Driving With Belgian Plates

There are some advantages to being an Englishman driving a left had drive car with Belgian plates.  I have recently driven from home to my native North East of England, which is quite a drive necessitating a transit through the channel tunnel and then up the Eastern side of the country.  The first thing is that people do assume you are from the same country as the car and plates indicate.  This means that you can 'get away' with making the odd mistake when you don't understand the road system, a bit like driving in London, where the road conventions don't seem to apply and those in charge of planning road systems are rolling dice to decide on the layout that would best suit their mood at the time.  Anyway, I try not to take advantage of this perceived ignorance, preferring to stick to the normal conventions.

On my long journey North, which took on the scenic delights of the M20, M25, Dartford Tunnel, M11, A14 and A1, I was witness to some interesting maneuvers.  I had to remember that my 'safe' distance behind a Belgian car was no longer a 'safe' distance behind a British car,I think I may have annoyed a few people as I made my way up North.  Unfortunately both the A1 and the top end of the M11/A14 are just two lane.  The same habits that afflict Belgian roads are equally prevalent on UK roads, people do not pull in when there is space to do so and allow the faster traffic to pass.

I had the pleasure of being almost rammed off the road by a large white coach, which happened to be full of soldiers and was driven by another soldier.  I can only imagine he thought he was driving his Subaru Impreza and that he had both the acceleration and maneuverability to make the change of lane without trashing my car.  There was nothing behind me and the speed differential between my car and his bus was just a bit too much to be regarded as anything but bloody dangerous.  He did compel me to cross the white solid line next to the central reservation but I held my position and got past, not chuffed.  I have to say I was being rather ruthless with lorries who wished to carry out the same overtaking move as they consistently delayed and slowed the flow of the traffic all the way up.  At least the majority of these lorries has the courtesy to wait until it was either safe or I had passed.

I stopped once on the journey North and was delighted to see that the drivers at the Service Station also lacked the manners to allow a fellow motorist to reverse out of a parking space, despite the fact that they were not going to get anywhere fast.  All I wanted to do was re-align my car to make sure I was parked within my own space.  Just like being in Belgium!