Driving on the Wrong side of the Road

After packing and cleaning our apartment we walked up a few blocks to the car rental facility at the Paddington rail station.  The rental place was an off-site parking garage operated by Europcar a French company.  I went with them as their pickup was the closest to our apartment and their rates were the best.

I wanted a “large” diesel wagon like what we had on our trip last summer but car rental prices were much higher in the UK and the base gasoline powered “large”sedan was 40% cheaper so that’s what I reserved. One thing I learned over my many years of business travel is that being friendly with whoever is behind the counter usually results in better service.  In this case I was able to get upgraded for free to the diesel sedan which is also a higher optioned car.  BTW "large" in the UK is smaller than midsized at home.  Our car is smaller that an Accord/Camry but slightly larger than a Civic/Corolla.

Getting out of London took extra time due to traffic plus I had to get used to driving on the other side of the road.  I had a tendency to position the car too far to the left of the lane.  My backseat driver sitting in the front was pretty tense for most of the day.  I don’t blame her as I’ve ridden as a passenger many times in Japan and is always odd to sit in the “drivers” seat but not have a steering wheel.