“The English are encouraged to respect the privacy of these insular, but kind people and their simple lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a nice, aimless meander down the area’s backcountry roads, which take you past one-room schoolhouses, neat fields cultivated by mule-driven plows, quaintly named towns like Bird-in-Hand and Paradise (and Blue Ball or Intercourse).”
My experience this time around is that they aren’t as insular as they once were. While the Amish, specifically, still like their privacy, they are more actively participating in the commerce of tourism. While I was looking up things to do, there was an option to visit The Amish Farm and House and have dinner with a local Amish family, in their home.
The reviews were spectacular, and it seems the family looks at it as an opportunity to meet others and develop friendships. I wish my schedule had allowed me to participate.
“The Historic Smithton Inn, [has been] welcoming guests since 1763, when it was built as a stagecoach stop. … It’s located adjacent to the Ephrata Cloister, an historic site [,] composed of more than twenty beautifully restored buildings. It was once home to a Quaker-like monastic sect whose population reach 300 in its 1750 heyday.”
Last, but never least – I stopped by Kitchen Kettle Village. They were offering a package where you pay, like $30, and get a free gift from several stores as well as $15 toward lunch at Harvest Café. Since I was planning to go anyway, it seemed like good motivation because I really hate shopping. (I was gonna go anyway to get a soft pretzel, but that may have been the extent of it without the incentive to go into stores.) Anyway, it’s grown quite a bit since the last time I visited and I ended up spending way more than I planned, and it was during the worst of the bad air quality days from the Canadian fires, but man, it still felt like going home. And that pretzel was still delicious.
