In message , Nick Pedley
writes
As some of you may be aware I work on that big white wheel in central
London and part of the job includes answering questions as best as we
can. Trouble is that some of them are, well, tricky*.....

"What side of the river is Westminster Bridge?"
I've had that about London Bridge.

"Do those boatrides take you on the river?"
In Birmingham I was once asked if there were "any river boat trips on
the canal".

On a railway related note, try directing people to Waterloo or
Westminster stations (both about 400m away) when they're too lazy to
walk there. "Where's the nearest cab stand?" is a common response from
North American accented lard-arses, "I'm not gonna walk all that way,
it's too hard on the feet".
That's *very* common.

Other once coming to mind include:

"Why do the pedestrian crossings make that bleeping noise?"
"It's an aid for the blind."
"Oh, at home we don't allow the blind to drive."

People (UK again) getting *very* annoyed that the Eye wasn't next to the
Dome and wanting to know "why not" in an often quire aggressive manner.

On the flip side of all this, in the early days of the Eye they used to
have a member of staff in each Pod. The first time I took a group on,
I wandered if they'd allow me to do a commentary for my group or want to
do it themselves. I needn't have worried, the girl began her
introduction with "Don't worry if it stops while we're up there, they;re
just putting a cripple on downstairs" and ended with "Does anyone here
not know London and want to hear anything or not?"!

--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk