It's the wrong side... & it's Napoleon's fault!

OK, perhaps Madrid or Cologne plans were a little ambitious with the amount of partying I’d been getting myself into over the week. But driving around in Rotterdam after a very, very heavy night of clubbing at Scheveningen last night probably ranks up there as one of the things not to repeat.

Why? Well, I promised to hang out with ole Rex as well as drive his diesel “grey with a tinge of sunset” 407. Getting up to meet him at the lobby of my hotel was tough enough. To top it off, it snowed… definitely a challenge considering these folks drive on the wrong side of the road… and it’s all Napoleon’s fault.

Apparently folks used to travel on the left side of the road up until the French revolution when the aristocrats moved over to the right to blend with the peasants. When Napoleon conquered most of Europe, this spread the right-side of travel. Being typical of the English-French enmity, British Commonwealth countries followed Britain by sticking to driving on the other side. Wanna know more?

Anyway, since I’m heading out to the US and basically need a car to get around, for the next couple of weeks, I’m gonna be driving on the wrong side of the road! Mixed bag of nerves about that...