driving in europe

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not—if you leave me you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?
O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you
You express me better than I can express myself.
Walt Whitman,
Song of the Open Road

In the country chapters I go into great detail about the rules of the road for each country. You should familiarize yourself with and try to adhere to these rules, but don't sacrifice the proper state of mind in the process. Ironically, I think the best way to nurture the right attitude is to tone down your dependence on memory, to let the environmental stimuli flow into you unimpeded by too many worries, to react naturally and to trust your reactions, to make mistakes and to not dwell on them, to throw off the great weight of fastidiousness, to exercise the old adage: When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In other words, go with the flow; be cool; blend in with traffic; and revel in the fact that you're truly participating in a different culture, that you've effectively become, for a short time at least, a citizen of Europe. When in Paris do as the Parisians and park on the sidewalk. When in Scandinavia, if you notice everybody else driving with their lights on—even in bright sun—you'd better too. It's easy.

OK, but now you're on the road in, say, France, and you think you may be on the wrong road. You're getting nervous because you want to stay off the toll roads. After checking out France chapter you know that blue signs marked with the letter "A" indicate Autoroute péage (toll) roads; while green signs with the letter "N" indicate non-toll Route National highways. No problem: just follow the signs in green, the signs that indicate the non-toll highways. At times, you'll note, the signals seem ambiguous because one sign bears both blue and green sections listing A and N roads respectively. "How can I be on both an A and an N road at the same time?" you'll ask yourself. Such signage means only that you're on your way to both types of road, that the road you're on is not a toll road; eventually you'll have the option to enter either the toll road or a non-toll road. Sometimes after following a green-only or a blue/green sign, a blue-only sign will appear unaccompanied by possible turnoffs. Don't worry: eventually another green sign will direct you to a non-toll road before you have to pay. This all sounds simple, and it is. Just keep following the last sign you saw. Keep following the last sign you saw. Keep following the last sign you saw . . . Sorry, but I feel the redundancy is justified. It's easy to get flustered and worry that you missed an important turn. But the keen state of mind that you'll be in, coupled with the excellent nature of the roads and signage, will render quite small the chances of actually missing such a turnoff. Be astute, but trust yourself and the road design and signage. In a word, relax; usually it all comes together in the end. The wisdom of this simple approach has been apparent to me time after time throughout my travels. I've slowly learned not to get flustered when there isn't a meaningful sign placed every one kilometer. This is more than a prudent approach to driving; it's an attitude, an attitude that will greatly increase the pleasure you draw from your trip. You are, after all, on the road; you should be singing songs and talking like Kerouac.

And, as I first described in the Why Drive? chapter, history has assured that navigating to the cities and towns and sights is much more of a song than you might expect. First, most of the European languages you'll encounter are cognate with English; so it tends to be quite easy to read signs which give directions. What's more, each city and town grew from an old town center. In this center, of course, lie most of a town's attractive sites and accommodations. Everything falls into place if you follow the ubiquitous signs to the town center or simply head toward the tallest church spire. Most of the signs denoting town centers bear variations of the word center, such as "Centro," "Centrum," "Centre Ville," "Centro Città," or "Zentrum"; in many parts of Germany the word is "Stadtmitte." Furthermore, on the way to the center of town you'll see tourist information boards or signs indicating the direction to the tourist office. Most such signs read "i" for information; in France, however, they read "Office du Tourisme" or "Syndicat d'Initiative"; in the Netherlands they read "VVV"; sometimes they bear a lone "?."

