Re: OT: travel to Western Ireland

m&m wrote:
Oh- Yay! The pedals are the same!!! That's a huge relief! I honestly
seem to be getting more dyslexic the older I get-
and I never was to begin with. (you should see how long it takes me to
type anything- I transpose every 3rd letter!) The thought of trying to
remember which pedal is the brake in the event of an emergency was
making me sweat!
OOH- I could get linen! Thanks for the idea!

MM

I'll have to tell DH that his rememberer is more kacalovich than the car pedals :-)! He was **positive** that they were backwards but I guess it was HIM that was backwards -- LOL! It could be that it seems backwards to what we are used to because with a standard tranny, you have to shift with your LEFT hand if the "stuff" is on the floor, which is the type we had. That is opposite to what we are used to so, add that to having to drive on the other side of the road PLUS negotiating the roundabouts (which were nonexistent this side of the pond at the time) and it's not surprising he thought the pedals were backwards!
As for the roundabouts, if you are outside of town they are usually only one wide lane in width so they really are much easier to use than having to turn right or left at an intersection. It's on the larger roads or in towns that they get a bit challenging because they are several lanes wide. You enter in the left lane and, unless you are turning at the next exit street (in a roundabout in Ireland all exits from a roundabout are left turns), you have to get over to the right and then get back to the left to turn at whichever street you want. But remember that if you are turning at the second or third street, there are often people entering the roundabout who are also trying to negotiate the lane changes. If you are familiar with roundabouts or are driving on the side of the road you are used to, then they are no problem.
Trying to deal with the different lane orientation plus rapid lane changes (most roundabouts in Ireland that we negotiated were not really very big) AND quickly looking at the road signs that are in both English and Gaelic -- well, don't feel bad if you end up driving around a roundabout 2 or even 3 times before you actually manage to turn on the road you want! DH and I did it many, many times in our 10 days in Erie. He'd ask me where to turn and I would have to tell him to keep driving round and round and round until I sorted out the different road signs -- LOLOL! I'm sure the locals had NO TROUBLE spotting us for the tourists we were.
As for souvenirs -- DO make sure to stop at the small shops and mills located along the roads. They sell lovely hand made sweaters and other garments. I came home with three hand made wool sweaters, a wool hat & glove set and a stunning hand woven airy wool throw. One of the sweaters is a lovely mottled dark green of 100% Merino Wool that I paid about $60.00 US! You have to look but really great souvenirs are to be had! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers!
Visit my Photo albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary
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