aeberbach
Headphoneus Supremus
Or more clearly, don't go to stare at Amish people like they are some kind of zoo animal.
I went hoping to hang out in the country, hear horses trotting by, eat good food and relax. I found the most disgusting, crass, cynical exercise in exploiting tourists and disrespecting locals that I've ever seen. I watched busloads of fat retirees arrived every 15 minutes or so to gawp at people trying to go about their business. I walked through stores filled with Chinese-made crap that had nothing whatsoever to do with the locale or the locals. I was amazed that someone would erect a huge cinema offering the "Amish Multimedia Experience!" for $13.95 each adult. I had a taxi driver tell me that some people actually walk through people's homes and farms as if they are there as a tourist attraction. They don't like that but they don't stop it either - turn the other cheek is taken seriously.
Apart from that the town itself is nice enough. We saw some beautifully restored classic cars like AC Cobras, Mustangs, Cadillacs, Thunderbirds etc. at the show on Sunday and ate at a great bar (Belvedere Hotel) where the band was better than the food and the food was GREAT. But the spectacle of the exploitative tourist trade left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope the Amish find somewhere peaceful to live and the tourist-trappers are left with nothing but a lot of empty fields and 8,000 resin-sculpted toilet door signs featuring male and female teddy bears dressed as NYC firefighters, each featuring small compartments for pot pourri. The worst thing is I feel like I was a part of it.
I went hoping to hang out in the country, hear horses trotting by, eat good food and relax. I found the most disgusting, crass, cynical exercise in exploiting tourists and disrespecting locals that I've ever seen. I watched busloads of fat retirees arrived every 15 minutes or so to gawp at people trying to go about their business. I walked through stores filled with Chinese-made crap that had nothing whatsoever to do with the locale or the locals. I was amazed that someone would erect a huge cinema offering the "Amish Multimedia Experience!" for $13.95 each adult. I had a taxi driver tell me that some people actually walk through people's homes and farms as if they are there as a tourist attraction. They don't like that but they don't stop it either - turn the other cheek is taken seriously.
Apart from that the town itself is nice enough. We saw some beautifully restored classic cars like AC Cobras, Mustangs, Cadillacs, Thunderbirds etc. at the show on Sunday and ate at a great bar (Belvedere Hotel) where the band was better than the food and the food was GREAT. But the spectacle of the exploitative tourist trade left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope the Amish find somewhere peaceful to live and the tourist-trappers are left with nothing but a lot of empty fields and 8,000 resin-sculpted toilet door signs featuring male and female teddy bears dressed as NYC firefighters, each featuring small compartments for pot pourri. The worst thing is I feel like I was a part of it.