h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Cambridge's Tourist Menace - A790030
Author: oblongomaculatus - U193809

Don't try to get anywhere in Cambridge in a hurry...

I hope this isn't some very un-English xenophobia coming out?

Absolutely not. Tourists are all lovely, lovely people, and the fact that every day I want to grind them into dust is in no way xenophobic.

While very interesting and rather entertaining in its- - eccentric way, I'm really not sure this is quite the type of thing one usually sees in the Edited Guide.

This is not to say that it should be removed. It provides some very... unique... information.

GuideML formatting would help it, though. It's not that hard to learn!

--SmartGamer, ACE (and he hopes to someday be a Scout)

I'm afraid I don't think this is suitable for the Edited Guide at all. It is quite funny in a rather sour sort of way, but there's nothing very specific to Cambridge about it. I think the residents of any popular tourist spot could produce the same kind of rant, with (in places like Florence or Venice) the added annoyance of being expected to speak English.

Azara

Sour? Wait till I get strated on the students.
Here's a sneak preview...
Scroungers... Privileged public school elite... Vomit on the pavements... Future Prime Ministers...
Victor Meldrew lives!

ahem... would you like to set up some guidelines for tourists, for example on how and whom to ask for directions and where to look up information before they address locals? Would you expect them to *read* any such guidelines?

If so, then I'd like to turn around the tables and suggest you read the h2g2 Writing-Guidelines

In my opinion, this Entry is more of a rant than anything. I'm sure that Cambridge is a thriving tourist city, but this Entry is more suited for the Community Soapbox than anything.

I think that if this Entry is going to stay in its current state, it is definitely not going to go into the Edited Guide. Peer Review Entries correspond to the Writing-Guidelines. This Entry, does not.

A tourism problem to me would give me pictures of the tourism problem in somewhere like Kenya, where the natural habitat is in danger of being severely damaged. I'm sure that having too many people in one area can be quite claustrophobic, but even a city like London without the tourists would still have a multitude of people milling around.

The Japanese probably travel in groups of about 20 because they are probably with a tour group. It is the same with other tourists.

Unless this Entry is changed to fit the Writing Guidelines, it is not going to get into the Edited Guide. I would suggest that should either be changed so it fits or it is moved out of Peer Review to a more suitable place, like the Community Soapbox.

Caper Plip

Seconded.

Oh, yes. I see what you mean. Shades of Basil Fawlty.

Agreed.

Yes, of course it's a rant. But it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

> "a more suitable place, like the Community Soapbox"

uh, no. To quote from <./>Feedback-Community</.>:

> "Welcome to the Community section of the h2g2 feedback area. If you've got any queries or comments about the h2g2 Community, then please post them below by clicking on the 'Discuss' button, and we'll do our best to get back to you."

> "Please note that this section is only for Community feedback - that's anything that concerns the people on h2g2, Community activites and how the whole Guide and Community relationship works."

--

Can I have a request to people not to change the subject line of entries in Peer Review? It makes it more difficult to get to the relevant entry, particularly when it wraps at 20 posts.

--

The tourist 'problem' is particularly bad in Cambridge because of the number of tourists compared to the size of the town, because of the narrowness of many of the streets, and because of the extreme seasonality of the problem. It's not really a claustrophobia problem: it's a transport problem. While I am sure residents of other towns complain equally about tourists, they cause a particular type of problem in Cambridge that is worth having an entry on. I do know: I was there.

That said, the author does need to try and rewrite this so it is less of an opinion piece and contains lots more facts, if sie wants to get it in the Edited Guide. At the very least, it can't *just* be a rant...

-Martin

I'm not going to rewrite this. I don't care where it'lives' or if it vanishes altogether. it was just a JOKE. Laugh! That's an order!

well, could you be bothered to click on the banner on top (or use the 'Peer Review' link to the left in the Brunel skin), then scroll down the list until you find the 'remove' link? This won't delete anything but remove this thread from the holy grail of Peer Review. Thank you very much.



Bossel (German, owns a rucksack, doesn't know directions in Cambridge...)

OK. Here’s why I wrote it.
I get mildly annoyed to have my way obstructed when I’m in a hurry. Not just in Cambridge; anywhere. In other places it’s usually two mothers (that’s mothers in the person-in-charge-of-a-small-child sense) with a pushchair or buggy each. They spread out across the width of the pavement, and usually manage the block the entrance to at least one shop as well. But it Cambridge, it’s more often tourists. They’re on holiday, and so not in a hurry, but plenty of people are. Including me. I have 15 minutes to get from work to the bus station, and I need every one of them. Having to detour around a bunch of people who are gawping at a large building like they’ve never seen architecture before could mean I get home late. Not a happy prospect. All I did was take this mild exasperation & exaggerate it for comic effect. Cambridge is always going to be congested because the streets are so narrow. The problem could be solved by knocking down some of those old buildings. But that’s not going to happen, is it? Because the tourists like them.

granted and all and I promise I won't stand in your way

That'll make you easy to recognise then!

A rant it may be, but have you ever considered what Cambridge would be like without the tourits. It would be nothing more than a minor provisional town full of achademics doing there own thing of no interest to anyone but themselves.

I live close to another tourists attraction. The ancient City of Chester. Without a doubt, the tourists add to the attaraction of the City - not to mention the financial rewards that they bring.

Have you ever stopped for a minute to speak to a tourist? It is surprising how many of them actually speak English - even the Japanese. A short conversation with somebody from the other side of the World can be an enlightening experience. Just take the time and time is something everyone has, it just needs a bit of thought and condiseration.

Stuart

Yes of cohws ve oll speek Inglish, verri vell indead. Zehr's not ihven a traice of daialekt in zehre!

Yes, I do talk to the tourists. Though enlightening isn't always the word. Like the Russian lady whose English was only slightly better than my Russian, who wanted to get off the bus at Cambourne, a place we had passed though twenty minutes earlier. The driver and I managed to explain that she should get off at the next village and catch a bus back. She was last seen wandering across the cricket field. There wasn't a match in progress, but you got the feeling that if there had been this wouldn't have stopped her...