Another way to get your bearings when entering a town is to follow the signs that point to the train station. Both the signs and the stations they point to are ubiquitous in Europe. Look for signs reading "Gare," "Estacion," or some variation of the word station. Many guidebooks use the train station as the origin for their directions to sights and accommodations. Furthermore, the famous and (here we go again) ubiquitous Hostelling International sign (see it above, and see the Accommodations chapter for more on hostelling) tends to be nearby, pointing the way to the nearest hostel. In most cases hostel proprietors have placed these signs in a series and with a frequency designed to lead all but the most clueless along the best route to the hostel door. Often, a tourist office operates out of the local train station. At the very least you'll find city maps dispensed inside or a single city map displayed on a large public board just outside. Perhaps what's more important, many of your fellow travelers at the station will be more than happy to give you the scoop on the best places to stay, the best sights, and the best places to hang out. Moreover, the parking lot will be at your disposal—often free of charge: you can just leave your vehicle in the lot and continue on foot or by metro, bus, or taxi. Since governments tend to build train stations near places of interest and since business people who cater to travelers tend to locate their establishments around either train stations or places of interest, you probably won't feel compelled to stray too far from the station.

To leave a city either follow the signs that indicate the road or the city you want to travel on or to or follow the signs that bear words meaning "all directions" or "other directions". For translations of these phrases, see the "Road Signs" portions in the France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain sections of this chapter. You'll note when checking the expressways on your map that they often have two different numbers designating them. One is the national designation and the other—with the "E" prefix—is the Europe-wide designation, which simply provides for continuous numbering between countries.

European police don't seem to enforce speed limits with the same gusto as do North American police. The fast lane is usually just that—fast. The countries hungriest for speed are Germany and Great Britain, where fast-lane speeds of 120 mph (200 km/h) and 85 mph (142 km/h), respectively, are common. As I'm sure you've heard, no speed limit exists on many sections of the famous German Autobahnen. In contrast to Germany and Britain, traffic in Norway seems to crawl along. Generally, traffic flows about 10 mph (17 km/h) faster than traffic in North America. The roads are good enough to handle the high speeds, but if you don't fancy yourself a Euro Speed Racer or if your vehicle simply can't keep up, you won't be alone: plenty of Europeans drive 55 mph in the slow lanes or amicably signal or pull onto the shoulder so speedier drivers can pass. Many countries define speed limits in terms of "built-up" areas. A built-up area is indicated by a sign, placed along the road at the community boundary, that bears the name of the community. The end of a built-up area is indicated by a black slash across a twin of this sign. If when outside a built-up area the police nail you for speeding, they won't pull you over immediately; instead, they'll radio one of their colleagues who'll pull you over at a convenient spot down the road.

You need to familiarize yourself with the ways drivers may signal to you. If someone driving in the opposite direction blinks their vehicle's headlights, it means that police are lying in wait ahead. On the open roads of someone who wants to pass will come up behind you with their vehicle's left blinker (right blinker where driving driving is on the left) and/or headlights flashing (if on the continent); if you're on a single-lane highway, signal with your vehicle's right directional (left directional where driving is on the left) when you think it's safe for them to pass. European truckers use the same blinker signal to let you know it's safe to pass them. If the truck driver sees danger ahead he'll engage his truck's left blinker (right blinker where driving is on the left). Although I cannot recommend you interpret such signals as I describe above, you may soon come to trust them—but in any case you act on these signals and my description of them at your own risk. Two quick beeps on the horn means "Thank you." In the British Isles, however, it is not a good idea to flash your headlights to indicate you want to pass, as this is likely to offend the driver ahead of you; better just express a sense of urgency by using your indicator and hovering quite near behind the vehicle and somewhat toward the center of the road—but without tailgaiting. Throughout Europe you're expected to sound your horn before taking a blind curve on a narrow rural or mountain road. Otherwise, use the horn as a last resort. Motorcyclists often signal their Hello's to other bikers and Thank you's to other motorists (earned for instance by a car that moves over to give more room for the cycle to pass) by slowly pressing out their right leg.

You'll encounter tunnels in mountainous areas. Be sure to turn on your vehicle's headlights before entering a tunnel; police tend to lie in wait on the other end, nailing driver's who haven't lit up. Norway's tunnels are so long they're unnerving; you'll feel like Starbuck being shot out of the Battlestar Galactica, and you'll think to yourself, "Gee, even Superman woulda had a hard time digging these tunnels."

By the way, driving with headlights on decreases by 30 percent your chances of being in a collision with another vehicle—that's why it's required at all times in Scandinavia. (For some reason this is illegal in Germany, however.) And police are bound to go easier on drivers thoughtful enough to light up.

