I always wanted to visit Torquay in the UK simply because Fawlty Towers is set there.
My question to you all, have you ever wanted to visit a place, for the SOLE reason that you saw it in a movie or a TV show is set there or it’s mentioned in a song?
And second have any of you actually done this?
The closest I have come is the books by Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and Tomorrow Will Be Better. Smith describes the streets in a lot of detail and with such imagery when I went to NYC I made a special trip to Brooklyn to visit those streets. It was kind of cool.
Reading “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” had me wishing to visit Savannah because of all the wonderfully eccentric people. I’m not really likely to act on that whim, though.
I was once extremely amused to live in Tooting in south London, not that it’s an exciting place but purely because of the television sitcom “Citizen Smith”.
When in New York, I made sure to walk past 808 Broadway, the setting of the headquarters in The Alienist. It was smaller than what I’d pictured, but it was interesting enough to see.
I went looking for Aeolian Hall on 42nd Street in New York City. That was where Rhapsody in Blue had its world premiere in 1924. There’s nothing to see, it’s now part of the State University of New York’s State College of Optometry. (according to Wikipedia)
I stayed at the Algonquin Hotel a couple times, largely because of the writers who used to frequent the place.
I’ve been to the site of the Hindenberg disaster.
I tried to remember Orson Welles’ cuckoo clock speech (from The Third Man) as I was getting off the Riesenrad in Vienna.
Years ago I read an article by someone who tracked down (sorry) the site in Oregon where the climax of The General was filmed. That might be worth hunting for someday.
I’ve been to Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station, and found out later that it was the inspiration for Zoo Station by U2, which in turn inspired the Zoo TV tour and the album Zooropa. (again, according to Wikipedia, along with several other pop culture references)
Once, while on holiday in northern France, we made a special trip to Saint-Marc-sur-Mer - the sea-side resort where Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot was filmed. The beach-side hotel is still there, together with a full-size statue of M. Hulot gazing out to sea.
I’ve been pretty much everywhere in Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible and the New Testament, and a lot of other Biblical places outside of Jerusalem, too. Some of the time it wasn’t necessarily on purpose, but some of the time it was, like when I walked the Stations of the Cross (so obviously not the original stations, you just have to walk them to realize that there is no way anyone would intentionally take that particular path) or went to check out the Garden of Gethsemane (which is very pretty and pleasant).
One place I’d like to visit is Prince Edward Island. I must have read the Anne of Green Gables books a hundred times when I was a kid.
Not just visit, but got a job and moved there–just from hearing a song once on the radio.
One Saturday night I was driving north on the Five somewhere in south L.A. County and I heard on KLUV a song called En Barranquilla me quedo, about that city on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. I liked the song so much that, over the phone, I got a contract for a job there, a work visa, and a place to stay, and ended up living there for over a year.
Yes, it is. It is, though, a rather nondescript street; any connection with either Sherlock Holmes or Gerry Rafferty would have to be in your imagination.
After the plethora of songs about San Francisco in 1967, I was desparate to go there. I did, a few years later. Although Haight Ashbury was no longer inhabited by hippies, I found the area and the city to be wonderful: it lived up to my expectations.
I used to listen to a lot of Charlie Daniels Band with my dad. I asked him if he would be too afraid to go to the Wooley Swamp, because I want to go there. He told me nothing scares him and he’ll take me there some day. That was when I was six. Nowadays I want to visit Maine, because of John Irving and Stephen King. I’ve seen planty of Underground Railroad stops, that’s haunting.
I always wanted to see Prince Edward Island as a result of reading the *Anne Of Green Gables *novels and I suspect I’m not alone - she makes it sound so delightful.
James Lee Burke has a series of whodunnits based on detective Dave Robicheaux of the Iberia County, LA, Sheriff’s Department. The last time that SWMBO and I went to a tournament in Louisiana, we detoured down through New Iberia, Avery Island and places like that. Burke describes them perfectly, especially the exterior of the Sheriff’s Department.
Growing up watching Laverne & Shirley, I always heard them talk about the Pfister Hotel. I assumed it was a made-up place until I went to Milwaukee and stayed there. It is the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen. Just standing in the lobby is worth the price of a night there.
After seeing Amadeus, I want to go to Prague; that’s where they filmed much of it.
