Bike reminder

Walking across the University of Texas at Austin campus the other day, I happened to see a series of signs that reminded me of the various cycle-related signs I saw in the UK:

For some reason, whenever there are a lot of bikes around, they get especially touchy about where you park them!

Note the text on the sign is in burnt orange...of course!

Favorite Fotos: finishing up the signs

Just a few more miscellaneous interesting sign photos in the folder, including the one at the right, taken, I believe, near the Tower. I did see a few similar receptacles in other locales, but not as many as I'd put up if I were in charge of city streets. One of my biggest pet peeves is discarded gum on the sidewalk. Tossed-away butts are bad, too, but at least they don't stick to your shoes.

Moving on to another, unrelated (I said this collection was miscellaneous) sign seen near a pond at Hampstead Heath. There are so many interesting things about this notice—men only? why? are they the only people crazy enough to go swimming (in the winter) in water that's untreated, opaque and cold? (characteristics which apparently have their own graphic symbol) how, exactly does one properly go about summoning a lifeguard in case of an emergency?


The sign on the left was posted inside the ladies' loo at Westminster Cathedral. The toilets are located in the Cathedral Kitchen, which is a cafe, not an actual kitchen.

It expresses the fervent hopes of users of public toilets everywhere, doesn't it? And, for the most part, the public loos in the UK, whose praises I'm sure I've sung on earlier occasions in the blog, were left in a very fit state. Hardly, hardly ever out of paper, and usually with both warm water and soap in abundance. What a wonderful civilization, that can provide such facilities!

I have nothing but compliments for Londoners and British people in general, based on my encounters. And though, because of the spelling, I feel this isn't exactly what's meant by the sign below (from what I could gather on the internet, I think it has something to do with alternative medicine), I still thought the wording was very apt:


The sign below I had to snap, given the large numbers of engineers I have as friends and relatives. And I know how easily distractable they are! The door leads to one of the restoration hangars at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.


Now, it seems that the logic of this post, not much to start with, is really falling apart, so I'll close with this sign from a street in Oxford.

It happens that I am finding less logic for this entire blog, as well. I plan to post a finale collection of views of London sometime this week, then at least temporarily sign off Bridges to London. I've definitely gotten the blogging bug, though, and will let my countless (?!) loyal readers know when my new blog is ready for prime time, hopefully also later this week.

Favorite Fotos: Getting around

More photos from my signs collection, plus a few more, to showcase different ways of getting around (or not) in the UK. There are many reasons I would never want to drive a car in London (crazy drivers, crazy bikers, crazy pedestrians, etc.) but the forest of signs on every corner would be a major one. On the right is a corner near the classroom building, where there's a major concentration of foreign embassies—hence the reference to diplomatic parking.

Parking in general is a major headache, I'm sure, for anyone in London with a vehicle. If you live in Kensington, you might be greeted with another diplomatic notice like the one on the left, and wonder, well, where am I supposed to park, then?! (Click on the graphic to see a larger version.)

Then there's the danger of "clamping," which I assume means that axle-locking hardware that catches some cars on our campus here occasionally....


At least most of the time in London the streets are wide enough for two cars (although a few little "closes" and "mews" and "walks" look pretty tight). In Scotland, when you get off the "A" road near Loch Ness, and you meet an oncoming car, you just have to hope that one of these signs isn't far away:



Fortunately, in London at least, you have other ways of getting around. Although I didn't sample the equestrian method, they do take that into account, at least at some intersections (the sign on the right is at the busy Wellington Arch roundabout). And there's always walking, and to help you with this at particularly busy intersections they have subways (not to be confused with the underground, which is called the subway in New York)—handy under-street walkways. Although, I might think twice about using the one referred to in the sign on the left....

And of course there's the tube and the wonderful bus system, the transportation methods of choice for almost all of my journeys. They can take you to amazing places, like Druid Street, near the Tower Bridge Road south of the Thames.

I can tell you quite a bit about London transport from this photo alone. It's a stop where you don't have to hail the bus (because of the white background behind the bus roundel; if the background is red the sign will also say "request stop" and you need to make eye contact with the approaching bus driver to let him/her know you want to get on). If it was 4 in the morning, you could still get a bus here (the number 188) and during the day you can also catch the 42 and the 78 (and I could consult my handy central London bus map and see exactly where these routes would take me, but even without that I'd know I could either head toward the Surrey Quays or Aldgate). Once you get the hang of it, it's an unparalleled transport system that saves you from having to drive in the crazy, crazy traffic. (Hal wrote this nice piece with more practical info on London buses.)

If you see a number 9 or number 15 (there might be a few other routes, too, but I remember these) on your bus stop, you might get to ride in one of the few remaining old style double deckers like this one:


But most of the buses you see are newer models, although most are still double-deckers, unlike this one, touting its new hybrid engine:

Favorite Fotos: Multiculturalism

I've got a lot on my long weekend to-do list (including starting to design a new blog), so I'm making today's post very brief—a short sample of multilingual signs.

