nobody beats NYC for album photo ops. And you don’t even have to travel far.

Manhattan’s Greenwich Village itself is a gold mine for gold records.

The cover photo of Avril Lavigne’s defiant debut, Let Go, was taken on the busy corner of Broadway and Canal while Neil Young’s blurry black-and-white portrait for After the Gold Rush was taken outside New York University’s School of Law across from Washington Square Park.

Bob Dylan has used Manhattan for half a dozen of his studio albums, but I’m giving the green light to check out the Greenwich Village cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on Jones Street near West 4th, close to Bob and his girlfriend’s actual apartment at the time.

Now head east to the East Village and the Lower East Side area which rivals Greenwich for album cover supremacy.

Paul’s Boutique from The Beastie Boys may have been a fictional store, but the location was real, captured on the corner of Ludlow and Rivington (since renamed Beastie Boys Square).

Like Dylan, The Ramones are another artist who used the sights of NYC as album cover inspirations. But your best bet for a Ramones revelry is the southern tip of the East Village, where the band posed against a brick wall in Albert’s Garden for their Ramones debut, while Rocket to Russia finds the boys against another brick wall virtually across the street at Extra Place (the alley behind the former CBGB music club).

And while Led Zeppelin were born and bred in England, the two brownstone tenement buildings at St. Mark’s Place, between 1st Ave. and Avenue A, appeared on the cover for their sprawling double album, Physical Graffiti.

Skip to the Central Park area next where Billy Joel’s 52nd Street album cover is the obvious choice with Billy posing with a trumpet, near the corner of West 52nd Street and 7th Avenue, outside the service entrance into the recording studio where he made this album.

Then on the east side of the park, off 5th Avenue, Simon & Garfunkel shot the front photo of their Greatest Hits album at 7 East 94th Street (near Simon’s former townhouse), and the back photo at the Central Park Reservoir, near East 91st.

Finally, in a little album cover irony, the iconic cover photo from The Who movie soundtrack, The Kids Are Alright, with the English lads wrapped in the Union Jack was taken at the German-American Carl Schurz Memorial at West 116th Street and Morningside Drive.

Very Partial List of Other Artist Album Covers in New York:

Blondie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Peter Frampton, Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, LL Cool J, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Peter, Paul and Mary, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Steely Dan, Stray Cats, The Velvet Underground, The Village People

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Have you packed your bags yet? Remember, these lists aren’t about sightseeing. They’re about marveling at the masters in their natural habitat.

So don’t follow the crowd; follow your heart in your own DIY itinerary.

For more stories about inspiring trips, check out:

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/american-travel/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/why-you-should-walk-the-camino/