To use toll roads, you must, upon entering the system, pay at a booth or else get a ticket by pushing a red button on a driver's-side ticketing machine. Sometimes the ticketing machine controls a barrier; other times there's no barrier. If you go through an unbarred control point without getting a ticket, you'll be charged the maximum toll at the next exit. So they can further prosecute violators, many toll stations use automatic cameras to photograph any vehicle that passes through a pay booth without paying.

If you travel through mountain tunnels or over passes which charge a toll, note that many offer discounted return fares for travelers who'll return within a certain period, usually 72 hours.

Where two roads of equal priority intersect, you must give way to traffic coming from your right. In France this rule once applied to all roads, thus supplanting any notion of a priority road; fortunately this is no longer the case. These days long stretches of European roadway are clearly marked as priority roads, and/or the approaches to and intersections with priority roads are clearly marked with warning signs and with Yield and STOP signs or signals. Since they don't really intersect with other roads, all expressways (variously called autoroutes, autobahns, motorways, etc.) have priority. In towns a priority road often branches and makes complicated turns. In such cases a sign often identifies the priority road with a fat line opposed to thin lines which indicate lesser roads. Only on occasion will two roads of equal (unmarked) priority intersect and oblige you to exercise your knowledge of what in France is called "priorité à droite" or "priority on the right". Sometimes this runs rather counter to intuition. Take the case of an uncontrolled "T" intersection of two equal roads. You might think traffic on the through street of the "T" would have priority. But, no, traffic on the right must be yielded to. (Left-turning vehicles, however, should always yield in this situation.)

"Hey, look kids. There's Big Ben, and there's Parliament," exclaims driver Chevy Chase—starring as Clark Griswald, the well-meaning but bumbling patriarch of the pathetic Griswald clan—in a scene from the 1985 movie European Vacation. The scene unfolds early one day in the family's rented car as Clark attempts to navigate a London roundabout. "Kids. Big Ben, Parliament, (again)," he repeats the second time around. "Kids." "We know," they retort in unison. ". . . Big Ben, Parliament." Dusk finds the Griswald's little car circling on the same roundabout, all passengers but Clark fast asleep. "It's amazing," Clark says to himself in hysterical disbelief. "I cannot get left."

Roundabouts: those circular intersections where stop signs are nonexistent, and everyone's at everyone else's mercy, and you have to join the flow if you want to go—and you could, in theory, go around forever. The word roundabout is actually of American origin. American Logan Pearsall Smith, one of the members in the 1920s of the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English originated it. Before he suggested the change, traffic circles in Britain were called gyratory circuses. (Smith also wanted to call traffic lights stop-and-goes.) To many of us North Americans, though, roundabouts epitomize European motoring. The popular American imagination elevates few elements of civil engineering to the level of enigma, but it has done so with roundabouts. In fact many non Europeans assume that if roundabouts are such a puzzle, so must be the rest of European motoring. You know by now that this assumption is unsound. But what is the deal with roundabouts anyway? Although in most cases you don't need to stop when entering a roundabout, you must yield to traffic that's already on it. A sign bearing a circle of three counterclockwise arrows indicates such a roundabout. Though increasingly rare, some roundabouts aren't graced by such a sign and thus make it incumbent for you to exercise the aforementioned priorité à droite rule; in other words, traffic on these roundabouts must yield to traffic entering. Regardless of signage, it should be immediately obvious if the traffic on or entering the roundabout is or is not waiting for you to enter. Once on the circle, you can go around indefinitely until you figure out which exit you want to take. You'll get the impression that you're skating around that old roller rink you used to go to as a kid. Indeed, you'll become a bit giddy. You'll quickly come to like these little rinks: they allow you to make unhurried decisions as your vehicle is moving, and they reduce the number of stops you must make. If two lanes enter a roundabout, you should stay in the inside lane, engaging your vehicle's inside blinker until you identify the exit you wish to take and until you pass the exit immediately before that one. Once you reach this point you should engage your vehicle's outside blinker, move into the outside lane, and exit the roundabout. England and France employ the most roundabouts.

