"Drive on the left"

[Vierwielen]

When I was living in South Africa, I was once driving on a straight uphill section of gravel road when a VW kombi came down the hill towards me. I moved over to my left and he moved over to his right and then we both slammed on brakes.

The driver of the kombi, who had driven overland from Germany, got out and apologised to me. The traditional trans-Africa route would probably have taken him though Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, maybe Malawi and either or both Botswana and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before getting to South Africa. All of these countries drive on the left.

[Euan]

Leaving Harwich on the A120, the signs are in English/German/French/Swedish. Amazingly no dutch translation despite most services being to/from the Hook of Holland!

I don't think there are ferry services from Harwich to anywhere other than the Hook of Holland, so the lack of Dutch on the signs is astonishing. It could just be a case of German and French being spoken far more widely than Dutch.

[Berk]

Leaving Harwich on the A120, the signs are in English/German/French/Swedish. Amazingly no dutch translation despite most services being to/from the Hook of Holland!

I don't think there are ferry services from Harwich to anywhere other than the Hook of Holland, so the lack of Dutch on the signs is astonishing. It could just be a case of German and French being spoken far more widely than Dutch.

I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Of course, until 2014 there was also the service to Esbjerg in Denmark. So again, you might’ve expected to see some Danish?? Looks like this one, and yes, the sign on the left has Swedish, but the one on the right has Dutch.

[vlad]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

[nowster]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Dutch, Deutsch, what's the difference?

[Berk]

Yes, I think I know the answer to that one!!

[Moore_O]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Dutch, Deutsch, what's the difference?

Just don't look up Anglo-Saxon in an encyclopedia.

[Vierwielen]

Leaving Harwich on the A120, the signs are in English/German/French/Swedish. Amazingly no dutch translation despite most services being to/from the Hook of Holland!

I don't think there are ferry services from Harwich to anywhere other than the Hook of Holland, so the lack of Dutch on the signs is astonishing. It could just be a case of German and French being spoken far more widely than Dutch.

About 35 years ago I had a contract in Sheerness. One particular morning I was well ahead of schedule when there was a hold-up to traffic coming from Sheerness due to an overturned lorry and the police were advising drivers coming off the ferry how to get to London or Canturbury. Sicne I speak Dutch, I volunteered my services in respect of anybody driving a Dutch-registered vehicle. Most dirvers spoke English reasonably well and most of the non-British cars were Dutch.

This was further re-inforced at my uncle and aunt's golden wedding celebration in the Netherlands in 2006. I found myself speakng Dutch to anybody who was older than me, but English to those hwo were younger than me.

[Vierwielen]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Dutch, Deutsch, what's the difference?

There is a folk-memory of the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands that persists to this day. When I was working there in 1999/2000 I foudn that one could make a joke at the expense of the Germans at any time. One of the best illustrations was when I had been picked up by an contract agent and was being driven to the client's premises, I asked the agent whether it was normal to address a manager of one's own age by first name or as Mr X. The agent replied "This is not Germany - we use first names".

[OLD GIT]

They also don't know the hierarchy of the road users in the highlands

Postie
Wildlife
Locals
HGV Drivers
Sassenacht Scots
Tourists

I've not yet come across someone driving on the wrong side thankfully, but I still regularly come across people who ignore the signs that say the vehicle on the left needs to pull into the passing place. Although it may be something to do with me being comfortable with driving to visibility on them, or that they've recently met the postie.

I used to live at the end of possibly the only A road( in theUK) which was single track, and we saw it regularly. We never had signs to say vehicle on left, but the signs said " use passing places to allow overtaking". So perhaps that was what confused them. Local police had answer. One of them met a tourist when he was not in uniform .The tourist had shot past a passing place and refused to reverse,saying they couldn't. Police response was to pull out warrant card and remind them that ability to reverse part og holding a car licence.
Personally I'd place Tourists at top of list. A lot of them are more "scenic gourmets"

Hm, not sure about that, their dithering usually results in irateness from anyone above them in the list pretty quickly, lights and horns are handy.
I also forget there is one class of traffic that is above even the postie...

The Timber Lorry.

In my day it was the fish truck. A rigid truck in those days. Possibly less than 30 T, but with a schedule to keep to . Dad was the local postie, and one visitor to the local office was the Nearby Procurator Fiscal, who's pet hate was Tourists. IMHO- rightly so.

[Ruperts Trooper]

I used to live at the end of possibly the only A road( in theUK) which was single track, and we saw it regularly. We never had signs to say vehicle on left, but the signs said " use passing places to allow overtaking". So perhaps that was what confused them. Local police had answer. One of them met a tourist when he was not in uniform .The tourist had shot past a passing place and refused to reverse,saying they couldn't. Police response was to pull out warrant card and remind them that ability to reverse part og holding a car licence.
Personally I'd place Tourists at top of list. A lot of them are more "scenic gourmets"

Hm, not sure about that, their dithering usually results in irateness from anyone above them in the list pretty quickly, lights and horns are handy.
I also forget there is one class of traffic that is above even the postie...

