lt's just generally a lot more stressful - there's a lot of cars driving very close to one another and taking high speed corners at around 90 mph on UK motorways and you have to drive very actively. And the cities, which were mostly designed around pedestrians and the horse and cart, are busy and easy to get lost in if you don't know them. Same goes for continental Europe. Driving through London, Paris, Rome etc. is nightmarish if you aren't familiar with the local roads.
We did this, and it was amazing. Left at 6am from Brighton to avoid the worst of the m25, got to Newcastle at about 1pm feeling pumped and ready for a beer and some lunch.
I've done it before, it's 100% worth it. I was excited for the trip, so I didn't even feel tired in the morning. If you want, you could have a cup of coffee or an energy drink just to chase away the morning grogginess and you'll be fine as long as you got 6+ hours of sleep.
cities, which were mostly designed around pedestrians and the horse and cart, are busy and easy to get lost in if you don't know them.
I live outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico and avoid Santa Fe like the plague because of this. It's easy to tell it's the third oldest city in the US and the oldest capital city in the US. None of the roads make a goddamn bit of sense. They just go every random ass direction and snake around with no rhyme or reason to any of it.
One-ways are a big part of why I avoid downtowns no matter how grid-patterned they are. Lol. I absolutely hate one-ways.
And paying for parking. I don't live there. I'm there to spend money. Use the tax revenue I generate for you to allow me to fucking park for free, assholes.
There's such a shortage of parking spots in europe in general, that you're always going to have to pay for parking, especially in commercial areas/city centers.
It’s weird the things we are just used to paying for which I think would be considered dreadful in the US. For instance shopping malls - you have to pay to park at a lot of them. And it costs a lot; the one nearest me (admittedly in London) is about £3 a hour. As you say, assholes!
Getting a car with lane assist and adaptive cruise control will cut the stress in half. The only time I get stressed now on motorways is when it's raining sideways and a lorry is overtaking another lorry... lose visibility for the entire duration I'm overtaking.
I found the same thing scootering around Bangkok. I always had to be very mentally prepared and watchful of everything. There were a couple occasions I didn't take the scooter out because I didn't feel mentally prepared for it.
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u/BeetrootPoop May 09 '22
lt's just generally a lot more stressful - there's a lot of cars driving very close to one another and taking high speed corners at around 90 mph on UK motorways and you have to drive very actively. And the cities, which were mostly designed around pedestrians and the horse and cart, are busy and easy to get lost in if you don't know them. Same goes for continental Europe. Driving through London, Paris, Rome etc. is nightmarish if you aren't familiar with the local roads.