Post by oldmike on Jan 16, 2007 14:53:18 GMT 7
Is Wales closed during the winter? Are the churches in England open at Christmas? From the confused to the frankly bizarre, British tourist centres have dealt with them all.
Visit Britain, the national tourism agency, has half-a-million people a year pass through its information centres seeking advice on how to make the most of their trip.
But staff have often found themselves wide-eyed with disbelief at some of the off-the-wall questions thrown their way by befuddled tourists.
One visitor was less than sound as a pound on the local currency, asking: "Where can I change my money for English euros?"
Some tourists got in a right royal mix-up over Queen Elizabeth II's residences.
Windsor Castle is the best part of 1 000 years old but one visitor demanded to know why on earth it was built under the noisy flight path to London Heathrow airport.
Meanwhile, another asked: "When is the changing of the guard at the White House?"
And the person who asked "In what city is your Tokyo office?" was not the only befuddled visitor.
One tourist wanted to know what month the May Day demonstration was, while another asked, "What is the entry fee for Brighton?", the popular seaside city on the southern English coast.
One imaginative visitor wanted to find out if there was any other way to get to the island of Jersey "apart from sea or air travel".
Forget Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, mid-1980s topless models were the first thing on the mind of one visitor to Britain, who asked: "Do you have any information on Samantha Fox?"
Piccadilly Circus, the London intersection famous for its electric billboards, had one visitor taking it all too literally, asking: "Can you tell me who performs at the circus in Piccadilly?"
The London Underground network stretches as far north as the leafy suburbs, but Scotland might be pushing it a bit. One tourist asked: "What Tube line runs to Edinburgh?"
Perhaps it was the same person who left staff in Scotland speechless.
"Is Edinburgh in Glasgow?"; "What time of night does the Loch Ness monster surface and who feeds it?"; and "Which bus do I get from the Orkney Islands to the Shetland Islands?" were asked in all seriousness.
Pointing to the isle of Iona on a map, one tourist said: "How do I get to one zero NA?"
A young boy visiting Dundee could be forgiven for asking to meet Crocodile Dundee, the 1980s Australian film character.
But there was no excuse for the following, all asked by full-grown adults: "Can you tell me where the mountain is in Scotland?"; "Are there any curves in the roads here, or are they all straight?"; and "What time does the midnight train leave?".
"Visitors' queries range from the very routine to the absolutely ridiculous and everything in between," said Visit Scotland director Willie Macleod.
"But no matter how odd the question, we're always glad to help out."
However, the tourism chiefs do not always get the last laugh.
Visit Britain blamed pranksters and apologised last month for a link on its website that directed visitors looking for further information on Cardiff to a pornography page. -- AFP
