Necessity dictates that today I venture into the big city, not the big city of course, I'll be damned if I'm driving 100 miles just to pay the congestion charge, I mean the closer to hand big city, Cambridge, that of beautiful architecture, historic interest and top end seats of learning but also sadly a million life threatening push bikes and a traffic system straight from the depths of hell!You might deduce that I am not keen to be making this trip and you would be right. Cambridge might be famous for all manner of things intellectual, highbrow and beautiful but I don't like it one bit, or at least not in the practical sense and I rarely venture anywhere close. Truly, the place is most definitely not a number one destination if what you need to do is get in and out and do a little speedy practical shopping, so much so that usually I prefer to not shop at all.....and that's quite something!
It's an odd place altogether, it has a strange 'transient' unfriendly feel about it that doesn't endear it to me, maybe it's because most of the population is made up of students who are only there for a few years or tourists who are only there for a few days, maybe it's because the place is so spread out and scattered or maybe it's just because everyone is in as much as a hurry to get back out as I am before they become embroiled in the spokes of a speeding bike or have the front of their vehicle annihilated by a 'rising bollard'.
Rising bollards, now there's a thing, the traffic system is controlled by these items of engineering and they are just that, large bollards that rise and fall controlled by sensors on buses, taxis and other 'allowed' modes of transportation, sounds a clever idea? Well it might be aside from the fact that should you fail among the melee to notice a dropped one (and believe me they are easy to miss if you have traffic infront of you), the speed with which they rise out of the ground again is pretty scary and offers every possibility that you won't get home again without a tow truck!Maybe the drive into London isn't such a bad idea after all.....
10 Comments:
I'm always complaining about the 'sleeping policemen' around here but those rising bollards sound appalling. I've often thought I'd like to visit Cambridge but that has really put me off.
Jenny: I would hate to put you off, it's a lovely city to 'visit' just not for day to day practicalities....but leave your car well outside of the center! ;o)
Hi Gemma - thanks for dropping by my blog and taking the time to comment. I see you are a Nokia girl - I'll be interested to know which model you plump for.
I've never been to Cambridge - I'm near Oxford, which is probably similar in that it's a nightmare with all the traffic, and all the students!
Take care :-)
MMmmm never been to Cambridge - London kicks arse !!
Laters
Nicey
Very nasty.
Speaking of punts, as a recent visitor I quite liked Cambridge but I know what you mean. I also wish I'd managed to get on whatever bridge you were on to get that view.
I don't drive so don't have any personal experience of those dreadful pop-up bollards, but sleeping policeman... Don't get me started... Oh, I've already started so I'll finish. Where I live here in Hove Actually they crop up in the side roads exactly where the crossing places are, so if the sloping, cobbled bits on the pavement (which are meant to show you where the safest place to cross is) don't trip you over, the humps are likely to! As the latter are in the middle of the road, if you fall you are liable to get run over. No wonder I'm practically a hermit... :) xxx
I miss Cambridge... I remember those things and being shown exactly when they raise and lower... only with a double-decker bus involved.
Nicey: It sure does! :o)
Silverback: It is nice to visit as a tourist, it's the living here that gets tedious. ...oh and the pic, I can't help you there, I stole it off the interweb! ;o)
Black Cat: I go to Brighton quite often and their traffic systems are a comparative disaster too....I imagine Hove is much the same :o/
Lisa: See video :o))
"...but leave your car well outside of the center!"
Too much HTML can turn you American :)
Norman: Bugger...so it can! ;o) I don't usually do that outside of html, well I thought I didn't until now!
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