Music Pilgrimages: Hitting the High Notes

At the top of the list of must-do musical pilgrimages has to be a visit to Graceland, home of Rock'N Roll star Elvis Presley. As one of the most popular singers of the 20th century, his home is a magnet to thousands each year - despite its increasing tackiness (read souvenir stalls, Elvis impersonators...)

Graceland, USA
Photo: Tavallai via Flickr

From Memphis it's only a hop, skip and a jump to Nashville where - if you're a country music lover - you can hear your favorite stars at the Grand Ole Opry and visit the Country Music Hall of Fame. Or, why not, be discovered yourself!

Jim's resting place
Photo: Ms Anthea via Flickr

If Elvis is too ancient for you, perhaps you were a fan of the rock group The Doors... You would then remember Jim Morrison, their lead singer, whose tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris is one of the city's top attractions.

The list of musical pilgrimages could be a long one. You could follow in the Beatles' footsteps to their birthplaces and the (renovated) Cavern Club in Liverpool or Abbey Road, where they lived and recorded in London. If you're on the Isle of Wight (remember the rock festivals of the sixties here?) you could drop by Dimbola Lodge and see Jimi Hendrix's statue.

Jim's resting place
Photo: Nick Wiesner via Flickr

Next time you're California Dreamin', why not stand at the historic corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, where hippies ruled in the late 1960s and where such eternal stars as Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane lived?

But there's more than rock music in the air and your music pligrimages might be of another kind.

If your taste runs to tango, which is making a huge comeback, then you won't have to look much further than Buenos Aires.

But if Spanish flamenco is what causes you joy (having been brought up in Spain I'm definitely a flamenco fan) why not combine faith and flamenco and head for El Rocio in May? You could join the pilgrims paying tribute to the Madonna while dancing the night away to clapping hands and strumming guitars.

Crossing the Alps
Photo: Alkuin via Flickr

If you're in the Austrian Alps, you could follow Rogers and Hammerstein's the Sound of Music and the Von Trapp family's daring escape from the Nazis in World War II - based on a true story.

Maybe you're more of a classical music lover - in that case you'll be equally spoiled with music pilgrimages.

Spend hours in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, following in the footsteps of Frederick Chopin, from his home in Ostrogski Castle (home of the Chopin Society and Museum) to the Nuns of the Visitation Church where he practiced organ-playing as a child.

Or visit Vienna, where you'll have a choice of music pilgrimages - after all, this is where Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert and many others lived... and died. There's Heiligenstadt, the lovely village where Beethoven wrote his famous Testament, or follow the Haydn Trail, a walking circuit linking four famous sites across Vienna.

Whatever your choice in musical pilgrimages, following the high note can provide a welcome change during a long journey.