I have always thought that Thomas Bruce, better known as Lord Elgin, had an unfairly bad press for saving what we used to call ‘The Elgin Marbles’ but now usually refer to as ‘The Parthenon Marbles’. He was a colourful character and a diplomat (a combination which does not always go together) and, when ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, saw […]
Diary of a Tourist Guide:
Archives for June 2017
A GOOD TIP
So, how’s it going on Golden Tours, Eddie? I received a call from them out of the blue last summer – when my tour managing time was obviously coming to an end – asking me to do a day job for them. It was a day trip to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath, a day which I always considered […]
AMONGST THE STONES
I think every job I have done for Golden tours has taken me to Stonehenge – Stonehenge and Bath, and Windsor, and Oxford and Salisbury and any combination of those places. It is the one place everyone seems to wants to go to and I am quite happy to take them there. However, I rarely go up to […]
SCOTLAND YARD COMES HOME
The below post was written before the events of Saturday night when London was attacked (again) and ordinary people were killed while enjoying themselves. It is both reassuring and frightening that all three of the killers were themselves shot dead within eight minutes – reassuring that the police are that professional and effective, frightening this we need […]
SURPRISED BY JOY
The great thing about being a tourist guide is that it is a continuing education. On a recent tour the group leader expressed an interest in visiting the home of C S Lewis in Oxford. I had read many of Lewis’s books but knew nothing of where he lived and was not even aware that it […]