Let's hope that all your stops are pleasant, but you should note the places where they're less likely to be so. Geneva's International Road Federation has declared Turkey and Latvia the most dangerous European countries in which to drive; Portugal is close behind. The safest countries for drivers are the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Germany. The Federation's comments generally agree with the data in Table Driving.2.

Most countries empower their police to collect fines on the spot from violators. If the police require that you pay them, make sure you get a receipt; and if possible, make sure the nature of the offense and the amount of the fine as described on the receipt match the actual offense and the amount you paid. Police in France, Germany and Italy use roadblocks to conduct random checks of vehicles and drivers. Blood alcohol limits in Europe are given in milligrams (mg), so that's how I list them for each country. Note that a blood alcohol limit of, say, 80 mg is equal to a limit of 0.08 percent or 0.8 grams per liter. Radar-triggered cameras are increasingly used to enforce speed limits by photographing the license plate of an offending vehicle. The ticket is posted within a few days to the name and address on the registration. If it's a rental or tourist-lease, the company will get the ticket and charge you. If it's a foreign-registered vehicle, well, just wait and see. The photo used to accompany, but in several cases love affairs were thus exposed; so now you'll have to visit the police station to garner the evidence. Whereas the key first threshold for police officers who might write a ticket on the spot is reported to be a speed 10 percent over the limit, it's said that along highways the cameras are only triggered by vehicles going more than 20 km/h over. Furthermore, it's rumored only half the photos are unambiguous enough to result in a ticket. If you trigger one of these cameras you'll probably see the flash. Signs usually warn drivers if such an apparatus is permanently mounted along or above the road. But often they're mounted in unmarked police cars parked on the roadside or median, and in such case of course no signs attend.

On the Other Side

The main trouble that most North Americans face when driving in the British Isles is that they must drive on the left side of the road. Not only is the traffic flip-flopped, but the steering wheel is on the other side of the vehicle—and the gear shift is at your left hand instead of your right. (Although the shifting pattern is the same; and the accelerator is still at the right foot, with the brake pedal off to its left.) It's virtually impossible for a North American to practice driving this way before arriving in a country where left-side driving is the norm; the best we North Americans can do is use mental imagery to shed the right-side-of-the-road mindset. Yet the adaptability of the human brain is remarkable. In a matter of days a North American or continental European driving in the British Isles (or, for that matter, a Brit or Aussie or Kiwi driving on the continent) can supplant the mindset he or she assumed over a whole lifetime. It reminds me of an experiment in which scientists asked a man to wear a contraption that inverted his vision. He agreed. At first, the upside down world confused the man so that he stumbled around and could hardly feed himself. Within a week, however, he was functioning normally. When the scientists finally took the contraption off the man's head, the rightsideup world seemed upside down to him. Again he stumbled around and could hardly feed himself. This went on for years—no, just kidding; in a couple of days the man readjusted to the conventional world. If the human mind can adapt so quickly to the inversion of the whole world, surely you'll adapt to sitting on the right side of a vehicle, shifting with your left hand, and driving on the left side of the road.

Not only will you quickly adapt, but the benefits of driving will counteract the anxiety you'll experience in the transition period. In the meantime, the right attitude can minimize both this anxiety and the real danger that fuels it. Be cool. Take your time. Most Brits and Irish, experienced in motoring on the continent, empathize with and are thus tolerant of disoriented foreign drivers. When someone does honk at you, open your smile like a jackknife and wave at the irritated bloke like a bloody fool. Who cares? Remember, all will be OK as long as you don't hit anything. Soon you'll be zipping around like Jackie Stewart. The whole experience will make for good stories when you get home, and the you'll feel a genuine and justified pride in your accomplishment.

I must reiterate that it is legal to drive left-hand-drive vehicles (steering wheel on the left, gear shift on your right) in the British Isles and right-hand-drive vehicles on the continent, but it makes it virtually impossible to safely pass other vehicles unless you have an astute and trusted navigator in the passenger seat or unless the driver's seat is high enough to let you see over the majority of vehicles. The headlight beams should be adjusted before you make the switch. Naturally you can buy a headlight conversion kit in Europe. The kits contain specially shaped adhesive black plastic which sticks to the glass and alters the direction of the beam.

