Scotland Snowdrop Forest

[Shirlv]

Tina and Judy, admire your driving skills after watching her drive narrow streets and on the left side of the road. Lol

https://youtu.be/olr6UeeJR3E

[Bethers]

I had to quit watching. I wanted everything and my stomach started growling. What fun.

[BirdbyBird]

The only saving grace for me was I had gotten a very small automatic. I could not fathom trying to shift with my left hand and I started my 2 week drive ( after exploring g Edinburgh without a car for three days) heading to the Highlands a d the Island of Skye. Once I got away from picking up the car it was t long before I was driving on smaller two lane and county back roads. I was able to go slow and pull over when needed. By the time I got around to Inverness I had a good week of experience and managed the city streets and more populated areas on the east coast much better.

[Shirlv]

Beth, Scotland must have the best bakeries in the world and she has tea time every episode. Don’t know how she stays thin, she must be 16. Lol. Tina, doesn’t matter how much practice I would have I would be too busy looking at the scenery. You must have had a rest trip.

[JudyJB]

Actually, the hardest part of driving on the wrong side of the road is getting into the side of the car with the steering wheel! Each time I would come back to my car, I would open the door and realize I had to go around to the other side. Embarrassing, so I would pretend I was just throwing in my packages.

Other thing that constantly caught me, and I have driven in the UK on several trips over 20 years, is that the Brits do not necessarily park on the side of the road they are driving on. Nice spot on the other side??? Not a problem, just cut across traffic and park there! Here is an example:

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Also, in small towns and villages, there will be two-way side roads that have parking on both sides. The result will be that there is really only one lane to drive on and drivers take turns pulling over to let other cars pass. Except, every time I would turn off a larger road into one of these tiny, supposedly two-way roads, I would be faced with parked cars on both sides facing me. My instinct was that I had driven the wrong way into a one-way street, so I would slam on the brakes! After a couple of minutes, I would realize that this was just a narrow two-lane road.

And out in the country, there are lovely little one-lane country roads. When a car comes the other direction, one of you just pulls over a little to make room. Except one time, I was driving on one of these roads, and a pair of cows was staring at me with their heads hanging over the stone wall. I almost ran into the wall on the other side because I was watching the cows watching me. What makes all this work is cooperation and the British politeness.

Freeways are easy because you just follow the car in front of you. I also almost never passed anyone because it felt really weird to pass someone on the right side. And parking lots (car parks) were really tricky--at least getting out of them. I was constantly passing inside the lot on the wrong side of cars coming toward me. I would have to stop at the exit and ask myself where I needed to go, and then go there. Could not do it automatically--literally had to think at every parking lot and talk to myself out loud.

Here is a link to a page from my UK blog on the town of Chipping Camden. I had studied up on UK parking laws, but found almost no one obeyed them! For example, you are never allowed to park on sidewalks or double yellow lines. This line of cars are all parked on the sidewalk and on a double yellow line! The second photo is of a bunch of church people almost all parked illegally.

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Need I mention that the couple in the visitor center said the parking attendant only comes around a couple of times each week?