We recently came back from a trip to England and Italy where we rented a small car and did a self-directed free style tour.<\/p>\n
Driving in the English countryside is a breeze as long as one overcomes the psychological hurdle of having to drive on the left in an automobile with manual shift gear.\u00a0 The roads were good. \u00a0\u00a0North American style road signs were clear and well positioned; even roundabouts were easy to manage as long as we treated them as \u2018yield\u2019 signs and not just to charge ahead.\u00a0 The beauty of the roundabouts is that we could go round and round once we are in them until we are sure of where we are going.\u00a0 Parking in the small towns and villages was never a problem too.\u00a0 By and large, the English drivers were courteous and would not use their horns arbitrarily and that made driving a pleasure.<\/p>\n
Driving in London is a very different story though.\u00a0 We definitely do not recommend it.\u00a0\u00a0 Around the clock traffic congestion and one way streets could drive a visitor not familiar with the city literally round the bend.\u00a0 Parking was not only hard to find but expensive.\u00a0 There were other traps and pitfalls too.\u00a0 We were very unpleasantly surprised when we received a letter from the car rental company after our return when they advised that they had paid a hefty fine on our behalf to the City.\u00a0 Our sin?\u00a0 We had \u201cthe use of a vehicle on a road in the charging area to which a charging scheme applies without payment of the appropriate charge\u201d.\u00a0 Heaven forbid!\u00a0 We were totally unaware that there was a charging area and our unfamiliar eyes did not notice any signs at the time.\u00a0\u00a0 We should have returned the car before going into London and not the day after and thus would have avoided this penalty and the risk of putting our marriage into jeopardy.<\/p>\n
London is well serviced by its public transportation system.\u00a0 We strongly advise getting an \u201cOyster card\u201d from any underground station.\u00a0 It is similar to the \u201cOctopus Card\u201d in Hong Kong in that it is a smart card and the small deposit which we paid to get it could be redeemed at the end.\u00a0 It surpasses the Octopus card because the system would only charge a daily maximum of 5.6 Pounds.\u00a0 On top of that, the lowest fare is applied.\u00a0 To give an example, our trip to Heathrow from our hotel would cost 3.4 Pounds if we were to get a single ticket.\u00a0 The charge to the Oyster card was only 1.3 Pounds.\u00a0 Using their underground system is hassle free and one could get from point A to point B without regard of the horrific road condition above.\u00a0 We now know better next time.<\/p>\n
The tour of Kent that we did in England turned out to be very nice even though the weather was a bit on the chilly side. Canterbury was a pleasant surprise and so were some small towns which we visited during the tour. We made a video of the tour and to watch the video, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We recently came back from a trip to England and Italy where we rented a small car and did a self-directed free style tour. Driving in the English countryside is a breeze as long as one overcomes the psychological hurdle … Continue reading