Chapter 34 with a map

One hundred and eighty years ago, the Scottish literary giant Carlyle walked from his hometown of Ecclefechan to Edinburgh to go to university. The 84-mile journey took three days.At the end of July, I was traveling by car in England, following Carlyle's ancient footprints, he trekked for three days, and I arrived in three hours.Anyone who has driven the mountain road in that area knows that it is not easy to walk that road in three days. I cannot help but admire Carlyle's physical strength and perseverance.With such perseverance, it is no wonder that he was able to write again after the original manuscript of "The French Revolution" was burned.

The most convenient way to travel overseas is of course by air, but air tickets are too expensive.Outside the plane window, there are only clouds coming and going, and the airports in various countries are similar.Airplanes are just scratching the surface. To see a country, the best way is to take a train, car, or bicycle.However, the trains only stop at major stations, and they are subject to a timetable. As for bicycles, they are afraid of wind and rain, and they cannot bear heavy loads.My favorite thing is to drive by myself. As long as the road network reaches, with an accurate and beautiful map, and with a companion who reads the map by the side, I always love to travel by car.As long as the magical steering wheel is in hand, the places of interest and historical sites in the ends of the world can be summoned to the front of the car.

Thirteen years ago, I was in Australia in midsummer and wanted to rent a car from Alice Springs, an isolated city in the middle of the desert, to see the wonders of Red Rock.At that time my driving experience was limited to the US, but in Australia, like the UK, the driver's seat is on the right.As soon as I got in the rented car, the left and right were reversed, and I felt dizzy and at a loss, so I had to return the car.I have been driving in Hong Kong for eight years, and I have long been accustomed to driving on the right. Therefore, when I drive in Western Europe this summer, I will not be troubled anymore.

Before flying to Paris, I bought a monthly train pass for Western Europe in Hong Kong.With this rather expensive long-term ticket (Eurail pass), I can take a train in Western European countries at any time, sitting in the first-class car, regardless of the distance.Young people under the age of 26 can also buy this kind of long-term ticket, the price is lower, but they can only sit in the second class.So when traveling in Spain and France, I try to take the train whenever possible.Where the train is inconvenient, I rent a car to drive, so I have been to many remote villages and towns.The United Kingdom has not joined the organization of long-term tickets in Western Europe. When I travel in the United Kingdom, I drive completely by myself.

Renting a car in Western Europe is quite expensive. The rental fee is not only calculated on a daily basis, but also on a mileage basis.Let’s take a medium-sized car with 2,000 milliliters as an example. The daily rent in Spain is 5,000 Spanish dollars (peseta, which is worth 1 Hong Kong dollar for every 20 Western dollars). It's very expensive.Renting such a car in France costs 200 francs (about 170 Hong Kong dollars) per day and 2 francs per kilometer, which is slightly cheaper than Spain.The problem is: if you charge by the mile, you will not be happy to drive.If you drive long-distance like Americans, the average day is 300 miles, or 480 kilometers, which is close to 1,000 francs a day in terms of mileage alone.

Fortunately, the United Kingdom is as generous as the United States. Car rental only counts the number of days, not the mileage, so I drive in the United Kingdom, regardless of the distance.The road is far away, of course it consumes more gasoline, but it is nothing compared to the toll by the mile.The car rental industry in London is really impressive. There are more than a hundred car dealers in the "yellow pages" of the phone book.You can rent a car with a driver. Of course, the car is a very luxurious Rolls Royce or Daimler.You can also drive your car to Western European countries.You can even rent it in advance, and you will have a car to drive when you get off the plane.I rented a Fiat Regata in the UK and drove 1,300 miles in eight days for only £230, much cheaper than in Spain and France.

The pretty lady at the car rental company in London threatened me, "If you drive out of London, you'd better have someone lead the way, and you'd be charged five pounds." ?” She unfolded the detailed map of the streets of London to me in folds and folds, covering the entire large table, and said clearly: “Hey, this is London! There are more than two thousand streets and alleys, with many bends. Most of them are one-way streets. As for street signs, they only tell you how to get into the city, but not how to get out of the city. Just figure it out, there are many customers who leave their cars on the way if they can’t get out of the city.”

I was stunned, thinking that this London might be really difficult, so I fell into deep thought.The next day the dealership sent someone to deliver the car, and I asked her to take me out of town. She stopped the car on the road to Oxford, took the five-pound note from me, and left.I'm not mistaken, it was a "she" who came to deliver the car, not a "he".I stood in the lobby of the hotel for ten minutes, waiting for a burly driver to appear.Finally the driver said, "Are you Mr. Yu?" It turned out to be a handsome middle-aged lady.I blurted out, "I didn't expect it to be a lady." She smiled and said, "Should it be a man?"

Driving in Western Europe is not as comfortable as driving in the United States in many places.The latitude of Western Europe is high, and the summer is short. Most of the cars do not have air-conditioning, so they can only blow the wind. When the sun comes out, the cabin feels hot.There are few rest stops on both sides of the road, and it is not convenient to refuel.The road signs are short and small, often with black characters on a white background, and the font is thin and thin. They don't rise across the sky like the ones in the United States.Two roads intersect on British roads, which are not as luxurious as those in the United States. The three-dimensional flower bridge with four-leaf clover (clover 9-leaf) is built on a large scale, and only one ring is used to divide the lanes, so the traffic is much slower.There are few billboards on the long distance. Although the mountains and rivers are clear and the eyes are unobstructed, after a long time, I feel lonely, as if I have already left the world.At dusk, I couldn't find an American-style motel.