Thanks for your detailed comment! I love the fairy tale story.

there is definitely a good point in this quote, no matter how much you read and you learn in school and in other similar institutions you can never get as much as when you travel because travelling means so many things: is the reality you are confronting,you gain knowledge and it is easily printed in your memory, you deal with new people and you have to adapt yourself to circumstances.

I remember we were taught in school about a fairy tale where an old king had three sons and he tried to figure out which one of them was suitable to inherit his throne; so he thought to send them on a journey in a far land to his brother. The youngest of the brothers succeed while the others gave up from the very beginning. So he proved to be brave enough to get the throne.

So true! I always say that no matter how much reading or research I do I don’t get a place until I’m there and can “feel” it.

Daydreaming, planning, researching, and reading about/obsessing over a place I’m going to go (or maybe even have no immediate plans to go to!) is one of my favorite pastimes

I’ve never heard of this Grand Tour! I’m going to have to do some research, clearly.