Several times yesterday I contemplated the question "what makes us want to sight see?" I can understand why we want to visit other countries and experience other cultures, but why do we go to the effort to do or see certain things?Yesterday Matt and I caught three trains, climbed up a giant hill and paid £12 all in order to stand in a courtyard and marvel at an imaginary line. We were at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where we wandered around a museum on everything about time and took the all important picture of us standing on either side of the Greenwich Mean Time line.
But what makes us do such things? When I asked Matt this question he had a shocked look on his face that clearly said "we're standing at 0 degrees, 0 minutes Rachel! Der!"
We also joined the crowds of people to see one of London's most famous sites - the Tower of London. Our visit started with an entertaining tour by a Yeoman, the guards charged with the task of protecting the Crown Jewels and the Queen on special occasions. Our guide, who is the Tower's Raven Master and looks after the all important six ravens who, legend says, must stay within the Walls otherwise the Monarchy will fall, entertained us with stories of the Tower's 1000 year long gory history.
We also marvelled at the splendid Crown Jewels, saw the place where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and buried and saw the armour of several kings. This only raised more questions. Why do we want to see these objects and places? What drives us to see this with our own eyes, take a picture and share the experience with others?
Unlike sight seeing, one experience that I do not question and fully understand is paying money to be entertained by some of the world's best performers. Yesterday our day finished on the West End with the world's longest running musical - Les Miserables.
I have grown up singing the songs with my whole family and as kids we would often watch a video of the show (yes a VHS!) and listen to the original soundtrack. It is the one show I have desperately longed to see and I have turned down the opportunity to see amateur productions in Australia in the hope of one day seeing it professionally. This meant that the expectations were very, very high.
Luckily it did not disappoint. I had goosebumps the entire time, was singing along in my head to all the songs and was in awe of the powerful performances. It was musical theatre at it's magical best and I could easily have gone back again tonight and done it all over again.
Hey. Rachel, I'm with you in that I question the 'touristy' part of international travel. For me it's the few chances you get to 'live like a local' that are most special, and the shared experiences with your fellow travellers. Julie and i loved most the walks along the river in Kyoto at dusk looking at the wierd animals ( and some people) who live there. The Japanese man who took nearly an hour out of his trip to work and walked us to the electronics store in Osaka, and the bus trips to the public bathhouses in Kyoto. With joey it was our attempt to buy the grapes from the man who'd already packed them away in miakojima. With matt and joey in 2004 we mostly remember the funny things that happened on the the way to places and sitting on the steps of the sacre coeur looking over Paris. The best part of the day is wandering the streets early in the morning before the tourists are awake, just watching the town sweeping and setting up it's tables. None of these things cost any money (apart from the air fare). But seeing the sights is the 'job' of a tourist. The best things happen on your way to 'work'.
ReplyDeleteHey you guys, the BBC proms are on at the Albert hall. This is the biggest music festival in the world and if you can get tickets you really should ge to one of the concerts. It could be one reason why more tourists are there than usual. While the rioters are looting shops because they think small business people are the 'rich' who opress them, you should take refuge with the poor people at the Albert hall.
ReplyDelete