Ship of Fools: Unlikely twinning

Thread: Unlikely twinning Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Hugal (# 2734) on :

The Mordor twinned with Slough thread title inspired me to ask What unusual twinning of towns are there or should there be.
For instance Walt Disney World in Florida is twinned with Swindon in the UK. This came about through a competition held by Walt Disney World to find a twin town in Britain.
Any other odd twinned towns.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Dull (Perthshire, Scotland) is twinned with Boring (Oregon, USA).

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Most of the twinning I've seen in Britain has been with towns in France or Germany.

Coventry is actually twinned with no less than 20 other towns, including three other Coventries in the US, a town in China and another in India. It was the first city to be twinned just after the war, when they linked up with Dresden which had similarly been bombed heavily.

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

During WWII, the town of Bulls in New Zealand sent food parcels to Cowes in the UK.

GG

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

My town has eight "sister cities", the main one being Sendai, Japan. After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami destroyed its port and much of the city itself, we sent $1,000,000 from our city coffers and more money raised by citizen volunteers. So happy we could help. [Tear]

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

Whitwell, an extremely small village in Rutland, is (not very officially) twinned with Paris - at least partly as a result of the efforts of the late lamented TV gardener Geoff Hamilton. One of those ideas that got out of hand, really, it seems.

AG

Posted by tessaB (# 8533) on :

Tenterden on the Kent/Sussex borders is twinned with Avallon in France. It always amuses me when I see the sign as I tend to read it as Avalon . The idea of being twinned with a fictional place makes me giggle [Big Grin]

Posted by Meerkat (# 16117) on :

We went to Tenterden on the bus from Fern Cottage last month. Nice place. [Smile]

Posted by cheesymarzipan (# 9442) on :

isn't there a place in Somerset that's twinned with Ankh-Morpork because Terry Pratchett (or his friend) lives there?

Edit: It's Wincanton

[ 07. October 2014, 11:50: Message edited by: cheesymarzipan ]

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by tessaB:
... when I see the sign as I tend to read it as Avalon . The idea of being twinned with a fictional place makes me giggle ...

It's not as fictional as all that - I live there. [Big Grin]

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

Piglet, I was wondering, can you think of anywhere that might be amusingly, if obscenely, twinned with Dildo?

AG

Posted by tessaB (# 8533) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Meerkat:
We went to Tenterden on the bus from Fern Cottage last month. Nice place.

It is lovely isn't it? [Big Grin]

Piglet, I always thought that you might be the sort of person who would live somewhere fictional. I sort of thought the 100 Acre Wood though [Razz]

Posted by tessaB (# 8533) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Piglet, I was wondering, can you think of anywhere that might be amusingly, if obscenely, twinned with Dildo?

AG

If Piglet can't come up with anything how about this place

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
piglet: It's not as fictional as all that - I live there.

But are you real? [Razz]

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by tessaB:

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Piglet, I was wondering, can you think of anywhere that might be amusingly, if obscenely, twinned with Dildo?

AG
If Piglet can't come up with anything how about this place

Moving from to Orkney Islands to Newfoundland, Piglet should know that Dildo should be twinned with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twatt,_Orkney

Posted by TheAlethiophile (# 16870) on :

Totnes was briefly twinned with Narnia.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

That's the one I was thinking she's know, but Beaver will do nicely! [Snigger]

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:

quote:
piglet: It's not as fictional as all that - I live there.
But are you real?

And Avalon is my neighbor. But I've never seen Piglet there.

[ 07. October 2014, 23:56: Message edited by: cliffdweller ]

Posted by Hugal (# 2734) on :

My home town of Preston is twinned with several places including La Rochelle. Oddly enough my wife stayed with a pen friend in La Rochelle when she was younger.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

quote:
Originally posted by tessaB:

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Piglet, I was wondering, can you think of anywhere that might be amusingly, if obscenely, twinned with Dildo?

AG
If Piglet can't come up with anything how about this place
Moving from to Orkney Islands to Newfoundland, Piglet should know that Dildo should be twinned with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twatt,_Orkney

That's exactly what I was thinking! [Killing me]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by cheesymarzipan:
isn't there a place in Somerset that's twinned with Ankh-Morpork because Terry Pratchett (or his friend) lives there?

