VISITORS to Windsor Castle voted with their feet yesterday when a new
charge of #8 a head was introduced.
Scores turned away in disgust, saying the fee was a ''royal rip off.''
The #8 fee was imposed as an all-in price for visitors to the castle.
Previously they could walk round the grounds free of charge.
The fee is expected to raise at least #1.25m this year to help pay for
the restoration of the castle buildings damaged in the November 1992
blaze.
But after queueing in the pouring rain, 40 German students gave it the
thumbs down.
When they were told the cost, they headed straight back to their tour
bus.
Their teacher Rainer Hatzky said: ''It's too much for my students to
pay. There is no discount for parties or students, which is unfair.
''I think the Queen has enough money to pay for the repairs without
charging people like us.''
The students, from Dortmund and all aged 18-20, marched off muttering
their disapproval, leaving Japanese tourists Chie Hazaha and Noriko Miki
as the first guests, bewildered by the attention of TV cameras and press
photographers.
Others who turned away in disgust included Nik Solechniki, a Russian
who works in Egham, Surrey.
He said: ''I have been here before, but I certainly won't pay the fee
today. What's the point? People should be allowed in the grounds for
free because that does not cause any wear and tear.''
However, those among the 768 visitors who did pay in the first two
hours were not so critical.
New Yorker Frances Manzy said: ''It's a fair price to see a beautiful
castle.''
Fellow Americans Charles Kegley and Linda Schwarz, from South
Carolina, said: ''We have to pay to see everything in America, so it's
no worse here.
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