Thousands of miles reduced to yards.

I and my partner were on holiday in South Africa for the Christmas of 1999. We were B&B-ing at a place in Constantia. One day we decided to visit Cape Town by train rather than the hire car. Returning to the B&B in the afternoon we came across a Ristorante, which looked good enough for a visit that evening, so we did. The woman running the Ristorante, of Italian stock, took it upon herself to speak to all customers. So she obviously recognised us as Brits rather than Locals. She asked where we actually came from, and Cambridge being the largest town close to where we did live we thought it more likely she might recognise where that was. "Ah, I've just recently come back from there". It transpired she was seeing her daughter into Cambridge University. So we had to admit that we didn't actually live IN Cambridge but at St. Ives, just to the north. "Ah, I know it, I stayed there whilst visiting Cambridge." And where did she stay? At the (then) motel some 300 yards from where our house was. Further discussion elicited why she had chosen that place to stay. She had a cousin who lived close by, actually in the same road as us some 70 yards away. Indeed, she gave us a present to take back to him, so we were able to verify her story when we got back home. And all this because we decided to take a train and walk instead of using a car.