Mastodawn

Clem Nov 16, 2023

@stux I wish everywhere is like the Netherlands

dolwup

Nov 16, 2023

@stux Suddenly: Bike lane

AskPippa🇨🇦Feb 24

@dolwup @stux Then there's Point Roberts, part of the US. The kids there have to go through Canada to get to and from school in the US.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20191201-a-us-town-only-reached-through-canada

A US town only reached through Canada

Visitors to the exclave of Point Roberts must drive through Canada to enter the United States. It’s a tiny town with empty beaches, pods of orcas and dozens of gas pumps.

BBC

ZenHeathen 🇨🇦Feb 24

@AskPippa @dolwup @stux That reminds me: I haven't heard an update in a while about that border-split library, where after cooperating forever, the Americans suddenly decided not to let Canadians use the front door anymore.

Barry Schwartz 🫖Nov 16, 2023

@stux For some reason this reminds me of a Roy Rogers movie where there is a bar brawl and the saloon is half in Lousiana and half in Texas.

Barry Schwartz 🫖Nov 16, 2023

@stux You would hate the roads here, because we have massive-scale frostwedging.

@chemoelectric @stux
Like to introduce you to the chaotic situation of Baarle Nassau/Baarle Hertog between Belgium and The Netherlands.
Houses, pubs, shops split by borders.

I live in Minnesota, which has a bit of it that is connected by land to Canada and only by water to the rest of the United States. Though the water freezes in winter and so sometimes one can traverse it by land vehicle, I think. I’ve never been anywhere near there. (I do not travel a lot within it, despite living in the state over 30 years. It is pretty big.)

Because the U.S. and Canada do not have open borders, I think you are supposed to pick up a phone and tell them whenever you cross between U.S. and Canada there.

This situation came about due to early false assumptions about how far north the Mississippi River went, defining borders on that basis, and so forth.

It’s not due to a change of course of a river. There is a big portion of a lake between that land and the U.S. ‘mainland’.

I think there may be a town in New England that is also in Canada, with buildings spanning the border. I have vague memories of there being such a place.

@chemoelectric @stux
Interesting!
You can read here more about the unique situation mentioned:
https://en.visitbaarle.com/locaties/enclaves-5e43f39e38374665355357fe

30 enclaves, 2 gemeenten, 2 landen

Baarle is wereldwijd koploper met 30 enclaves. Elke enclave kent wel een leuke anekdote of een bizarre historie. Kom jij ze ontdekken?

Visit Baarle

@bmk @stux That’s a lot of enclaves. I mean, it’s simply lots and lots of enclaves in a small area.

@chemoelectric @stux
It sure is.
But it has lost most of its practical problems due to EU integration.
Yet is is funny to have your neighbors living in another country.

It’s more like being in a federation such as the U.S. or Canada or Mexico, where maybe your neighbors are living in a different state.

So often there is a large river separating the states, but it is not always so. I’ve never lived near a state border that wasn’t a river or channel so don’t have experience. I certainly have known of neighborhoods that spanned town and county borders without obvious distinction!

Here we deal mostly with the state we live in, not with the federal government. Except I do because I am on Social Security. And at tax time we do. :)

I have never managed to get myself off of my continent, not counting flying over the ocean or the Gulf of Mexico to get from one place to another on it. :( Of course, this is true of most people on the continent. Travel isn’t cheap.

@chemoelectric @stux
Nor did I travel outside my continent.
Very privileged to live in Europe. So I don't feel much need to fly. Apart from costs and pollution.

The problem is I live nowhere near relatives except my wife and stepdaughter. Otherwise I have no big problem. Any other people I would want to visit are Canadians, anyway. They’d have been a 500 mile drive from New Jersey and when I did that in 1990 I spent an hour in the effective custody of Immigration Canada. :)

@chemoelectric @bmk @stux

Sean Lynch Feb 24

This part of Minnesota is called the 'Northwest Angle'. it's called an 'exclave'. (If you are Canadian, it's a US enclave!)

You either have to take a boat across Lake of the Woods, or drive through Manitoba. It's pretty large at 123 square miles (318 KM squared).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Angle

Northwest Angle - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k&pp=ygUlbm90anVzdGJpa2VzIGJlc3QgY291bnRyeSBmb3IgZHJpdmVycw%3D%3D video via @notjustbikes

Kevin Karhan

Nov 16, 2023

@stux Can confirm...

As a resident of close-by #NRW (#Germany) the obseration is just true...

GFJacobs Is Still Masking Nov 16, 2023

@stux gotta come for a visit some day soon!

@stux LOL

@stux and when your mobile internet is slow all of a sudden, you just entered germany

Simon Müller

Nov 16, 2023

@stux from experience I can nearly guarantee this is a border between Germany and the Netherlands xP

Florian Wesch Nov 16, 2023

@stux similar vibes on one of our bike trips on the Swiss border :-)

xs4me2 Nov 16, 2023

@stux

You can see we pay more taxes ;)

Lars Nov 16, 2023

@stux Müsste ein Tweet von https://gruene.social/@jon sein.

Jon Worth (@[email protected])

32.5K Posts, 3.13K Following, 13.7K Followers · Brit who became German and is moving to France. Runs the #CrossBorderRail project and writes about railways and EU politics. Politically green, lives happily without a car. Normally found stuck on a train or stuck in a village in Bourgogne, or escaping either on a folding bicycle. Toots mostly in EN, einige auf DE, parfois en FR.

gruene.social