An American Engineer in London
As Vincent said to Jules, “It’s the little differences.” Notes from a yank’s first trip to England…
- The UK is certainly trusting of their vistors: the immigration form requires only name, nationality, passport info, and local address–a far cry from the more paranoid forms presented by the US and Australia. And the ‘nothing to declare’ lane off the baggage claim area didn’t even have any personnel making cursory checks of arriving passengers!
- I came all this way to see a billboard for the Dixie Chicks? At least the next one was of a stern-looking cricketer.
- Yards and miles on the roadsigns, square feet on the ‘Office space for rent’ signs. I guess the U.S. isn’t quite so backward as I thought.
- Even after midnight, with no traffic, the narrow and windy streets made it obvious why some measure was needed to reduce congestion. Good thing they don’t get Chicago-style winter snowstorms here, they’d never be able to get the snowplows through!
- The similarities between the old parts of Sydney and central London are striking. If it were just the layout and street names it would be one thing, but even the road signage and transportation logos are nearly identical!
- Streets that continually change direction slightly are one thing, and the lack of a standard numbering grid is another, but by far the most perplexing thing about navigating the City is that the name of a street seems to change every block or two. The Pulaski-Crawford discontintuities are trivial in comparison!
- The Sun is noticeably lower in the sky at midday, but at least the Moon wasn’t upside down. Odd to be in bright twilight at 9:45pm.
- In response to a track problem, a sign in Liverpool St. Station indicates that railroad engineers are said to be ‘in attendance’. Wouldn’t it be better if they were fixing it instead?
- Certainly, city planning was a concept far in the future when most of the streets of central London attained their present configurations, but the seemingly haphazard arrangement of streets and architectural styles is truly jarring for a Chicago native.
Finally…pictures are here.