Tourism Year and Some Light on Places Visited in Beautiful Trip - Part 2

I am continuing from where it is left in the last post – a write-up on the places visited after I came to U.S. in April’22. Even a few months before I came to U.S., I was visiting new places back in India as well which I may open up in another post. On the first day of the last year 2022, I was on a short trip visiting a temple and a big mythological museum on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The entire year was panned out in a similar way – an extension of what I did on New Year's Eve. This year as well, on the New Year's Eve of 2023, I was in a big city in U.S. visiting a major park with two museums in it. By the way things have panned out, we can certainly tell that 2022 is the year for tourism and 2023 is also great for visiting new places or can be called as tourism year. In both these years, I was present in the tourist capital of the world – U.S. which is an added bonus. 

On that note, let us educate, entertain and revel through the many tourist locations which this country has to offer in this category. As I mentioned, U.S. is a heaven for activities around tourism and let us positively impact the thousands of people who depend on this industry for their livelihood. The services, hospitality and tourism industry is a big slice of the cake and by being an active member in it, we are contributing to the many players within the segment. Let us encourage people to visit new places, expand their horizon, learn new things and enrich their lives by marking 2023 as yet another year of tourism.

 

The progress of the country can be measured by how well it has travelled in this space of providing educational and recreational options to new people and residents alike. One visible indicator is – All developed nations across the world are great destinations for tourism as well. In other words, attracting a lot of people to visit is a great measure of progress and development as well. Most of the western and European nations rank high in this space and are generally listed among the top 10 destinations to visit. France is the world’s number one destination with nearly 89 million visitors a year. It is followed by Spain and United States with 83, 79 million visitors coming to these two countries in a year. The next seven positions are occupied by China, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Germany and United Kingdom. The tenth placed UK attracts over 39 million visitors a year. The big question is – how many visitors come to India every year. The number is 10 million a year, which is 4 times less than UK, 8 times less than US and 9 times less than that of France. France, UK and four other European countries in top 10 are negligible in size, population when compared with India but still people prefer these countries and flock to them in millions. 

India needs to make giant strides in this space and be a top destination for people all over the world. India needs to position itself like a magnet by developing top-notch places to visit and invigorate the interest among people in making a trip to enrich their own selves. Catering to non-residents is part of ‘Athithi Devobahava’ which is a noble virtue and India still needs to cater to its 1.4 billion population as well. The inhouse residents needs to have multiple options to visit in a developing nation to lead a holistic life while educating, entertaining and enriching their own selves. It a great mark of progress and if we look at the real picture, it requires lot of work to happen.

The quality of life and standard of living is abysmal in the country which is directly linked to these parameters – how happy people are about their lives. Just question if each division in a city or town has a good park to unwind at least. The answer is a big ‘No’ and Indian way of living doesn’t have an outlet for these features. The city of Hyderabad with more than 10 million population has just one age-old museum and what importance is being given to culture, history, arts, tradition and diversity of the land. If we don’t make an attempt to preserve, who will take care of it and talk about the richness of our own people, places and others as well. In simple words, the nation as a whole need to offer wide range of possibilities for its own citizens and visitors to better utilize the off-time. An array of places to visit needs to be built to serve the billion plus citizens and millions of travelling first-time visitors. At least we can do better than U.S. or the least, we can do better than Mexico, Turkey and Thailand which are miles ahead and sitting among top 10 nations drawing people big time.

 

Resuming the brief on places visited in U.S. in this trip, the below is the small detail on remaining 8 places of interest visited till date.

 

Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee - The Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is a museum dedicated to the history and culture of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The museum has a large collection of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and related artifacts, including over 450 motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of photographs, films, and other items. The collection ranges from the earliest days of the company to the present and includes a wide range of models and styles. My own interest lies in riding a similar bike back in India for nearly 5 years and visiting this better, sophisticated bike place is certainly thought to be a good activity.

 

Pabst Mansion, Milwaukee – This is a historic mansion in small area near the downtown. It was built in 1892 for Captain Frederick Pabst, the former president of the Pabst Brewing Company, one of the largest breweries in the United States at the time. The mansion is a grand and opulent building, with over 40 rooms and 18,000 square feet of space. It features a variety of architectural styles, including Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque, and is adorned with ornate plasterwork, stained glass windows, and intricate wood carvings. I took the guided tour and the person explained in lucid detail everything about the intricacies of the place. I observed the place is technologically advanced for the times it is built in 19th century.

