More on driving

Driving is tricky for lots of reasons. First of all, we don't know where we are going yet, so we have to pay extra amounts of attention. Then, we don't understand the signs so we carefully read each one, wondering...does that one apply to me and if so, what does it mean? I took a drive out to a dog kennel the other day which was about 1.5 hours out into the Flemmish countryside. I didn't really know where I was going and it was absolutely exhausting trying to read all the signs and to find my way there. Where I would ignore 75% of the signs in the US because I understood they didn't apply to me, here I read (or try unsuccessfully) to read all of them. Silly stuff! Here is a shot of a set of signs! I actually can read this one but sometimes there for 20 items listed and they just go by too quickly!














Round abouts are everywhere and are interesting to navigate. Once you are in one, you have the right of way. Until that, you must yield to get into it. Then there are some that have lots of lanes. The inside lane stays on the round about and the outside lanes are for leaving the round about. The communities often decorate them with statues, fountains and lots of beautiful flowers. Here's one that is down the street from us.















And then, if all that isn't comfusing enough, the rules of the road are different. At a red light, you can not turn right, even if there is no one coming. As they say in Belgium, "Red is Red". Also, if you are on a main road and the traffic coming in from the right doesn't have a stop sign, stop light or yield sign, they have the right away. This causes LOTS of accidents because they just race in from side streets. The second day here I almost got creamed by someone doing that. Yikes!

Also, they have cameras on most main roads so if you run a yellow light or speed, they have a picture of you doing it. So they say-"Make sure you smile and are having a good hair day"!