Text 19106, 58 rader
Skriven 2009-01-04 23:11:19 av Nancy Backus (1:3634/12.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: DO I HEAR AN ECHO 90103
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-=> Quoting Glen Jamieson to Nancy Backus on 01-03-09 16:32 <=-

 GJ>> Best of all are bilingual maps - and a magnifying glass so elderly
 GJ>> travellers can read the necessary small print.
 NB>> Good point.  I haven't found any maps that come with the magnifying
 NB>> glass, though.  ;)  Guess one just has to add it to one's travel
 NB>> stock. 

 GJ> I happen to have a small, plastic, credit card size Fresnell lens
 GJ> given out by Barnes & Noble, which I keep in my wallet.  Very useful.
 
That would work nicely.  :)

 GJ>> The Olympics were in Beijing, so I would expect English signs around
 GJ>> there, but I have an invitation from a friend who is teaching in an
 GJ>> English school at Suzhou, inland from Shanghai, quite a distance from
 NB>> If she can get you started, it might not be too bad.  And if you get a
 NB>> useful enough "cheat sheet" with the street and railway station signs
 NB>> you need to be looking out for on it...  :)

 GJ> I have been told that that area is very beautiful, and often visited
 GJ> by tourists, so I should be able to manage.

Sounds promising.  ;)  As long as the tourists they are used to don't
speak the local language or a related dialect, they should be able to
figure out ways of communicating (ala our previous discussions).
 
 NB>> We used the one in my son's cell phone in an area of the city that I
 NB>> travel all the time... In that case, the machine was considering some
 NB>> roads more main than the ones I would have...  I'm sure that real
 NB>> knowledge of the area would beat the machine most of the time.  ;)

 GJ> Some of my family have GPS units, but Adelaide is small enough that
 GJ> all of the city and suburbs can fit into a glove box size street
 GJ> directory. If I lived in USA, with huge suburbs stretching endlessly in
 GJ> all directions, I would definitely need something like a GPS as an
 GJ> alternative to carrying dozens of street directories.

It would depend on where in the USA you lived... there are some areas
that probably wouldn't be all that different from Adelaide.  The major
cities and built-up areas, yeah, you'd probably need the GPS...  :)  But
where we are, the suburbs give way to rural fairly quickly... and I'd
think that the street directory for the whole area wouldn't be all that
large.  :)

When we moved here (Rochester NY) from Philly (Philadelphia PA), one of
the things that totally amazed us kids (I was a high school senior, and
the oldest of the kids) was that one could easily walk from the city
limits into the downtown area.  We had been living in one of the outer
suburbs of Philly, and to get downtown, had to either take the train or
talk someone into driving us.  Now, it was as though all had been
compressed together...  we had a ball exploring!   :)

ttyl          neb

... You have 2 choices for dinner. Take it or leave it. Bon appetit!

 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)