In a gesture typical of the tolerant and courteous attitude I found everywhere in London, they bi-lingualize their street signs occasionally, depending on the ethnic makeup of a neighborhood. Hal and I noticed English-Chinese street signs in their tiny Chinatown, and on the right is another example. This time the second language is, I think, Bangla, in an east London neighborhood I toured with the students' British culture class. The prof giving us the tour noted that the same neighborhood has seen waves of different types of immigrants, with the Bangladeshi folks being the latest.

Lots of folks from eastern Europe have come to the UK seeking better jobs and living conditions, as we noticed in London when conversing with young ladies behind the counter in sandwich shops who seemed often to have heavy Slavic-related accents (in Henry's opinion, they were usually quite lovely, as well). On the left is a for rent sign, which I think was in Edinburgh, that shows there must a lot of Polish emigrés there. (For some reason, I assumed it was Polish—could be something else?)

Then there are the more home-grown varieties of different cultures that are expresed in bilingual highway and other official signs, similar to what you see in Canada. On the cluster of signs below, which were along the highway that runs next to Loch Ness, you see not only Scottish Gaelic, but other languages to help tourists from all over remember that crazy aspect of British driving....

And you can get a whiff of the very complicated-looking spelling of Welsh on these signs, which greeted us right after crossing the border from England, on the very congested westward lanes of the M4.

Favorite Fotos: Careful on those bikes!

I felt like posting something a bit more lighthearted after the two days of war memorials, and so I dipped back into my sign collection. Two of the small categories I've sorted the photos into rather go together—bicycles and general safety notices—so they provide the basis for today's entry.

The sign at the right, taken next to the Wellington Arch, in a very busy area for all kinds of transport (as you can see on the street-crossing lights at the left), displays a worthy message. The "be aware" sign isn't on the road, though, where you might think it's aimed at motorists, but on a pedestrian (and equine) walkway. In London, pedestrians do need to be aware of cyclists at all times, for their own benefit as well as the bike-riders. Unlike cars, bikes usually come upon you silently as you think it's finally safe to cross the street, and I had a couple of close calls with them myself.

Before getting to London, I thought taking a bike tour of part of the city sounded like fun. And there might be some areas where it would be. But after seeing the way they weave in and out of traffic, between lorries and buses, and speeding down bumpy streets—you'll never get me on a bike in London now. The rides we had in Potsdam with our German friends were hair-raising enough for me, and that's a pretty sleepy little village compared with London. So take the following, rather mysteriously-worded sign to heart....

Since I know this photo was taken in Bishop's Park, I'm fairly confident it does refer to bicycles, but taken out of context, couldn't it also be talking about economic cycles? climate cycles?

Cyclists are subject to all kinds of admonitions themselves, such as the "dismount" command on the sign shown on the left in a Kensington neighborhood. I was a bit lost when I took the photo, as I thought it would be easy to find a way from Hyde Park back to the classroom building on Cromwell Road without taking the major streets I was comfortable with. But when little streets do what this one does, unexpectedly....well, fortunately I found a helpful parking meter reader who told me how to exit the maze, and it did involve walking through this tiny gate, where I was glad any cyclists I might have encountered would have been dismounted.

Here's another sign aimed at cyclists. I believe this one was taken in either Cambridge or Oxford where, when classes are in session, you literally take your life in your hands crossing any street at any time due to the constant flow of bike-riders. But at least you'd be safe in this archway, at least theoretically.

On to more general safety notices, among which my favorite is this one on the left. I love the linguistic precision with which its warning is given: you're informed that there's not just a little danger involved, but danger of death. I don't remember where this photo was taken exactly, although I think it was just somewhere along a sidewalk, but you see similar signs not infrequently in London associated with gates, doors, and construction sites (which are quite plentiful).

The next two signs were taken at small train stations in East Anglia, either Whittlesford, which is the nearest station to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, or Kelvedon, which is nearest Earls Colne. We didn't have trouble with slippery stairs leading over the tracks to the right platform at these stations, but I did experience the turbulence caused by a passing train (and it won't surprise you to learn that not all the trains stop at Whittlesford Parkway or Kelvedon). I had followed the sign's advice and wasn't standing near the edge, and I'm glad I wasn't. The force of the air displaced by the rushing train was quite astounding!














Finally, a sign from another form of mass transit, this time the tour bus we took to a rugby match in suburban London with my class. Something just struck me funny about the wording of what I assume are instructions for emergency escape from the top of the double-decker. What happens if you don't have a hammer on you? And mighn't those remnants be a bit sharp?

Favorite Fotos: going to the dogs

Looking over my funny/interesting/curious signs folder, I found a fairly large number of these gems so far unpublished. So from time to time I'll intersperse thematic groups of signs into the favorite fotos posts. First up: signs relating to dogs and dog ownership.

