Love locks

We went walking for a bit while waiting for our room to be ready, and in our circuit we crossed the Ha’penny Bridge, so named because it was a cast iron toll footbridge that cost – fancy that – a ha’penny to cross. In the decorative arches there are now scads of padlocks, many labeled with initials and hearts. This is an international tradition for lovers to attach a padlock as a way to lock their everlasting love to a municipal structure. Of course it’s a nuisance for municipal maintenance. One of the bridges in Moscow even has a purpose-built iron tree in the middle specifically to encourage the practice without defacing the bridge structure. When we hear about locks of love up in da nort’, we think of hair and cancer. Here, not so much.