Brought to you by a wee touch of wanderlust and wishing for magic...

[byslantedlight]

Eeh but the middle of the week is sometimes so mundane... I don't even have a veggie box to look forward to today, cos I forgot to order one... just more marking and expense sheets... *sighs* So I went for a wee search and found The 15 Most Magical Places in the World... gorgeous photos for days of dreaminess and wanderlust...

A sorcerer's castle and an enchanted forest...


A wizard's town and a magical lagoon...


The Emporer's palace and the knight's ship...


Prince Charming's castle, and the Golden Pagodas...


The Faraway Tree, and Rapunzel's tower...


The Wishing Bridge, and the Warlock's castle...


The Snow Queen's lair, and a hobbit house...


...and finally, the Lake of Dreams...


How fab are they? There are other pretty, wanderlust-y pictures over at that website too, if you're feeling like a wander... I think my favourite of this fifteen is actually The Faraway Tree - which seems strange, if I'm longing for magic and adventure, to choose what's perhaps the most mundane (though gorgeously atmospheric) picture of all of them, but... I do love some of the others - Versailles! I must visit one day! - oh, and Giverny too, I want to see Giverny...sorry, where was I?! The Faraway tree! There's just something about a magical mist, and maybe it harks back to growing up and just longing to be in just that sort of magical, quintessentially English place... Oh, or the road ahead, where you can't quite see what's over the rise - especially if you're heading to the seashore...

Aaaand... back to work... *sighs*

Edited to Add - Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

Comments

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

*Snivels*

I don't want to be here. I want to be there . . .

Giverny is gorgeous.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I want to be there too... anythere... oh, but Giverny... I could see if it matched at all to my fic! *g*

I wonder if you could do a day trip... or just a wee one-overnight-trip...

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

From what I remember, it's a bit of a faff to get to. I got taken by car, but I remember checking to see if it was accessible by public transport. I *think* there's a railway station some miles away, and presumably you'd then have to walk or get a taxi if you were well-off *g*.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, sounds to me like we need a Pros-y trip with a car... inspirational for fic, perhaps... *g*

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Here's how you get there! It says it takes about an hour to walk there from Vernon station, but taxis are about 15 euros, which isn't too bad ... And there's a bus as well.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, will get there one day!

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Oooooooooooh, pretty!

*is entranced*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I know! And entranced is the perfect word... I need more entrancement in my life these days!

Ooh actually, Castell Coch's not far from you, is it - I always think of that as rather fairytale... it's years since I was there, but I remember a pink castle, and sparkling rooms...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Aye, Castell Coch is just outside the city, a very short drive from here. Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Small used to call it! An absolutely classic Victorian folly.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - what a fab idea from Small! I shall add it to my post, I think! *g*

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Hee, Sleeping Beauty's Castle...built as a summer picnic house (seriously, it was - the 3rd Marquis of Bute had it built so he could take his family there for picnics when they were spending summers at Cardiff Castle. Oh to be that rich, eh!)

Oh, and you should totally watch Merlin. Just don't expect it to stick to any of the classic legends, because it doesn't. It just takes the central concept and runs with it in a whole new direction, and is great fun!

(oh but crap, I no longer have my Arthur icon, so have Uther masquerading as Giles instead)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Eeep, I've just seen that Merlin season one's cheap at Amazon righ now too... I should never go to Amazon... or Network, that promises to be even worse... I'm guessing Merlin can't be worse than the travesty that was First Knight, so... I shall give it a go! *g*

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

LOL, amazon is horribly dangerous, I agree!

I love Merlin, but it isn't for everyone. As long as you aren't too married to the classic legends but instead are willing to accept the premise of the show for what it is and run with it (plus remembering that it sits in the Saturday teatime slot like Doctor Who), you'll be fine. Most of the characters are just adorable, and although the writing has its ups and downs (as with all shows), overall it works well. :)

I hope you like it! Did you ever finish Rome, btw?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I haven't finished Rome yet! I sat down to one day and then realised I couldn't remember all of S1, so I'd need to start again, and... *headdesk* But I'm so going to watch it all again from the start when marking is over... *g*

And yeah, I did get that Merlin was the lazy-Saturday-kids version of the myth, so my expectations are duly adjusted!

[ailcia.livejournal.com]

MERLIN!

.... Is what I just thought of looking at all those photos! Next time I write some wizarding fic, I shall be coming back round here for inspiration!

You absolutely MUST go to Versailles - it was, by far, the best part of my recent trip to gay Paris!

Never seen the like in my LIFE. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ooh yes.... loook! I want to be there right now!

I must get around to watching Merlin one of these days... I completely missed it when it was on telly... there've got to be dvds, right... I was so into the whole Arthurian thing, but I've not paid any attention for years... which is weird, cos now I'm here, where Arthur used to be! Ohhh, wonder if Arthur of the Britons is on dvd... Ooooh...