All of my guests and myself were constantly impressed with the good behavior of British dogs. Joan said Maggie would have to go to obedience college before she'd be permitted to visit England. We saw dogs in restaurants, on the tube and bus, and of course being walked in the parks and along the streets. I even saw one riding an escalator, although signs there say you're supposed to carry them. And never, ever, did I see one mis-behaving or hardly ever even barking, except in the parks.

There are lots of restrictions on the behavior of dogs and dog owners, as you can see from the signs here, particularly in the area of maintenance of doggie "business." But except for an occasional uncollected deposit on the sidewalk, they all obey the rules.

And I certainly never saw one disturbing the wild fowl! (To be fair, fowl in the parks of London are hardly wild—you've never seen such well-fed critters!)


To offset the large number of warnings and restrictions, London dogs enjoy a lot of amenities, in addition to being able to go into restaurants and onto public transportation. Special "business" areas in some of the parks, for example (I believe this one was in Holland Park):


And special receptacles for the products of the "business." The one on the right was in Hyde Park, I'm pretty sure, but I saw them in other parks as well.

And you have other evidence of the high esteem in which dogs are held in Britain. I saw this plaque on a park bench in Battersea Park. (There are often plaques in honor of people on London park benches.) In case you can't read the inscription, it says "Winston: The World's Best Dog."

There's even a special burial area on the grounds of Edinburgh Castle, reserved for departed canine companions:


And, to take the homage a bit further, there is this fine "Animals in War" memorial, which several of my students included in the war memorial papers they wrote for my class. Beyond the wall with the bas-reliefs is a dog sculpture, but I wasn't able to get as good a photo of that side of the monument. You can see photos of the entire structure in the Wikipedia article by following the link.


One of the inscriptions on the monument notes that "they had no choice," but, from pigeons to dogs to horses, and more, they did serve Britain in wartime and have been acknowledged here.

Blog break

Gotta take a break from grading papers. I'm almost done!

Since I didn't do anything of blogging interest yesterday (only left the flat to get take-away kebabs for dinner) I thought I'd treat you today to a selection of some of the amusing and sometimes inexplicable signs I've seen throughout the semester.

Here's one from Bishop's Park. I thought it was an interesting thing to remind ladies to do when entering the public loo. (Public loos, by the way, are one of this city's most fabulous advantages—they're clean, well-stocked (with not only paper but soap) and there are lots of them. What a civilized country this is!)


Other informative signs appear in this particular park, such as the welcome warning below:


Some of the signs obviously assume a higher reading level among the population than we have at home. And people do read here, all the time; it's unusual to see someone on the tube without some reading material. It's often the free papers, but they are reading! And more times than you'd think they've also got a regular book, and not just a trashy novel, either, I've seen some pretty hefty literature being consumed on the tube.

Although, to be completely accurate, I think this sign was in the station in Cambridge, where you would expect people to be pretty literate.

And then there are some signs that, even knowing what the words signify, convey little real meaning to the uninitiated, or to traveling Americans:


The one above was taken at Lord's Cricket Ground, and those folks do delight in obscure terminology.

But this one's just a mystery:

Sports blog!

We've done up English sports our last two nights. Championship (which is actually one level down from the top flight) football last night and Guinness Premiership Rugby Union tonight. Both games were fun. We saw QPR come back to score a late equalizer against Blackpool last night, with the game ending 1-1. Unfortunately we didn't bring our usual sports tourism good luck to the London Wasps tonight, as they lost to Bath, 27-23. But what an exciting game! We saw a beautiful Wasps try right in front of our end zone seats. And the crowd went wild!

I haven't taken any pictures the last few days, so I thought I'd show a couple more selections from my English signs collection to jazz up this post. These two are from Edinburgh, although they have no other relationship to each other:






And, finally, here's one from Harrod's that so nicely epitomizes English politeness. I will paraphrase it to close the post and let you know I probably won't be blogging for a few days. I'm taking one of my favorite blog's titles literally and just taking a plane ride back home, or, at least, almost home, as I attend my nephew's wedding in Denver. I apologize for any inconvenience caused whilst this travel takes place.

Slow blog days

Not much new to report today, as I spent most of yesterday working, with my class at the War Museum, and in meeting/socializing with a delightful group of British government librarians.

So I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of the curious, funny, and otherwise interesting signs I've been noticing around London. The one at the top of the post is one of my favorites, from a street in Greenwich.

The other samples are from a churchyard in Kensington and one that Hal and Sally particularly liked, on the back of an ice-cream truck near one of the Thames bridges. The ice cream was fabulous, by the way, especially with the 50 p. extra "flake."

The kids left for Wales today on their daring driving trip, which will end up in Edinburgh this weekend. (I hope all the stuff they're taking will fit in their tiny rental car.) So don't look for new blog posts from Hal for a few days, as they didn't take their computer.

Our accommodations in Edinburgh are supposed to have wifi, though, so hopefully we'll be able to share some of our impressions of that city with you on the spot.