Parking

As I enthusiastically related in the Why Drive? chapter, you should be able to find free-of-charge parking all over Europe. Some neighborhoods, however, reserve free parking—or all parking—for residents. In such areas the residents' vehicles bear an official sticker. Check the other vehicles around yours to see if they all bear the same sort of sticker in the same place on one of the windows. No parking zones along streets (for instance, near bus stops) are often indicated by a zig-zag white line painted on the street.

Parking meters and "pay-and-display" schemes are common. A pay-and-display scheme requires you to pay at a central machine (some machines ask you to punch in your vehicle's license plate number too), press a button (usually the green one, the others are for local residents whose vehicle's bear special permits), receive a ticket that lists a time-of-day limit commensurate with the amount you paid, and display the ticket in readily visible spot on the dashboard (on the side closest to the curb if on the street). Most of these machines account for periods of the day when parking is free, so you can pay at night for the first hour or two after 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. the next day. In event of a defective machine you should use the parking disc I desribe next. You may then park for the maximum duration normally permitted at that location.

Figure Driving.2 A pay-and-display machine in Germany. Literal translation: "Parkticketmachine: Here parkticket take."		Figure Driving.3 A parking disc placed on a dashboard.

Many cities in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland enforce Blue Zones or short-term parking areas which limit parking to an indicated duration, usually two hours. The marking of these zones varies from country to country. Before parking in a Blue Zone you must obtain special tickets or a disc from a tourist office, police station, or tobacconist. Sometimes you must buy the tickets or disc, but usually they're given free of charge. In fact most rental companies include a disc or "blue card" in their vehicles. When using a ticket, you write on it the date and time of your arrival (Europeans write the day number before the month number and use the military convention for noting times) and then display it on the side of your vehicle's dashboard closest to the curb. Discs, on the other hand, either bear a clock face and a set of unmechanized clock hands which you can set to show the time of your arrival (see Figure Driving.3 above) or they actually function mechanically as clocks (see www.dotoni.ch). You may round-up to the next half-hour. If, for example, you arrive at 9:40, you can indicate 10:00. In lieu of these items a simple note left on your dashboard may suffice. It's worth noting that during my first extended motor tour of Europe I was unaware of such zones; I never bought tickets or obtained a disc, and I never suffered a penalty—and I parked in many cities and towns which supposedly enforce Blue Zones. Maybe I was lucky. If you're unsure about whether you should obtain a ticket or disc, check the dashboards of the other vehicles in the area to determine if other drivers feel it's necessary.

If you do get a parking ticket and you do feel compelled to pay it, most countries offer a rather ingenious way to do so. Take the ticket to a tobacconist, purchase a tax stamp (called a "timbre fiscal" in France) in the proper amount, affix the larger of the tax stamp's two sections to the ticket, and, using a regular stamp, mail the tax-stamped ticket to the address indicated on the ticket. Note that wheel clamps are coming into wider use.

Most parking garages and lots employ one rather clever pay-for-parking scheme. Upon entering, you receive a time-stamped ticket. Just before you leave, you take the ticket to a central processing machine and place it in a slot. The machine then prompts you to insert the appropriate amount of cash. (Many of these machines accept coins only; so it's a good idea to check this upon leaving your vehicle behind.) Insert the cash and the machine returns any change along with the ticket, which now bears the time and a certification of payment. Finally, you must present the ticket to the attendant or insert it in a machine to leave.

For the safety of their female customers, it's quite common in Europe for parking garages to reserve the most well lit and frequented area of the garage for women who are not accompanied by a male. This area usually corresponds to the first level of the garage. Look for signs reading, for example, "Nur Frau" (German for "Only Woman").