Edit: It's Wincanton

Somerset and Wiltshire (plus bits of Dorset), could easily be twinned with Discworld. Weird little towns abound. Wincanton beat Frome by a short head.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Ambridge is twinned with Meyruelle.

Posted by Sandemaniac (# 12829) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
That's exactly what I was thinking!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a sense of humour like a cesspit!

AG

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
That's exactly what I was thinking!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a sense of humour like a cesspit!

AG

You and plenty of others... How can we forget a nice little place in Austria that cries out for a twin?

One of my favourite place names is Uncertain in east Texas. There isn't much there, so getting a twin would be a major event if they can find one, though Westminster comes to mind.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
You and plenty of others... How can we forget a nice little place in Austria that cries out for a twin?

Here's a quote from that website

quote:
The village is especially popular with British tourists; as a local tour guide explained: "The Germans all want to see Mozart's house in Salzburg; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler's birthplace in Braunau; but for the British, it's all about Fucking."

Moo

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sandemaniac:
Piglet, I was wondering, can you think of anywhere that might be amusingly, if obscenely, twinned with Dildo?

AG

Not worth twinning, given their proximity, but just up the road are Heart's Delight and Heart's Content. This all leads to mild interest in the Bay itself, known as Trinity Bay. There is probably a good reason why this trio of villages is not located on Conception Bay.

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

How could you be sure that the twinning of Uncertain would actually happen?

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

Where I live, Hay-on-Wye, is twinned with Timbuktu.
They chose us - there was a competition, and Hay reached the final along with York and Glastonbury. Then the Mayor of Timbuktu and his entourage came to the UK and visited all three, and they liked us best! There are several links between the two places, the main one being books - even after the recent rebel action in Timbuktu, the city is a depository of an unequalled collection of Islamic books going back to the Middle Ages - it's still a university city, and back before printing every scholar who went there had his books copied for the archives. Hay is also stacked to the gunnels with books, being the first ever secondhand Book Town. There have been several visits in either direction, the most recent here being a Tuareg silversmith who set up his blanket on the pavement outside the shop in Hay that sells the Tuareg jewellery, and the local doctors have recently got a motorbike ambulance to Timbuktu to be used by pregnant women.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
Where I live, Hay-on-Wye, is twinned with Timbuktu.

My city in Arizona is also twinned with Timbuktu.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Haworth, West Yorkshire, is famous as the former home town of the writing Brontë sisters (the nearby moors are the setting for Wuthering Heights) is twinned with the even higher and also wuthering Machu Picchu in Peru.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
There is probably a good reason why this trio of villages is not located on Conception Bay.

Indeed there is. Condom.

In other news, my city is twinned with one mentioned here. I'm sure there's a book out there somewhere about someone travelling the world from twin town to twin town, but I can't find it right now.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
Haworth, West Yorkshire, is famous as the former home town of the writing Brontë sisters (the nearby moors are the setting for Wuthering Heights) is twinned with the even higher and also wuthering Machu Picchu in Peru.

My Episcopal church in Blacksburg, Virginia is twinned with St. Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth. The rector and his wife came to our church last year, and this year our choir and our rector visited there.

Moo

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

I knew there was an American city twinned with Timbuktu, Pigwidgeon, but I didn't know where it was. Isn't there a French twin, too?

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

Two in fact, apparently: Saintes and Château-Chinon.

Saintes feels about as remote, albeit in a different way.

[ETA and rats, Eigon, I was in Hay-on-Wye* for lunch this summer. Missed you, though, apparently [Frown]

]

[*informally twinned, I believe, with another "city" of books: Bécherel.]

[ 13. October 2014, 19:35: Message edited by: Eutychus ]

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:

quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
You and plenty of others... How can we forget a nice little place in Austria that cries out for a twin?
Here's a quote from that website
quote:
The village is especially popular with British tourists; as a local tour guide explained: "The Germans all want to see Mozart's house in Salzburg; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler's birthplace in Braunau; but for the British, it's all about Fucking."
Moo

Which should obviously be twinned with Intercourse, Pennsylvania

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