Foreign Feel Towns In America and Worldwide

Fodor has found a plethora of places in the USA which give you the nostalgia of grandparents or parents' home countries.

USA



UK nostalgia within the USA

London Bridge in the USA. Photo by Alan Johnson in Wikipedia under London Bridge.

The London Bridge, Lake Havasu City, Arizona. USA.
The ship at LA.

The USA features:

Denmark,
Sweden,
Switzerland,
Norway,
Spain and
Greece.

Many countries have pockets of foreign culture, or pockets of the past. Chinatowns are everywhere. For example:

CANADA
Chinatown
Vancouver
Canada.

All French language in
Montreal, Canada.
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/a-visit-to-one-of-these-12-u-s-towns-will-transport-you-to-another-country

INDONESIA
Jakarta has a Chinatown.

Chinatown
Surabaya
Java
Indonesia.


Singapore flag.

SINGAPORE
Chinatown
For Chinese shops, temples, museum.

Little India
Museum.
Restaurants serving Indian sweets, fish head curry with rice served on green banana leaf.
 24 hour department store Mohammed Mustafa.

THAILAND
Chinatown down by the river with the old godowns.

UK
Chinatown, London, England. For Chinese restaurants and supermarkets and celebrations at Chinese New Year.
Southall is 55% Indian/Punjabi.  When I walked into the library everybody stared because I was conspicuously the only white skinned blonde. The local shops have ethnic foods and goods. This is the place to buy a saree.

Useful Websites
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/a-visit-to-one-of-these-12-u-s-towns-will-transport-you-to-another-country

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Duxton Hill's Delightful Chinese Signpost, and Seeing Conservation in Singapore and England

Gorgeous!

Notice that the Chinese pictogram on the far right is the sign for hill or mountain.

Duxton Hill is old Singapore, little shophouses. Each shop is different. It is the owner's style. 

We are generally taught that in the East everybody conforms, whilst in the West everybody expresses their individuality. However, in architecture that doesn't seem to apply.

In London, you see terraces with basements in Notting Hill. In Hampstead Garden Suburb rules restrict the changes you can make. You can't rip out the old wood windows and replace them with white modern double-glazing. 

You are not allowed to paint your house bright pink in 'The Suburb'. Many of England's small towns are now enlivened by contrasting colours. 

The Romans and Greeks did not have plain white statues. The paint has washed off and that's why old statues are all boring white. If you look at medievel statues and religious paintings the clothes are colourful and convey the status and identity.

In the West of England the Nash terraces, designed by Nash, are designed to form a whole. The terraces are a belt across the hillside, and viewed from afar they match, like a necklace in a neat line. 

Let us look at Singapore again.

Singapore Shophouses

Singapore's shophouses are all in different colours. The shop is below and the owner's dwelling is behind or overhead. 

Singapore Signposts

Everything about this signpost is harmonious. The signs have a border. The writing is large so it can easily be read from a distance. The colour of the red post contrasts with the tiny turquoise tiled roof. The little roof is soothingly and restfully curved. 

You can admire the streets of other countries on the website Street view. That may inspire you to travel overseas or take a trip to a shop or restaurant or go for a stroll around other parts of your own city.

The Duxton Hill Signposts, like the ones in Chinatown in Vancouver, Canada, and other cities, are attempts to keep the character of the area consistent.

Useful Websites

streetview

singaporeair.com

visitsingapore.com

visitbritain.com

visitengland.com

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

The Huge Moose and the Huge Chateau Hotel In Canada

What else could I do in Canada?

What More Weird Or Wonderful Sights Could I see.
Montreal botanical gardens, topiary shaped like people.

West Coast
Vancouver then the Pedestrian Suspension Bridge
(Side trip from Vancouver.)
Fabulous scenic Lake Banff with snow-capped mountains reflected in crystal water. I went there with my husband and son. They went skiing.
You could drive up there. Winter ski or summer hike. Photography, sports, countryside. Watch out for bears and moose!

Story Of My Moose
I was careful. I vowed not to go walking in the woods alone.
However, on arrival at a grand hotel for dinner

Before going into the hotel I was trapped in a grand chateau hotel car park for fifteen minutes by a moose blocking the entrance. I tried phoning my husband. Poor reception. Eventually, I got through, and darling, helpful husband, told me, unhelpfully, "I can't help. I've just been served a drink. Just walk around it."



Do I walk around the spiky antler end or the kill you with a kick end?

I walk towards it. But it turns and stares at me. It's bigger than I am. It's the size of a bull. With antlers like an eagle.

