Panic on the Streets of Edinburgh

The driver prepares himself.

Let me tell you first that this story ends happily.  Your Correspondent was a safe and successful driver, even on the one-lane, terrifying Scottish country roads.  They're only terrifying when a big lory (truck), 18-wheeler, or bus is passing you from the opposite direction. But that terror is enough to stick with you.

Full confidence, coffee included.

We had never driven on the wrong side of the road or the wrong side of the car. In fact, we have grown to love public transport (buses, metros) in Europe.  It's a great way to get around and I don't miss having a car.  But to get to the country in Scotland, you must drive.  We talked to some friends who recently went to South Africa (we lead a surreal life) and they said that learning to do the wrong-sided thing was actually a little easier in the city because you could get used to it by just following the cars in front of you.

So we rented a vehicle.  When you see the pictures of the cottage, you will see why 4-wheel drive was necessary.  It was a very nice...very expensive (!!!) vehicle.  And we took delivery of it in Old Town Edinburgh. Where the streets are crowded and narrow and, oh yeah, there's that enormous construction project (trolley system) that has a good number of the major roads torn up.

A really nice guy named James brought us the vehicle and then had to take the bus back to his office.  Talk about amazing service.  In the course of conversation, James came to know we had never driven in this bassackwards system, but he either had full confidence in us or he was laughing to himself figuring at least we brought the standard insurance from the shop.

We seriously considered a sign for the window: "Beware. Americans."

I was very proud of Your Correspondent.  He was cool and collected, and he remembered that when I yell "turn left!" but point to the right, he should follow my hand and ignore my mouth.

The vehicle had a great GPS systemwhich wasn't terribly difficult in terms of buttons and options.  The problem was that a GPS is only as smart as the people who put the information into it, and apparently this one was not smart enough to account for navigating all the road construction, detours, etc.  We ended up driving in circles for about an hour before I found this really cool feature called "detour" on the GPS.  If you click "3 miles" then it takes you on a detour 3 miles out, which is far enough away to get around the construction.

Did I mention the roundabouts?