| I found my way north on M23 easily enough, but
when I got to M25 (the ring highway around London) I took a wrong turning. Instead of
going anti-clockwise towards Bromley, I ended up going clockwise towards Windsor and
Heathrow. It took several miles (and several exits) to realize which way I was going and
figure out how to turn around. This was one of the advantages of the roundabouts where one
could go around and backtrack in case of navigation error. After I finally got going anti-clockwise, and finally arriving at exit #6, I discovered another annoying aspect of driving in England. Not only are there few (if any) street signs, but the name of the street or road changes about every mile (or every couple blocks in the villages)! It took me three hours to make the < 1 hour trip from Gatwick to Bromley. Partly because of the wrong-way start on M25 and partly because of having to pick my way through the suburbs on unmarked roads and through unmarked intersections. Ken Klien was pretty surprised when I rang the door bell. They were expecting to get a couple more phone calls for help getting there, I expect. Ken prepared me a late lunch/early dinner since I hadn't had anything to eat yet that day. I collected Lacy and her luggage. It was a good thing I got something the size of the Megane because we had to fold down the back seat and her luggage filled the entire back of the car. |