Taking the Low Road

Here’s the disclaimer right up front. My husband and I have traveled in the British Isles for a total of 17 weeks. Our tips our strictly our tips; they’re what we learned – sometimes the hard way – from our driving experiences. They’re not a compilation of anything we’ve read in any tour guide or friends’ experiences. As such, they may not jive with what Great Aunt Harriet told you or what someone who took public transportation might have told you. Can’t help it. Our experience is our experience.

Street signs are often hard to find – and optional.

Be aware that people walk in the UK. They don’t drive two blocks for a carton of milk as we Yanks are prone to do. You’ll probably be as surprised as we were by the large amount of pedestrian traffic at all hours of the day and night. Most all their signage is printed and posted with foot traffic in mind – down low – where pedestrians can easily see it.

That having been said, UK cities’ and villages’ solicitous concern for all who are trying to find their way around stops right there. Evidently, their cities and villages have few or no rules or codes for street signs. You’ll have to keep a sharp lookout, as they don’t uniformly show up on posts at street intersections. While walking, you have plenty of time to search all over each intersection for these signs. While driving – on the left side of the road from the right side of the car in an unfamiliar city – you don’t.

You might find one a couple of feet up from the sidewalk on the front of a building on the SW corner of an intersection. The next one might be at chest height on the opposite side of the street, again, on a building – but in a different color and completely different style. The next one might be an actual street sign on a pole at the NE corner of the intersection. But there might be none at all at the next intersection.

That brings us to our Tip #2.