Alton Towers has opened for 2012

If I had a £1 for everyone that asks how far we are to Alton Towers I'd be quite well off by now ... would've earned my first £1 of the season this morning! (2.6 miles btw).  This week we have holiday cottage guests that have come from Scotland with their teenage girls to enjoy some Alton Towers thrills and spills.  Lovely folk, have just enjoyed chatting to the parents while they wait for the teens to surface for the day.

It marks the real start to the 2012 season. For us locals there is this lovely spell between the sun coming out and the Alton Towers new season opening when we have the Churnet Valley to ourselves and those that come here to walk. Thanks to the lovely spring weather this year, that magical time was long.  Alton Towers has been open for a week so far, but unlike some seasons I haven't noticed the impact yet.  Only once, when I was taking my son to cubs at Alton Village Hall, have I been inconvenienced.  Cubs coincides with the the park exit rush and the Towers traffic through Alton village is always impatient and unforgiving so we have to wait a while to join the main road turning right.  As the season progresses this actually improves because there are so many cars that the traffic slows and is more inclined to let us join the flow.  It's just the way it is!

Luckily we are not resident in Alton so we aren't troubled by traffic except on cubs day. And Alton Towers brings us lovely guests too. There is something about benefiting from Alton Towers tourism that makes me a whole lot more forgiving about the inconvenience of having a major UK tourist destination in the neighbourhood.  Funny that ;-)