The Timber Lorry.

In my day it was the fish truck. A rigid truck in those days. Possibly less than 30 T, but with a schedule to keep to . Dad was the local postie, and one visitor to the local office was the Nearby Procurator Fiscal, who's pet hate was Tourists. IMHO- rightly so.

The railways played a major part in moving freshly caught fish down to their main markets, probably the only reason to build the West Highland Line from Mallaig-Glasgow - on the east coast, they used refrigerated fish vans fitted for high speed running and attached them to passenger expresses from Aberdeen-London.

[KeithW]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Well Dutch is a Germanic language, as is English of course but Dutch is closer to German sharing most of the same vocabulary but without the twiddly bits like the umlaut and has simplified the morphology. As such most of them can make themselves understood in German.

[OLD GIT]

The railways played a major part in moving freshly caught fish down to their main markets, probably the only reason to build the West Highland Line from Mallaig-Glasgow - on the east coast, they used refrigerated fish vans fitted for high speed running and attached them to passenger expresses from Aberdeen-London.

Perhaps on the East coast. Vans on the Mallaig line were ordinary freight trucks. That was the ones where Herring was discharged from boats on the large pier into the vans on the pier using the railway Steam crane. Otherwise it was onto trucks ,as the railway could/would only carry so much. At that time my father was local shoemaker with a shop at the end of the pier and daily there was a coating of fish juice and melted ice coating the road out of the village, as the mixture slowly bled out of the rear end of herring trucks wending their way up the first two hills out on the old road( 60's time). It stunk to high heaven in the summer and the parish council ( of which dad was a member) tried everything to stop the practice.
The section from Fort William to Mallaig was the last completed. It was ,most likely one reason to build the line ,as in those days Mallaig was one of the largset ( in landings) fishing ports in Scotland.

[vlad]

The section from Fort William to Mallaig was the last completed. It was ,most likely one reason to build the line ,as in those days Mallaig was one of the largset ( in landings) fishing ports in Scotland.

I was told Mallaig owes its importance to the coming of the railway. Concrete Bob actually wanted to build the line to Roshven (which is a safer anchorage) but was prevented by the landowners.

[OLD GIT]

Vlad- That statement is debatable. The railways certainly made a difference, but one JT Manson is reputed to have made an equal difference. it is said in Mallaig folklore that "Manson made Mallaig, and Mallaig made Manson ". He arrived in Mallaig in the early 1900 ( from family records) in one small open boat, upgraded and retired at 70 after having been awarded a medal for services to the fishing industry.

[Nwallace]

]I think as has been mentioned, the Dutch are used to playing second fiddle when it comes to languages. They will speak German, but only to other Germans, otherwise English.

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Well Dutch is a Germanic language, as is English of course but Dutch is closer to German sharing most of the same vocabulary but without the twiddly bits like the umlaut and has simplified the morphology. As such most of them can make themselves understood in German.

English has mangled the meaning of Dutch.
It is of course meaning German
Hence Deutsch and Duits and Dútsk (Frissian) and Daytsh (yiddish)
I remember reading how the Norse languages use Tysk but can't remember what it was, it was possibly on here.

[Berk]

Danish.

[vlad]

Vlad- That statement is debatable. The railways certainly made a difference, but one JT Manson is reputed to have made an equal difference....

I got my information from a book about the West Highland Line written by an Englishman. I might have known it wasn't accurate!

[Vierwielen]

Other Germans?

You realise that calling Dutch people Germans really isn't a good idea!

Well Dutch is a Germanic language, as is English of course but Dutch is closer to German sharing most of the same vocabulary but without the twiddly bits like the umlaut and has simplified the morphology. As such most of them can make themselves understood in German.

English has mangled the meaning of Dutch.
It is of course meaning German
Hence Deutsch and Duits and Dútsk (Frissian) and Daytsh (yiddish)
I remember reading how the Norse languages use Tysk but can't remember what it was, it was possibly on here.

First of all, the Netherlands, in the guise of seven independent states, left the Holy Roman Empire in 1648. Prior to that, when the man in the street met anybody from that part of the world, it was usually a sailor who was based on the west coast of the Holy Roman Empire - the people who today are called "The Dutch". When the English ruling classes met anybody from that part of the world, it was normal to use Latin as a lingua franca and the country from which they came was descrbed in Latin as "Germania". Also, the people from "Germania" did not only come from the coast, but also from inland including cites such as Aix-la-Chapelle (now known as Aachen).

[Nwallace]

ah!
That was the bit I didn't know anything of.