Hi Bob,
I drive in the UK a couple of times a year, and it really is not
difficult at all. You get used to driving on the left within 5 minutes
of getting off the ferry, as well as the fact that you have to look
right rather than left when entering a roundabout. Really, the only
problem is if you are alone in the car on a small country road and
need to pass another vehicle--since you are sitting on the wrong side
of the car, you have no way of seeing whether there is any oncoming
traffic. Of course, this applies when I go there in my Continental
car; if you rent a car locally, you will not even have that problem.
And to make it easier still, English drivers are the most civilized
and curteous ones I have encountered in any country so far.
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
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On Jun 13, 2009, at 1:25 PM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> On Jun 13, 2009, at 1:47 AM, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>
>> We have lots of rotondas here in Alicante as well. The only other
>> place I know with as many roundabouts as we have here are smaller
>> English towns and villages.
>
> They abound in New England, too. And people mostly hate them. Not me,
> though. I love to come up on an undiscovered rotary/roundabout/
> rotonda. One of my desires in life is to rent a car and do the big 11-
> late circle in Paris. (I think it's 11 lanes. Around the Arc de
> Triomphe? Rue de Presbourg?)
>
> It will also be a kick to rent a car in the UK and do roundabouts
> "backwards." My wife gets a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach
> when I talk about that. She knows likely as not, she'll be in the car
> with me. I know, I know, it's a sign of advancing age when the big
> thrills you look forward to are driving strange roundabouts. <g>
>
> FWIW, Australian Karen, the voice of my GPS, calls them roundabouts.
> There's one on Mt. Desert Island.
>
> And Chris, a word for the GPS . . . I found using maps and such, my
> secret spot on Mt. Desert. It took some time, a lot of mental effort,
> and not a little bit of serendipity. The roads and streets on Mt.
> Desert are nothing if not convoluted. But once I found it, I entered
> it into the GPS and I could then fly there from anywhere on the
> island. Same with several other locations. Not to mention at one point
> on a one-way road I passed the entrance to the Mt. Cadillac road, and
> then decided I wanted to go up there, and Karen guided me flawlessly
> through a series of turns on small, unmarked roads, and the next thing
> I knew I was climbing the mountain. They'll get my GPS when they pry
> it out of my cold, dead fingers. <g>
>
> --Bob Whitmire
> www.bwp33.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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