[ailcia.livejournal.com]

Yesssss, you must! The new series is set to start in September, and the previous ones are definitely on DVDs - I absolutely ADORE Merlin, I really do. It is very silly and it is very much a kids show (there is overwhelming use of naff CGI for monsters etc) but it is just so warm and lovely... And the young lads who play Arthur and Merlin are just so, so, so brilliant together, it warms the very cockles of me heart, I tell you! And they're fairly faithful to the legends, and all, which is AWESOME! And, yes, very slashy indeed. :P

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've just found (and ordered, eeep... Arthur of the Britons on dvd, so what with Merlin and all I could have quite the July... oh, and I found Ghosts of Motley Hall, which I was desperate for when I was a wee outcast kiddie in Australia, cos our library had the book, and Flambards too... Ooooh... Too much dvd-type-telly!

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Arthur of the Britons has been out on DVD for about 18 months now.
Those photos really are magic. I thought Rapunzel's castle looked like the ruins on top of Glastonbury Tor at first - very similar architecture from what I can remember of it, and way high up!

(Edited to fix crappy html.)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Eeeh, I'm ahead of you - thought it, searched it, found it, got me order in... I should so not be allowed anywhere near Amazon... *sighs*

And ooh, an atmospheric Glastonbury Tor would be rather fairytale too, wouldn't it!

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

thought it, searched it, found it, got me order in...
There's an LJ comm, too. . Just sayin'. *g*

I should so not be allowed anywhere near Amazon...
I hear you. Spent some money there myself earlier today - Torchwood seasons 2 and 3, plus two copies of The Mabinogion. Yay for internet purchasing on cold wet rainy days.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, Torchwood! And yeay The Mabinogion, which is on my bookshelf waiting to be properly read too... bought after I'd read The Snow Spider, bought after I'd read a particular Torchwood fic that was based on the one that was based on the other... yeay creative writing! *g*

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

(I was really html-challenged last night, wasn't I? *g*)
My interest in The Mabinogion was sparked by our visit to Tintagel where I first saw it mentioned - am looking forward to that. And yeay indeed for creative writing! It's always interesting when fictional and "real" worlds collide.

And The Snow Spider looks interesting too and I can imagine it being used as a plotline for a Torchwood fic. Did you read all three in the trilogy?

As for Torchwood - I've had S1 for ages but only just sat down to watch it (funny how visiting Cardiff can have that effect!). Now I can't wait for S2 and S3 to arrive.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee for html challenged - I have days like that! *g*

I did read all three of The Snow Spider, and I really liked them... I thought I'd posted about it, but can I find it? No...

Oh, and Torchwood! The one thing that's tempted me to glance at another fandom (and then run away very quickly, but that's the fandom side, not the Torchwood side, which I still adore... and there is some rather cool fanfic... I'm still rather in love with Cardiff too - I must go again! I need tyres and enough money for petrol, and then I'm off! *g*

[rosie55.livejournal.com]

Oooh, what a lovely post!

Atmospheric Glastonbury - what, like this, you mean?


Can't remember where I found that one - not mine, but I couldn't resist keeping it because it was so magical!

Giverny sounds wonderful. Never been there. What with that and Versailles, I reckon I should be planning a French trip!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I couldn't resist re-posting all those gorgeous pics and imaginings...

And oooh, yes - just like that! I must put that up in my post too, if that's alright! Hmmn, what do you think it is, though... oh, Avalon, of course! *g*

I so want to be planning a French trip - to Giverny and Versailles! If you find yourself stuck for a travel companion, give me a shout! *vbg*

[rosie55.livejournal.com]

Heh - that's an actual view of Glastonbury Tor above the mist on the Somerset levels a couple of years ago - at sunrise, I seem to remember!
Hmmm, Giverny - so tempting....

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for an inspiring post - it's made me feel a bit better! I'm bogged down again (can't even start the actual work until I've done my accounts .... and I am so allergic to accounts .... arithmetic and maths are fine, better than fine, I even quite like maths - but the minute you put a pound sign anywhere near the numbers I go green around the gills and feel dizzy. How daft is that!? *g*)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - me too! Mundanity involving numbers is just so... the worst kind of mundanity! I've been meaning to my taxes for ages too, and I really must, but somehow they always end up at the bottom of the list...

Shall stare at the fairytales, and imagine how to make more for a while... *g*

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos, and very inspiring. And, like you, I love the tree one best of all. There's something that's just so right about a tree like that, and the tales it could tell. But then, I think I'm a woodlands sort of person. *g*

I hope something exciting (but pleasant comes your way very soon!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I do like the woods too - though when I'm by the sea I like the sea, and when I'm... *g* Really I should live somewhere like the Isle of Man, which has got everything all tumbled together - except big cities, which I like for visits now and then too... *g*

There will be excitement soon - MS is on stage in Windsor in just two weeks, wheeee! I completely missed AMFAS, so I'm so pleased I'll get to see him live after all!

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

They're gorgeous! Love the hobbit house. I clciked on the top lake link too and there was Lake Peyto; been there :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Isn't the hobbit house fun?! I've got a real yen to visit France and just wander around and find things like Giverny and Versailles, and hobbit houses!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! I'll gladly divide my time between the Snow Queen's lair and the Hobbit house. :)

Thanks for this lovely post!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful... *g*