Sooner or later I had to come to the subject of driving.
It's particularly relevant now as there is a traffic roundabout building blitz going on near us. At least 10 new roundabouts have popped up in the last few months, reminding me of those suspicious man-made looking crop circles that appear overnight in country fields each year.
No, the roundabouts are not being constructed by aliens dressed in silver suits with one large eye, but curiously having two arms and legs and speaking english in a dalek style voice. These new roundabouts are courtesy of major construction companies. Weather beaten burley portuguese labourers, who stride through the traffic and dare you to run them over. Incidently, in the UK, health and safety measures would have closed off whole sections of roads to allow for the construction causing untold delays, but not here. It never ceases to amaze me the way that things are built in Portugal whilst traffic still zings around the workers building whatever they are building.
So portuguese drivers will now have to enter the whole new world of road positioning! That is, being in the left hand lane to turn left at an island, not cutting across the car in the left hand lane who intends to go straight on (or who more realistically wants to turn right). In my experience, this is a tough one, as having been cut-up by a portuguese driver just about every time I enter a roundabout it seems the lesson is not to be learned quickly....probably not for a few generations at least.
Oh what fun it will be when the holiday makers arrive and fill the roads with their rented Vauxhall Corsas thinking that they have right-of-way and not realising that in Portugal they have to get-out-of-the-way! A suggestion for the authorities. It might be worth having the GNR and an ambulance parked near to each roundabout to save time getting to the inevitable daily accidents.
On the subject of the GNR....hmmm no i'll leave that 'til next time..
Driving here is about the only subject I fel justified to complain about. if you want to see a real rant about the standard of algarve driving see http://ordinary-life-rm.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteyou are not alone!
I personally prefer it when they do the road works in the winter, when we do occasionally get rain- always sporting to see the workmen holding umbrellas so they dont get wet- not sure they could last long in british conditions!!
ReplyDeleteAlso can anyone tell me why oh why dont the portuguese ever use rollers to compact the gravel they fill holes in with? do they just like seeing us all drive into huge ditches that appear on a daily basis. they seem to come back after a week or two and refill the hole and let us do the work again.... 2 months later they then give in and resurface properly- well patch anyway! Really think I should give up the sports car and stick to a 4x4!
Aha anonymous ;o) ...thanks for your views... may I respectfully suggest you leave the gas guzzling environment busting motors at home and walk, avoiding the potholes of course!
ReplyDeleteIn our twent plus years of visiting the Algarve we have seen many amusing as well as dangerous things on the roads.
ReplyDeleteI often chuckle at the time we were sat outside a small bar near the Barragem Do Arade when a man rode past on a motorcycle with the wife and kids on the back and a goat across the handlebars.
More recently we were staying at the Ourahotel in Albufiera, in a room overlooking the roundabout, which at that time had not been there very long. A man drove round the rounabout but missed his exit Did he go round again? Of course not, he reversed back until he could go on his happy way.
The other day pink flamingo and i (little stork) had to break very suddenly due to someone else coming round the corner on our side of the road...(corners have been around since life began so god help us with roundabouts!)..i think everybody over 25 should be retaught to drive over here...near death experiences are not fun!
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