Driving on the Left Side of the Road

Scotland trip journal excerpt, May 25, 2025:

Made the drive from the Edinburg airport without dying. Driving on the left side of the road is a challenge. Exiting the airport car rental along with a bunch of similarly-challenged tourists adds to the adventure.

As we started out, I let Kevin know that he was too far left. I was tensing up as he came close to parked cars. After a few times, he told me that my perspective was different since I wasn’t used to being a front passenger on the left.

Then we felt the bumps of the line closest to the curb. I quietly thought it was wise that the road was designed with textured lines. A few more bumpy lines, two instances of running over the curb, and one moment where the car’s collision alert was activated (to which Kevin wondered out loud what was wrong with the car)… it seemed that perhaps the road and car shared my “perspective.”

By the third outing, Kevin had a good sense of the road. It helps that he learned to drive on the left side when living in Japan, and it’s as if his brain shifted back to those formative years. Whew!

 

Worth it!

Kevin drove with confidence the rest of the trip. I’m grateful he was able to do this because if it were up to me, we’d be doing a lot more walking, and we would have missed seeing so many areas of Scotland.

There were some extra challenging sections of road though, and it takes patience, continuous awareness, and a cooperative mindset as people work together to get past each other on lanes not wide enough for two vehicles. There would be periodic pull-out sections to help with passing, and these would be sometimes on the right, and sometimes on the left. People would cheerfully wave and smile at each other in passing almost every single time we did this (which happened countless times over the 10 day trip).  I remember seeing this behavior depicted in a Netflix series, thought it to be idealistic, and then saw it could be a reality. It was one of the many things I loved about Scotland.

Tips for transportation in Scotland:

  1. Know that they have a pretty good public transportation system where trains and buses can get you to most places that visitors will want to do, and beyond. You can also combine this with local tour guides to expand your options without having to get a car.
  2. Car rental places will try to upsell you to get an SUV, talking about cobble stones. Our personal priority turned out to be the wise choice: get as slim of a vehicle as possible while still being able to fit your luggage.
  3. They will try to also upsell you on additional car insurance. Read the policy and decide for yourself, but we found that it was a very good idea.
  4. We landed in Linlithgow near a train stop to start off our journey. Great choice! We could walk around Linlithgow (relatively quiet, safe, friendly… and near a grocery store), and drive the relatively simple streets to get a feel for being on the left side of the road. We could also catch a train into Edinburgh or Glasgow.
  5. There are these large camper-vans that they rent out to tourists; know that  they often get stuck, blocking the roads, and hold up traffic until assistance arrives (can be hours).
    1. On that note, use the bathroom often, and also have snacks and water in the car (but drink the water slowly if you’re stuck due to a camper van… because it might be awhile).
  6. The wording for the signs can be different, but they tend to make sense. Examples
    1. Layby: the passing points/pull-outs (also sometimes called passing place)
    2. No Overtaking: no passing
    3. Queues: there might be a long line of cars having to take turns getting past a certain stretch of road, either for road construction or just because that section of the road is narrow.
    4. Dual Carriageway: this means the road will actually be wide enough for traffic to go in opposite directions, maybe even with a line or barrier in between.
  7. Give yourself time to readjust to driving on the right side again! For us, this means get a hotel near the airport where we can park it for our trip, get a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and get a full night’s rest before trying to drive. It took a couple days to adjust back, even for me (and I was just a passenger in Scotland).

Videos & Pictures

I managed to get some videos and pictures of driving (see below).

Driving in Isle of Skye:

 

Taking turns to cross a one-lane bridge:

 

 

Dual carriageway giving way to a single lane, in Linlithgow:

 

Aviemore. Many roads wind through green tunnels of trees.

A “Give Way” sign, meaning to yield.

 

 

Traffic sign warning of a change to drive single-file.

 

A sign reminding people to drive on the left side of the road (in several languages!). Darn tourists!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Real” Scottish Souvenirs

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“Do you want to play?”

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Took a break from unpacking to play with ferrets. Sophie immediately started dooking when I asked, “Do you want to play?” Sophie wants to play with humans. Lily wants to play with Sophie. Notice how Lily tried to engage in play several times before she finally got Sophie to play with her.

Sound on to hear the dooking.

 

 

 

 

Not Without My Hoodie

I lost my zipper hoodie in the London airport. I loved that hoodie. It was perfect for Scotland: super thick, soft, and with lots of extra pockets. I hung it on a hook in the restroom, momentarily forgot it, and it was gone by time I went back to retrieve it.

Kevin and I made a run to the nearest lost-and-found, but it wasn’t there, and we had our connecting flight to catch – without the comfort of a hoodie. Those of you who wear hoodies and cardigans as comfortable armor will understand.  I needed to get another hoodie.

As we began our Scotland adventures, in every store we passed that might sell hoodies, I popped inside. I found many hoodies right away, but they were pull-over instead of zipper-hoodies. My fuzzy armor has to be easy to remove or I get the sensation of being trapped in it, so the search continued. A few days into the trip, I finally found a zipper hoodie, but I refused to walk around with “Highlander Cow” in large letters printed across my chest, so the search continued.

When I finally found the perfect hoodie, it even had my name on it. You can guess the location where I found it. All was well again.

Fast-forward about a week and several destinations later, and we woke up to a fire alarm at our hotel. We immediately grabbed our travel vests since they always have our essentials (passport, money, medication, phone, etc.). Then I grabbed (mismatched) socks and shoes conveniently by the door and wondered, is there anything else before heading to the exit?  Yes! I turned back long enough to grab my hoodie. Everything else could burn to the ground just so long I had my Kevin, my travel vest, and my blessed hoodie. #Priorities

Close-up of the words Isle of Skye with a Celtic symbol on embroidered on a hoodie jacket with a zipper.

 

Shoe Thief

We’re in the new house and unpacking.  Brigid is “helping” by taking things and storing them where she thinks they should go.  Also: this is how I lose my shoes.  Brigid is also fond of my bras; she will steal them out of the laundry basket if I forget to not place them there. I was down to my last one before I discovered her “bra bed” stash in the last house, where she was curled up sleeping. How would this house be organized if the ferrets chose where everything went?

Sable ferret with end of a black sandal in her mouth, dragging it to the left. Her tail is curled in a hook, pointing the direction she is moving.