 

Milwaukee Art Museum - The Milwaukee Art Museum was founded in 1888 and is home to over 30,000 works of art from around the world. The museum's collection includes a wide range of art, including paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs. The museum also has a large collection of contemporary art and is known for its iconic wing-like addition, which was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. The wing-like resemblance of the place is beautiful to look at and the museum is one of the best designed places in the city as well as those I visited.

Milwaukee County Zoo - It was founded in 1892 and is home to over 3,000 animals from over 300 different species. The zoo is spread out over 200 acres and features a wide range of exhibits, including African animals, primates, small mammals, and reptiles. The zoo is also home to several endangered species and is involved in conservation efforts to protect these animals. I wandered around the place in one afternoon and travelled in cable rope way within the location which I felt is a nice addition.

American Writers Museum, Chicago - The American Writers Museum celebrates American writers and their contributions to literature. The museum was founded in 2011 and opened to the public in 2017. The museum's exhibits explore the diverse and rich literary heritage of the United States through a variety of interactive and engaging exhibits. These exhibits showcase the works of American writers from a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and more. I particularly liked the presentation aspect of this place which is engaging. It presented nearly 100 writers with small snippets about them which is worthwhile to know about.

 

St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station – This is the aquarium which is located at the center in union station, St. Louis, Missouri. The aquarium features a variety of exhibits that showcase aquatic life from around the world, including species from the Mississippi River, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Ocean. Some of the exhibits at the St. Louis Aquarium include a 500,000-gallon tank that houses sharks and rays, a touch tank where visitors can interact with sea creatures, and a rainforest exhibit that features exotic fish and reptiles. St. Louis is built on the banks of Mississippi river and this aquarium is a great addition in that direction to the water species.

 

Missouri History Museum - The museum was founded in 1866 and is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the state of Missouri. It is located in Forest Park, a large urban park in St. Louis. I am very much intrigued by the Forest Park and its size in the middle of city, the importance architects gave to a park. The museum has some exhibits which are on 1904 world’s fair in the city, coloring STL, St. Louis Sound etc. More than the artefacts, many people came to the café in the museum which is bustling with variety of food on offer. The souvenir store is also nice extension with attractive collection.

 

St. Louis Art Museum – This museum is also located within the Forest Park. The distinctive feature is admission to forest park is free, admission to history museum is free, admission to art museum is free and everything else in this large park is also free to enter. Being free doesn’t make them inferior to any but superior to most. For instance, it is one of the largest art museums in the United States and contains over 100,000 works of art, ranging from ancient to contemporary art. The museum is housed in a building designed by architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed the United States Supreme Court building. The museum's collection includes art from many different cultures, time periods and different countries. Among all, I found the collection in this art museum to be very attractive.

 

This is all about the places I visited till date. I don’t know if it is right or wrong to visit these many places or right or wrong to write about them in this space. This is since you can never comprehend the American way of things, its functioning and how careful we need to be while treading the steps. The idea behind is to make the audience visualize these places through the small write-up. If anyone cannot make it, especially from India, you can definitely look through my blogosphere lens. There is no other intention. That said, it is never the best option to visit but engage in some other meaningful activity. I exercised this subordinate option for the lack of any other activity. Nevertheless, the places are all visually brilliant and it is an eye-feast for anyone out here on the purpose.

 

Among the other important happenings, before going on the tour on New Year's Eve, I was particularly disturbed by the news of passing away of PM Modi’s mother. The mother nonetheless is a mother for all and after so many engaging moments, it is difficult to lose a man’s biggest personal asset. It is particularly shocking to see the PM not taking leave of his duties even on the day of her demise. After completing the final rites in the morning, he is quick to inaugurating important projects in West Bengal for which the entire state machinery is looking forward in the later part of day. He is literally working over suffering dangerous personal loss and making sure it doesn’t come in the way of exercising the professional duties. In doing so, he has become the first and best PM of modern times to put country above the self. But this shouldn’t happen in first place. We need to get our priorities right and shouldn’t work in dangerous territories. When greatness is in offing, things happen for a reason. It would be wise to pause and take note of them before moving ahead.