Time for a ‘Tom Tom’ ?
Posted by Big John on September 6, 2007
This week my daughter and her husband are taking a break on the Kent coast near Deal, so yesterday my wife and I decided to pay them a visit, as where they are staying is only a fortyfive minute drive from our home.
We had a very pleasant day which included a huge lunch at ‘The Zetland Arms’, a beachside pub which is a bit difficult to find as it is situated a mile or two down a narrow country lane in the badly signposted village of Kingsdown.
Now I know that when you get out into the country around here you can still find signposts that would be familiar to a stagecoach driver or to Chaucer’s pilgrims, and you can come to a halt at crossroads where I suspect the signposts were removed during World War II to confuse Hitler’s soldiers, should they ever have landed on our shores; but you don’t expect to see the name of a town or village at an exit of a motorway, only to find that when you leave that motorway that name never again appears on any road sign !
Yesterday, after thinking that I had discovered a quick way home, I ended up in the middle of the Canterbury rush hour, and took twice as long to get home, because some bloody idiot at the highways department obviously thinks that the Old Dover Road will soon be …
… swarming with German panzers !
Terri said
Ah, this will make my husband feel ever so much better.
On our many trips to England, we always ended up getting lost somewhere and then discovered there were no signposts to set us straight.
How refreshing to read that this happens to even the natives.
(That looked like a lovely pub to dine at)
Maria said
Gotta watch those German Panzers!!! Now I understand the confusion of European signs and/or lack of signs. Did you stop for directions or did you do that typical male thing of just driving and figuring it out for yourself.
Big John said
Yes Terri, a lovely pub, I expected Long John Silver to walk in at any moment.
I just kept driving Maria, I wasn’t lost, I just could not get to where I wanted to go.
John-Ward Leighton said
You should try to find your way off an American freeway with eight to twelve lanes which suddenly
veer off in different directions always leaving you in the wrong lane with all the traffic either pedal to the metal or inching along in moving parking lot speed. It is especially interesting if your co-driver can’t read a map. ha ha
JWL