Tourists arrive but find nobody home as US government shutdown arrives

Plastic placards were hung on fences and on kiosks across the nation Tuesday: Because of the federal government shutdown all National Parks are closed.

In Boston, several historic sites barred their gates and shuttered their information centers. 

At Faneuil Hall, rangers hurried to clean out and shut down the visitor center information booth, leaving map-less tourists to fend for themselves.

Philip Draber from Perth, Australia sat outside taking it all in.

"I just think it's appalling, not my circumstances but all the government employees," he said. "The fact that it's probably very disruptive if you're a business relying on government to do certain things. As much as you believe in capitalism and free enterprise in this country, you also need good governance."

But Draber said he'll continue with his self-guided tour because letting things like government shutdowns stop him is "not the Austrailian way of doing things."

Tourist Marcel Bernhardt from Germany was more sympathic about the shutdown.

"Looking at America," he said, "I think the European point of view is something like, the Americans, it's always the same with these guys. But I think our problems are not so different than yours are."

A few miles down the Freedom Trail at the Charlestown Navy Yard, the USS Constitution is docked. But on Tuesday, America's oldest commissioned naval vessel was behind locked gates. 

Among the many visitors hoping to climb aboard was a group of French tourists, who instead looked at the ship through the fence.

Their guide, Jane Greenhood, was fuming.  

"They're absolutely furious and devastated because this is just the beginning of their tour directly from France to Boston today and they're met by the strike," she said. "Furthermore they're going to New York. That means no Ellis Island. They're going to Washington, that means nothing. Then they're going to the west coast to visit the parks and we know how disastrous that is. So they are besides themselves. And, of course, they think we're idiots because we're afraid of a medical system for all. And what are they benefiting from as we are in Massachusetts? A medical system for all."