Guiding Lights

We visited a number of castles, museums and other attractions - so we experienced various guides, docents and interpreters.  Here are some thoughts about them (but not about Jan, the Queen of the Guides; we've spoken of her elsewhere).

Enthusiasm and charm
The prize for this goes to the young gentleman at Apsley House.  He had plenty of stories to tell us, and just about chased us around the place to give us just a little more.  Some might have thought him a little pushy, but for a Dukophile too much is never enough.  There must be an honorable mention for Angie at Lanerost Priory near Carlisle.  She was nice and helpful and a bit of a saleswoman - and we appreciated it.  Also in the Carlisle area was the chap at the desk at The Border Regiment Museum at the Castle.  I don't like to monopolise people if there are others waiting, but there weren't, so I did.  It's a fine little museum and he shared with us his hopes and dreams and disappointments.  I wish them well.

Knowledge
The staff at the Handel House in London had a good handle on their topic (but there was one who didn't know the ropes) and they really added to our appreciation.  Bruce and Annie in Edinburgh, of course, were able to give us a lot of background at the National Gallery in Edinburgh, as did the lady at the ground floor shop in Gladstone's Land.

Audio tours
We only did a couple of these, and perhaps should have done more. The one at Holyrood Palace was superb, as was the turn-out of the staff.  The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin also had a good audio guide (and here's a free plug for the National Library of Australia whose iPhone app doubles as an audio guide).

General layout
It's hard to go beyond the Deutsches Historisches Museum that encapsulates a lot of German history (warts and all) in a very sensible viewing order, but they'd probably be hoping that there's not too much more history to happen, because they'll be running out of space fast.

and just a couple of brickbats
There were three occasions when the guides or interpreters ventured outside their areas of expertise and got mired in the swamp of folk etymology.  I wish they wouldn't.