Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Strasse Schloss Ablenkung

Get it? I thought not! :-)

Anyway, the other day one of my 'energy mates' posted this (rather off-topic) comment in an energy forum under the heading Stopping temporary road signs blowing over:
I can't help but notice that temporary road signs blow over because the wrong stabilising solution is applied - they place a single sand bag on the rear horizontal strut only. This does stop the sign blowing over if the wind comes from the rear, but nothing to stop the sign blowing over if the wind comes from the front, which it will do in stormy conditions. The correct place to put the sandbag(s) is on the apex of the sign so that the sandbags weight is equally pressing down on both the front and the rear legs, rather than just the rear. And possibly two is better than one.
Be that as it may, it reminded me of a hilarious 'German' road sign that I spotted during a visit to Bath back in 2003. See below.

At the time I couldn't resist sending the following message to the Bath & North East Somerset Council Tourist Office at tourism@bathnes.gov.uk:
I recently visited Bath ... as part of an Orient Express excursion from
London, and the whole day was fantastic, including the guided tour of Bath.
However, I came across the traffic sign shown [above], which was apparently trying to indicate that the road was closed and that there was a diversion. Unfortunately, the German on that sign is so bad that to call it an embarrassment would be a severe understatement. If you ever require the services of a professional translator, please do not hesitate to contact me.