Driving in Europe

After a week on the road, we have had an interesting time driving around Europe. Of course the vehicle is small by NA standards, but over time we have organized things quite nicely and have a pretty good system going. By the time we are done our travels, we may have sorted out a washer and dryer back there :) .

Driving in Europe has some strong similarities to back home, but also some strange differences. The traffic isn't quite as crazy as we have seen in other countries, but then thankfully we won't be driving in Greece or India or other countries where we would be way out of our depth. Here the people move fast, use the horn sparingly, and there is a general sense of rules to the road. However, there appears to be few to no traffic cops on the highways, so the speed limits of 120 km/h are not thoroughly observed. We have been passed as though we were standing still, even though our speedometer read 140 (yes we have joined the speeding crowds - our parents always taught us to go with the flow of traffic ;)

We have now passed through three different countries and to our surprise the signage is pretty much uniform. We probably have the European Union to thank for that, in addition to no border crossings. One difference is in the frequency of signage - in France it was pretty good, but the further south we go the more sparse it becomes. We have to rely on heading the correct direction from the last sign to make it to the next, a feat not always accomplished. So far we have avoided any driver/navigator arguments, and perhaps our "oh well, we can take the next turn off or stay wherever we wind up since we're on holidays" attitude may be making it a little less strenuous. We have also enjoyed and put to full use the glorious traffic circle. In Canada when you get to an intersection, you have one chance to turn the right direction or you're hooped. Here, we can just circle around and around as long as we need to figure out (or make our best guess) as to our next heading. I think our current record is 3 times around a circle, and the beauty is all the regulars come in and out, so nobody stays to see our endless circling. We still have challenges figuring out some of the etiquette of a two laned round-about and when you move from the inside to the outside lane. It also becomes more complicated when a series of traffic lights are introduced, but we manage just fine.

Today we had a bit of an interesting trip through the back country, accounting to my interest in shaving off some distance and so I thought time. When looking at the lines of our European map, there are several gradations of colour. I decided to navigate Christine off the super highway (avg speed 130 km/h) onto a road system that looked like a major highway, just not the really big highway system. As it turns out in Portugal, the second largest road line is a far cry from the super highway. The trip was incredibly windy, one of the worst I have ever driven on, with an average speed of 60 km/h if we weren't stuck behind a big truck doing much less. The diversion allowed us to enjoy some of the pleasant Portugese back country, but instead of saving us a half an hour, probably took about an hour and a half more. Another lesson learned for us - if we want the really scenic tour, get off the super highway, if we want a still very scenic tour, stay on.

Christine and I have been taking fair turns driving on the trip, but I often get the shift right after lunch, usually when Christine is feeling it's time for a siesta. All in all we have covered more than 2000 kilometres, but seem to be finding a good balance between travel and restful sightseeing.

A friend once told me that a car is "packaged freedom" and isn't that the truth. Christine and I were planning to stay two nights in this beautiful little town. When we woke up the next morning it started to rain and looked like it was going to do that for days. So we simply packed up the car and took off for sunshine. We're not held to any schedule or account.

Our recommendation for anyone travelling to Europe for an extended period is to get a car, we are simply loving it!!