“As you may have intuited, the turnpike is the long stick (hence similar to the weapon of that name) that blocked the road. After you paid your groat or farthing or ha’penny the attendant varlet would push down on the end of the pike , permitting you access. I suppose ‘liftpike’ would be more literal, but you must take etymology as you find it. This was, of course, in contrast to the ‘freeway’, a revolutionary concept of the mid 20th century which has apparently outlived its time.”

How long will you be in the netherlands?