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(Susi) After mastering the Tube in London, and the buses in Oxford & Bath we needed some new adventures, so we decided to rent a car for the next 10 days to make things easier. This allows us to visit more of the smaller towns as we travel north and stop at interesting things along the way. Not to mention making lugging our "lug"gage much easier.
Here are some of the things we had to learn:
1) Driving on the left side of the road - this is the most obvious, but not as tricky to get used to as one might think.
2) Shifting with the left hand! - Why this wasn't obvious to us we aren't sure, but it was an additional challenge. We probably should have gotten an automatic, but we couldn't resist the incredibly cheap deal on the standard. Big adjustment at first, and we were glad the fellows from Enterprise weren't watching as we pulled out...
3) The very narrow roads! No shoulders, and extremely narrow lanes. We confess to cuddling the curb a few times at the beginning...
4) Weaving - First off, there are no straight roads here. Everything is windy and curvy, especially outside of the towns. In addition, when a car is parked or a bus stops, trafic just weaves and swerves around them.
5) Roundabouts of every size and speed. Some with traffic lights and some on highways. Very efficient once they are mastered, but a bit nerve wracking the first few times.
Well, that is just a sampling. We did get a 5 minute crash course from the rental fellows, then off we went. I was first, and practised for a few minutes on a side street in an industrial area, then nervously approached the live traffic. Yikes. Drove for an hour to Blenheim Palace. Fortunately the Brits are very masterful in above mentioned Weaving & Swerving and no one managed to hit us.
Lori had the greaaater fun: she drove from Blenheim to Bath, the last bit in the dark with me (sort of) navigating. We couldn't decide afterwards whether it was worse to be the driver or the helpless passenger!!! However we did survive, with just some frayed nerves, and the friendship intact. Today was the second day of driving and it was already much easier.
By tomorrow we will be thinking: "What was all the fuss about?" :-)
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