We recently visited – for obvious reasons – Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s the birthplace of one William Shakespeare and because of that, 4.9 million people visit the town every year.
Many of them were there the same day we were.
(As always, a reminder to click on the photos to get the enlarged version.)
I don’t really mind the crowds. I feel safer when there are lots of people around – pickpockets aside – and in some of these famous places, I don’t mind lining up or being jostled around.
I’m a bit of a hypocrite though because I recognize the climate change threat of millions of people flying all around the world and I can understand the damage control that officialdom is forced to take in order to preserve ancient works of art from millions of hands and feet all of which are out to despoil valuable antiquities.
I suppose my point is that I think it should be okay for me to travel to wonderful places but other people should stay home.
Imagine what it would have been like at the Spanish Steps in Rome if only I – and maybe a few other deserving people – were there on this day a few years ago.
Having said all that, Stratford is a lovely town and tourism has given the people there a better life than they would have if they had to depend on call centres and the other small businesses that are non-tourism related. Many towns in England are not doing well and by comparison – in fact, even without making any comparisons – Stratford is doing very well indeed.
The house where Shakespeare was born and grew up is still there and some of it is the way it was when he was there. There is something thrilling – it’s almost child-like – about walking on a floor and knowing that William Shakespeare himself walked there. Don’t ask me why.
Shakespeare was baptized, married and buried in Stratford.
I don’t want to come off sounding disillusioned about Stratford. It’s a beautiful town and I very much enjoyed visiting it – crowds or no crowds.
It was raining but we did the walking tour anyway. Look how pretty this is.
This reminds me of the summer jobs i had late college and early med school. I was a tour escort based out of Chicago. I often would do two week tour cycles around the Hawaiian islands. This was in the late 60s. I would haveabout 40 people i would meet in Chicago andtake them around th islands, to LA,Vegas and back to Chicago. At that time in the summer Hawaii would get approx 150000 tourists per week, and there were only two international airports. Our job was to imbue in the tourists that everybody in Hawaii just "hang loose"--there's slow time, slooooowwer time, and Hawwwwaiiian time--dont worry,we'll get there when we get there. Well, you dont move 150000 through a small tourist circuit, get them mumus and aloha shirts, teach them tiny bubbles and hula, see Don ho and roast god know how many pigs in a week by hangin loose. It only worked because we tour escorts were generally up all night confirming transfer times down to the seconds, tipped drivers extra for priority scheduling and bought Don Ho tickets a year in advance hoping we got those same tours next summer. This all had to be done completely out of the view of your tourists whom you would blithely accompany with your ukelele while they sang on the bus ride to Lahaina. Aloha
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