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heterogenity of hiking signs

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Wouter Groeneveld 2022-06-07 10:28:04 +02:00
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@ -17,7 +17,9 @@ To be honest, I actually prefer the signs of the neighboring province, where you
Suppose you hit a crossroad. The first natural thing to do is to look for a sign which tells you which direction to go to. Where is the sign? Always placed to the right? Before or after the crossing? A few centimeters from the pathway or always clearly on the pathway? I have failed to discover any logic behind the placement of these signs. It's a complete mystery to me. Some plaques are mounted to small wooden poles, while others are attached to bigger concrete lampposts. Some are to the left of the road, while others are placed to the right, semi-hidden behind the unshaven ivy. It sometimes feels like a big geocaching adventure to even locate the sign.
And then there's the plethora of sign designs and locations abroad that, if you're unlucky, also changes every few years. In North Rhine-Westphalia in West-Germany, we like to go hiking in the woods because of the tranquility. It sometimes takes hours before encountering another human soul---a welcome change compared to cramped Belgium. Those hiking paths used to be numbered and prefixed with the local city name, but during our most recent stay there, we were surprised to find those signs to be replaced with ridiculous names such as _"The Heavenly Falls"_ or _"Beaty Beyond Borders"_. Naturally, the signs that guide you towards heaven had to change as well. Guess what. We got lost.
And then there's the plethora of sign designs and locations abroad that, if you're unlucky, also changes every few years. In North Rhine-Westphalia in West-Germany, we like to go hiking in the woods because of the tranquility. It sometimes takes hours before encountering another human soul---a welcome change compared to cramped Belgium. Those hiking paths used to be numbered and prefixed with the local city name, but during our most recent stay there, we were surprised to find those signs to be replaced with ridiculous names such as _"The Heavenly Falls"_ or _"Beauty Beyond Borders"_. Naturally, the signs that guide you towards heaven had to change as well. Furthermore, the names are in German, which introduces another layer of inaccessibility for foreigners.
Guess what. We got lost.
Perhaps the change was for the better: as far as I understand it, the local signs---that were different from village to village---were replaced by [_Eifeler Wanderung_ signs](https://www.eifel.info/wandern/eifelsteig) in the entire Eifel mountain range area.