TRAVEL + LEISURE / MARCH 2016TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
IAMERICA
Harper Lee’s To Kill A
Mockingbird may be a
work of fi ction but it
skilfully and innocuously
captures the story of the deeply
troubled America's south. The book
is based in an imaginary town in
Alabama, but you can visit the
author’s hometown Monroeville and
take a tour of the Old Courthouse
Museum (monroecountymuseum.
org)—which safeguards the life
and legacy of Lee. This small town
has been performing To Kill A
Mockingbird for more than 22 years,
so schedule your trip in April or May
to catch the annual drama.
Countless fi ctional novels have
been set in this region, and if your
kids are familiar with The Help or
Gone With The Wind, you can take
a road trip to the southern states of
Mississippi (location of Kathryn
Stockett’s gripping novel), and
Georgia (home of Scarlet O’Hara).THE BOOK THIEF I GERMANY
Traversing through Nazi-era Europe with The Book Thief (or The
Diary of Anne Frank) as your companion can be heart-wrenching and
life-changing. Although not listed in the book, Germany has a lot of
reminders of the unfateful persecution of Jews where you can take
your kids for better understanding of how it all unfolded: The Munich
City Museum (muenchner-stadtmuseum.de); concentration camps
including Dachau Camp Memorial (kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de),
Buchenwald (buchenwald.de), and Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank
died); Jewish Museum and Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
in Berlin; and the Nazi Documentation Centre. Outside German borders,
the ghastly Auschwitz Camp (auschwitz.org) in Poland and Anne Frank
House (annefrank.org) in Amsterdam continue to give people the chills.WAR AND PEACEI
RUSSIA
Explore the world of
this timeless Tolstoy
classic. Take your
kids to the English
Embankment in St Petersburg and
Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. A must-visit
on this literary tour is Leo Tolstoy’s
ancestral home,Yasnaya Polyana
(ypmuseum.ru) that houses his personal
collections and memorabilia. Look
closely and you might be able to conjure
the image of Tolstoy sitting in his study,
weaving tales of Natasha and Nikolai.
His house in Moscow,Tolstoy Memorial
Estate in Khamovniki,sheds more
light on his life. The recently-concluded
BBC adaptation ofWarandPeace
dazzled viewers with its stunning
locations. In St Petersburg, find time
for the 17th centuryCatherine
Palace,State Hermitage Museum
(hermitagemuseum.org), andYusupov
Palaceand see if they are as good in
person as on camera.A fairy tale view of St
Petersburg.The Capitol Building in
Jackson, Mississippi.Bergen-Belsen
concentration
camp in Germany.CLOCKWISE: SHUTTERSTOCK; DREAMSTIME; SEAN GALLUP/GETTYIMAGES