Bump
Finally reading "A Time Of Gifts" by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Found it in a used book store this summer (I am sometimes cheap) and just got around to reading it.
What a book! It is the story of his travel from Holland to Constantinople in 1933 when he was just 18. This book takes him down the Rhine, and then along the Danube to Budapest. So eloquent, erudite, and interesting.
Travel book? Yes. But if you are interested in the history of western and central Europe, this book is for you. Architecture, art, funny adventures. But mostly it is his intelligence that shows through so clearly.
I have spent many months travelling by foot like him, but also by bus train car and motorbike along the Rhine and Danube so maybe that is another reason the book resonates with me. Some of my favourite, happiest, wildest, most cherished memories occurred a stone's throw from these two rivers.
The author had quite an astonishing time in the second world war in Crete. He kidnapped a German general. I was first introduced to him when reading "The Way Of Herodotus" by Justin Marozzi. In that book the author made a pilgrimage almost, to the home of Fermor in Mani, Greece.
Oddly, recently, I watched a food program on BBC, the host ate his way from Venice to Istanbul I think. Great show. That show travelled to the home of Fermor also.
Anyway, highly recommend. And now I must find the second book.
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