DECEMBER PROMPT | A-CULTURATED

There’s Nothing To Do Here: What I Learned From Working in Travel

Figuring it all out on the coaches and trains

Dealing with surplus energy in Spain. Author photo.

‘There’s nothing to do here, is there?’

The middle-aged couple step onto the British coach parked up in — where, exactly? I could be remembering any number of places where I’d worked as a coach tour guide. Maybe it was half-timbered Monschau in Germany, or Swiss Stein am Rhein with its painted house facades. I only remember it was somewhere medieval and beautiful.

But the couple from Sheffield are looking to be entertained. For them, the historic town has nothing to do. They don’t want to explore the backstreets of somewhere very different from Sheffield. They’d rather walk back to the coach to sit and grumble and ask me to serve them instant tea in a plastic cup.

I was approaching my thirties when I’d decided to change career and work in the travel industry. I wanted to be on the road permanently, and a job in travel seemed the best way.

Those were pre-internet days, and I researched everywhere using the library. I prepared detailed commentaries on history, culture and traditions, to keep the passengers entertained during long hours on the German autobahns. I even presented the…