Everything is a museum now
Plus, gate agents fibbing about bin space, a train making people cry, and travel influencers complaining.
Like all good New Englanders, my family is hypersensitive to what constitutes a lot of people. More than four cars at a light? Traffic has gotten horrible. They have experienced European cities so crowded that people have no choice but to walk on the street, and yet will see a few groups lining sidewalks in Newport and worry about how overrun the town will be that weekend.
What this meant as a child is that the popular beach (Sachuest, better known as Second) was reserved for weekdays when only locals went, and Navy (Third) for weekends because it didn’t have waves, so out-of-towners wouldn’t want to go. Third is also where we had a mooring for the boat and kayaks, and where I’d undertake daunting adventures like paddling to a little slip of rocks jutting out from a cliff under one of the grand homes.
Dubbed Lion’s Head Rock (the U.S. Geological Survey calls it Wood’s Castle), it was a large chunk of stone connected to the cliff by a spit of a beach covered in water-worn stones. Kayaking there with my dad meant I’d have to chicken out from climbing up and jumping off. Kayaking out alone would mean getting to lie on the oscillating stones as they massaged my back and I dreamed about becoming a wizard or sex or all the houses I wanted to own around the world. My grandiose ambitions had historic precedent—it was here that the comte de Rochambeau had his forces practice war games after arriving in 1780.
Over the last decade, the heft of Lion’s Head Rock has crumbled a bit and now it’s a much skinnier nub of a thing. In another decade or two, it might be gone.
It’s bittersweet, but feels right somehow. We live on the Atlantic, after all, and the sea is anything but merciful.
I’m reminded of it because of the news the other day that Greek authorities plan to “save” the now iconic Navagio Beach and its shipwreck on Zakynthos by artificially extending the shoreline by 30 meters into the sea using gravel.
Something about this decision reads wrong, and is also representative of this current moment where everything is a museum and needs to stay picture-perfect for tourists. After all, it’s not as if the ship itself is historically significant or its story of how it got there is particularly enthralling. (The most exciting version is that it was smuggling contraband cigarettes, and rather than be caught by the Greek Navy, the sailors abandoned the ship when it ran aground.)
By the millions, Americans flood Europe each year as a sort of living museum. We leave behind our skyscraper cities or climate-controlled McMansion suburbs to gallivant around. We’re so obsessed with getting photographs of things looking just-so that anything photogenic (a la Venice or the Trevi Fountain) is slowly getting turned into a ticketed attraction.
In Athens, we grumble about it being a lot grittier than we expected, and instead of enjoying the chaos and vibrancy of this Eastern Mediterranean metropolis, tourists cling to the bougainvillea-bedecked roads of Plaka. The Greece we foreigners have always wanted, from its independence on through today, is the Hellenistic version, not the colorful and confusing Byzantine reality.
Our interest in Europe is largely superficial; otherwise, why would so little of modern Europe grab us? The closest we might come to touching something contemporary are the nightclubs of Ibiza. Or maybe the Pompidou, which is now a half-century old and probably would be torn down if you left it up to a poll of tourists. The “modern” cities—your Rotterdams, Frankfurt, the outer neighborhoods of Madrid, Milan, etc.—are not beloved. Even Berlin seems to be about recreating something historic—the libertine Weimar era.
I’m sure there are legitimate reasons for the Greek government to add the gravel extension, one of them being safety given the risks of landslides. But I think we’d all be better off if we could enjoy beautiful things that we know are disappearing and let them run their course or evolve.
It’s not like we won’t have a million photos to remember them by.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
I would extend this sentiment to travel booking platforms generally. The gap between the mainline U.S. carriers and any other airline worldwide, including the oft-lauded Asian and Middle Eastern carriers, is massive.
Why does everybody keep turning to David Chipperfield for museum design?! I missed that a few months ago the firm’s designs for the extension of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens had been greenlit. The firm’s work is so cold! And colorless! Which only propagates the misunderstanding that everything in antiquity was colorless marble.
I have had this exact experience twice in the last six months, and it’s infuriating. First, just be honest about why you’re doing it (expediting boarding), and second, try not to be egregious about it!
Sorry to disagree with the legend herself, but the Amtrak lounge is not worth a one-time fee of $50!!!
Southwest needs to stop being a big tease about its plans because it’s getting annoying and starting to make me think they’re dragging it out because they’re finding it hard to pull off.
Four months ago I noted some particularly atrocious finalists for a new landmark in Rotterdam, and one of the more atrocious of the four was just announced the winner…
Great news for fans of Antwerp (which you should be after you’ve read my guide) as Eurostar is adding a new nonstop from London starting in December.
As somebody who knows a number of travel influencers, this column about how it involves hard work is laughable. Work? Yes. More work than people might think? Yes. Hard work of the kind that one should feel comfortable complaining publicly about? No.
STORIES I LOVED OR WISH I’D DONE
Tanner Saunders is one of the nicest people working in the travel industry, an opinion I know I’m far from alone in holding. He lost his husband recently, and wrote about grappling with that for Travel + Leisure in a really beautiful piece titled: “Suddenly Losing My Husband Catapulted Me Into a Life of Solo Travel—and Continuing to See the World Has Saved Me”
Headlines don’t get much better than “A Locomotive Named Big Boy Is Making Grown Men Cry” … and the story about Big Boy 4014 (the world’s largest operating steam locomotive) making its first cross-country trip is awesome.
Skiers will always find a way, and this ABC story about the mountain resort of Lesotho was a nice “who knew?!” story.
TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS
The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery has reopened for first time since the theft, but no jewels on display
The Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles will be restored
Tampa, Charleston, and Des Moines are switching to privatized security screening
American Airlines to allow for TSA Touchless ID enrollment at check-in
China fines travel platform Trip.com $765M over monopoly abuse claims
Germany’s national railway to ban alcohol consumption at most of its stations
As an Athens enjoyer I can’t help but agree with what you’re saying here. Athens has garnered this reputation of disappointing tourists upon arrival for not having the same curated look of the islands - which, for the record, it does, in Anafiotika. However, that’s the charm of the city. It’s the homogenous architecture with the bustling atmosphere, the organised disorganisation, that makes Athens Athens.