I retreat. Slowly. I think I'll stay crouched hidden behind somebody else's four by four. I hope it can't see me. I can see its feet.

Will it stay there all night? Better it stays there, then walks towards me. The wall is behind me.

Eventually another car tries to drive in or out and the friendly moose, the size of a minivan, moves off.

The chateau hotel and restaurant were both fully booked, fortunately because it was too expensive, so we settled for drinks and peanuts at the bar. Fine.

I got a good look around, getting not quite deliberately lost.
"Looking for the Ladies. So sorry!" (British accent!)
"Come this way, Madam ..."
"Looking for my husband, in the bar."
"Come this way, Madam ..."
"Looking for the exit."
 "Come this way, Madam ..."
"Not this one, I need the car park."
"Come this way, Madam ..."

https://www.banfflakelouise.com
https://www.tourismvancouver.com
http://wikitravel.org/en/Canada
https://web.archive.org/web/20100113230143/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

This Week's Wish List by Adventurous Angela: Laughing Statues, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Wikipedia photo by Cameron Norman from Toronto, ON, Canada.

Problem
Where are they?

Answer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A-maze-ing Laughter
Artist	Yue Minjun
Year	2009
Type	Sculpture
Medium	Bronze
Subject	Yue Minjun
Location	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Owner	City of Vancouver Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

A-maze-ing Laughter is a 2009 bronze sculpture by Yue Minjun, located in Morton Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[1][2]

Ten Reasons to enjoy Canada, the maple leaf and maple syrup

Problem
We could not get to Canada to see the 150th celebrations.

Answer
Never mind. We celebrate Canada every day with 100 per cent maple syrup on our porridge.

Story
What do I like most about Canada?
1 Maple syrup!
2 Niagara Falls.
3 No guns.
4 Walkways in the sky between buildings so you can get around the city of Toronto when it's snowing in the streets.
5 Vancouver - my favourite city.
6 Chateaux hotels.
7 State staff in Ottawa have to speak both French and English - an idea we should copy.
8 Easily identifiable flag. Red maple leaf.
9 Houdini museum - on my wish list, at Niagara Falls.
10 You can practise your French.

What do I like least? The French accent is not the same as in Paris. Oh, well, I shall have to live with that. At least the written language is the same as the French I learned at school.

Tip
You can see the fireworks and celebrations in the BBC article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40468161

I've tried not a hundred per cent maple syrup which is cheaper but it doesn't taste as good so now I buy the real thing.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (More on maple syrup in the next post. Please share links to your favourite posts.)

London Clocks & Worldwide Clocks - Are you in time, on time - watch the world's clocks

London Clocks
Last weekend in London the clocks went back.
Big Ben in London is one of the world's famous clocks.

It featured in the film The Thirty Nine Steps directed by Alfred Hitchcock with the hero Hannay hanging onto the clock face hands. The book was by Scottish author John Buchan. A stage play of The Thirty Nine Steps is on in London.
www.love39steps.com

You can see a weathervane featuring Old Father Time at Lords Cricket Ground in St John's Wood which is just north of Baker Street, on the bus or underground train. As it's high up you might be able to spot it from the top of a bus or a nearby building.

Clockmakers' Museum, London, UK

Closed - whilst moving to London's Science Museum where it will be in the Time gallery, opening next year in summer 2015.

Clocks & Watches Gallery, British Museum, London, UK

Clocks in Wales

Newport clock

Clocks in France

Rheims

Canada

Steam clock, Vancouver

(See video in Wikipedia)

Germany

House of 1000 clocks, Triberg (see Tripadvisor)

USA

National Watch and Clock Museum, PA

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g52399-d102891-Reviews-National_Watch_and_Clock_Museum-Columbia_Lancaster_County_Pennsylvania

Vancouver's Ban On Door Knobs

What starts in America spreads to London and worldwide. Vancouver city council plans to ban circular door knobs and install horizontal levers because they are easier for the elderly.
The elderly population is increasing in the affluent countries. (In the newer, poorer countries, with high birth and death rates, the youngsters have ten children and the average age is under thirty. In the USA, UK and Japan, there are more elderly people and in years to come there will be still more. Back to door knobs.
I was fed up with catching my sleeves and cuffs belts and dressing gown belts anything else projection or trailing caught on levers. I was about to change lever handles to knobs. Now I shall reconsider. A half way solution is the same as taps. You can have circular one if they have indents you can grasp. But I have found lever taps much better. Less likely to be left half on dripping or turned off so tightly that you cannot turn them on.