Navigational fail.
Sep. 5th, 2011 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckI tend to have problems with cities with ring roads.
The best example is Cologne, a place I know quite well, but I still manage to get lost there regularly and spectacularly. Last time it happened in the middle of the night on our way home from a party and I just knew that driving straight on through the city centre was a bad idea and that I should have done the turn left by driving straight on and then doing a u-turn at the next opportunity and then a right (which would be the legal way as a left-turn isn't allowed at that intersection - which is why I was tempted to just drive straight on), but no, I drove up the inner ring where all the night-life is (lots of taxis stopping in the right lane) and where the road was suddenly blocked by some roadworks and then I found out that one of the bridges was closed, too, and I ended up doubling our journey home by ending up on the wrong motorway and making a huge detour.
Then there is this big European capital that is well-known for its ring road.
The first time I was just passing that city and this was the time of the big roadworks when they were expanding the motorway and we spent an hour in a big traffic jam all the while worrying that we might be driving that ring road in the wrong direction nearly missing our ferry across to that big island where there is another capital with a famed ring road. We got lost there, too, on the outskirts of that metropolis, suffering from a terrible hangover - the only highlight was our giggle-fit about Pratt's Bottom.
The second time I knew about the ring road and still managed to do the wrong thing by taking it - ending up in another traffic jam and scratching my front bumper when I hit another car. I did manage to get where I wanted though thanks to some mobile phone navigational advice.
And yes, my next journey to that European city I was a little apprehensive about that ring road.
Which was totally unnecessary because that ring road was fine and we nearly got to our destination - it was around the corner from that massive church and bang! road works and a diversion that took us through half the borough and across a supermarket car park. Just when I was ready to have my nervous breakdown we finally saw a street name that we recognized from our map - that church had turned up again, too - and we arrived a little frazzled after 40 minutes of driving through the Saturday midday rush hour.
We had to go home, too, and were quite happy when we saw that our printed route would take us away from the roadworks onto an inner ring road. It was all fine and we were happy that we got to do some more sight-seeing until we realized that a) we must have missed the street taking us to the motorway and b) that a ring road will take you back to where you started if you don't leave it at some point. Whoops, and there it was again that massive church.
That's when we finally saw some signs pointing us to the motorway and we followed them and I did manage to catch a glimpse of that more famous, but equally massive landmark and then at some point we found that ring road again which took us home.
Have I mentioned that our new car will have a sat nav?
The best example is Cologne, a place I know quite well, but I still manage to get lost there regularly and spectacularly. Last time it happened in the middle of the night on our way home from a party and I just knew that driving straight on through the city centre was a bad idea and that I should have done the turn left by driving straight on and then doing a u-turn at the next opportunity and then a right (which would be the legal way as a left-turn isn't allowed at that intersection - which is why I was tempted to just drive straight on), but no, I drove up the inner ring where all the night-life is (lots of taxis stopping in the right lane) and where the road was suddenly blocked by some roadworks and then I found out that one of the bridges was closed, too, and I ended up doubling our journey home by ending up on the wrong motorway and making a huge detour.
Then there is this big European capital that is well-known for its ring road.
The first time I was just passing that city and this was the time of the big roadworks when they were expanding the motorway and we spent an hour in a big traffic jam all the while worrying that we might be driving that ring road in the wrong direction nearly missing our ferry across to that big island where there is another capital with a famed ring road. We got lost there, too, on the outskirts of that metropolis, suffering from a terrible hangover - the only highlight was our giggle-fit about Pratt's Bottom.
The second time I knew about the ring road and still managed to do the wrong thing by taking it - ending up in another traffic jam and scratching my front bumper when I hit another car. I did manage to get where I wanted though thanks to some mobile phone navigational advice.
And yes, my next journey to that European city I was a little apprehensive about that ring road.
Which was totally unnecessary because that ring road was fine and we nearly got to our destination - it was around the corner from that massive church and bang! road works and a diversion that took us through half the borough and across a supermarket car park. Just when I was ready to have my nervous breakdown we finally saw a street name that we recognized from our map - that church had turned up again, too - and we arrived a little frazzled after 40 minutes of driving through the Saturday midday rush hour.
We had to go home, too, and were quite happy when we saw that our printed route would take us away from the roadworks onto an inner ring road. It was all fine and we were happy that we got to do some more sight-seeing until we realized that a) we must have missed the street taking us to the motorway and b) that a ring road will take you back to where you started if you don't leave it at some point. Whoops, and there it was again that massive church.
That's when we finally saw some signs pointing us to the motorway and we followed them and I did manage to catch a glimpse of that more famous, but equally massive landmark and then at some point we found that ring road again which took us home.
Have I mentioned that our new car will have a sat nav?
