Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 1st entry – 17th July 2006

So, today was the big day! After I woke up at seven (and I didn’t even deed an alarm clock for that because I was so excited!) I brushed my teeth, checked the internet and my emails one last time and then I watched Snatch to kill some time. Around nine I went down to town and bought a cap at TK-Maxx to protect my baldness from sun rays and then I had breakfast at McDonalds. Then it was two more hours to wait and at half twelve I finally sat in the coach bound for London. It was a long journey, some six hours and after listening to some music, a short nap and some time filled with extreme boredom I was really grateful for the short break at Milton Keynes because my bum already hurt like hell… At six I finally arrived at Victoria Station and being so glad that I was finally there and not being used to owning a cap in the first place I forgot it in the coach. It must have fallen to the floor before or something… I thought such a beginning would be somewhat of a bad omen but from then on everything went perfectly fine – I found the Sixt car rental booth without too much searching around, there were no problems whatsoever with taking out the car and at seven I finally sat for the first time behind the wheel of a British car.
Now, here some words of warning: if you don’t have complete confidence in your driving skills and in your ability to stay calm in stressful situations – don’t attempt to drive a car in the centre of London! It’s complete madness! There are way too few street signs pointing out the way, the other drivers – especially during rush hour – are incredibly impatient and inconsiderate but even worse are the pedestrians who go exactly where they want, when they want, without giving a damn about the cars on the street. Ok, I’m taking advantage too of the prioritised position of pedestrians from time to time but the people in London are extreme. And then the road works! Whenever you think you’ve found your way around, count on a sign round the next corner saying ‘road closed – diversion’. Believe it or not, what actually saved me were my compass and the position of the sun which helped me keeping my course in a generally northerly direction. Sounds rudimentary, I know, but don’t even try to look out for street names in the rush hour. So, if it hadn’t been for my ‘adventurer’s gear’, I’d probably still be trapped in that maze.
Well, eventually I made my way out of the jungle that is called London and found the motorway, the M1.
I really don’t want to brag but I am quite proud of myself that I made it this well, especially with a car I’m not used to.
I also want to lose a few words about the car I rented. It’s a Ford Fiesta with a petrol engine, naturally with the steering wheel on the right side. Of course it also has got the typical character of a petrol car – as opposed to Diesel, the type of car I’m used to: despite the car’s rather small engine it still responds instantly to any small tip on the accelerator so you have to be careful not to rev it but then, it’s also incredibly easy to choke the engine off if you don’t press the accelerator down enough when driving off.
I actually killed the engine twice in the midst of the city traffic, something I hadn’t done in ages with my Diesel-powered car back in Austria.
So, anyway, as soon as I reached the M1, I pulled over at the next service station for dinner at Burger King (that’s right, I’m on holiday so there’s no need for me to be stingy, hehe) and after I popped a CD into the radio I drove on towards Nottingham.
And that’s where I’ll be sightseeing tomorrow. I’m totally looking forward to it but now I’m really tired so I shall go to bed.

Me and my 'one-day-cap', ready to go.

Me and my rental car, just north of London.