We Three See........ROUND-ABOUTS

I will catch up on on further adventures tomorrow....as I'm sure our castle viewing treks are becoming tiresome to hear about.   Besides, today there is something more important to talk about.  My conquering of the British round-about.

You see, Brits don't really have intersections, at least not intersections like we have.  No redlights, waiting your turn and the such.  Every time roads intersect, whether it be 3, 4 or 7....they put what is called a roundabout.

In the US we call these traffic circles and they are often confusing because they are so rare.  Here, they are confusing, because they are EVERYWHERE! 

So, we approach the roundabouts from a street...and the first strange thing for me to remember is that I have to enter it going left.  The entering traffic has to give-way (yield) to the cars already in the circle.

I know this seems like a simple thing....enter the circle, yielding to traffic as you enter, and drive round until your exit.  Well......not so much.

Picture this......me, evidentally with legs much longer than the normal European driver since the Fauxhall (European car) that we've rented forces me to sit much closer up under the wheel than I would like.  So me...legs all up in the steering wheel....trying to remember to enter and go LEFT!  And in the background, Cait and Mom are both reminding me of the same, while sometimes adding little tidbits like "Mom, your drifting!"  or "Bev, don't forget to yield".  So basically, every interesection there is chattering and coaching going on like crazy.

Add to that, the sound of the horns when I fail to remember, to hear, or to execute either the yielding, the entering and going left or both!  So now you have chattering and coaching, honking, and usually some bad pop music from the radio.  Wait....seems like I'm forgetting something.  Oh yeah, "Sean", the voice of our navigator who speaks in such a heavy Irish accent that he is sometimes difficult to understand.

So......a little tiny car, legs all up under the wheel, left handed shifting, trying to remember not only to keep driving on the lefthand side, but to rotate left in the roundabout, Cait reminding me at 100 words a minute about yielding and where to exit, Mom coaching from the back in her "mom voice", Sean telling me to "veer left" and go about to the 3rd exit, angry red-face Brit shaking one hand at me while honking with the other, two "learning driver" signs in the back window of the car, radio playing Frankie goes to Hollywood.......throw in someone trying to photograph a sign or a sight, snacking on something odd and yummy, or us laughing about something we have just seen or heard......and you have just imagined the scene we go through 50 or 60 times a day.

This morning, we went through the process.....with all those things above.....except this particular time no one honked.

"Bev, I think you really have the hang of these round-abouts."

Thanks Mom!