As I mentioned in the Why Drive? chapter, Barcelona harbors amazing car parks. When you drive in, an attendant directs you to continue into a chamber. Once you properly align the vehicle in the chamber, you exit both the vehicle and the chamber. Finally, the attendant closes the chamber, and the vehicle is hydraulically moved to some secret, subterranean vault. Be sure to remove your luggage when you remove yourself from the chamber: I once didn't and had to recall my car, drive it out, and pay before being able to re-park it.

Theft and Safety

Most theft in Europe is of the petty variety, rarely involving assault: the thief does not want a confrontation. Thus, by using your head you can prevent almost every potential crime.

For example, don't let people listen in or somehow note your phone card or credit card number. Watch your credit card after giving it to a clerk: you don't want the clerk to make extra imprints. Review all charge slips before you sign them. And be careful with your charge card receipts: they have the card number on them too. In fact, you should destroy old carbons, billing statements, and other records that bear your account number.

Don't flaunt your money or act too much like a tourist. You know how foreigners stand out as targets for crime. Don't compromise your trip, but don't unnecessarily make yourself a bigger target. Be discreet when doing your thing in banks, at ATM machines, or at exchange booths. Take note of the people around you. Try to blend in and look confident. If you have a shoulder bag, wear the strap across the shoulder opposite the side on which the bag hangs. Be careful in crowded places such as those around street performers and on metros and buses: pickpockets love crowds—especially crowds ripe with tourists. Beware at beaches. If two people approach you, one speaking to you and the other hovering around, go on red alert: the speaker may be trying to distract you while the other person nabs an item. And never fall asleep with a valuable next to you. Move in groups when it's convenient. In no way is the danger great enough that you should modify your itinerary; just be smart, that's all.

The further south you go the more you need to be aware of your possessions and personal space. Beware of young vagrant children and their adult cohorts who hover around and pickpocket travelers. Such thieves may walk into you with an open newspaper or large flat box held extended from their waste, wave a newspaper in your face, or throw a baby doll into your arms to distract you while their accomplices rifle through your pockets. Other thieves may approach you with flowers or some other triviality to sell; simply brush them off—and don't feel bad about it. I've even heard of tourists being glopped with mustard then "assisted" by ostensibly helpful bystanders who in fact did the glopping and who point to the sky and claim the stuff is bird doo while they wipe it off and swipe what they can. No matter, if you're aware of their presence and have taken simple security precautions, thieves will leave you alone.

Thefts from vehicles occur with alarming frequency in Spain and Southern Italy. Regardless of where you are, leave nothing of value in the vehicle. Leave the glove compartment open and emptied. If a rear seat pulls down to offer access to the trunk, pull it down—and leave the trunk empty. If you must leave something of value in the trunk, however, lock that seat so it can't be pulled down. If possible, lock the trunk from the driver's side lock so it can't be popped open without the key. If your vehicle has a hatchback, remove the shield that conceals the empty trunk. Consider leaving the front passenger door open to allow thieves easy access: otherwise, they'll break a lock or window. Essentially, make the scene look as if some other thief has been there already. If you drive into the larger cities, consider parking in front of embassies and banks where security may be better, or in an area where traffic police are working. Throughout Europe, parking ramps offer safer haven than the streets; but they may not be worth the cost.

The rate of theft of vehicles themselves is high in the city of Prague and in Poland. Consider parking in small towns outlying the larger cities. You can take the extremely cheap trains into the metro area. Thieves concentrate where the tourists are, and the tourists usually aren't in the small towns. Turning your wheels all the way to the curb may also help.

Some thieves are more aggressive than those I've mentioned so far. Keep your vehicle's doors locked when driving, and keep the vehicle in gear at a stop. If someone points to your tires as if indicating that the tires are flat, don't get out to look. If someone bumps you—especially if they bump you repeatedly—think twice before unlocking the doors and getting out of the vehicle. Rather, turn on your vehicle's hazard lights to signal that you're not fleeing, and drive slowly to a well-populated and well-lit place. Beware if you pick up a rental car at Madrid's airport. The rental companies there park their vehicles in unprotected and unsupervised areas. As a result, thieves have learned to puncture the tires, wait outside, follow exiting vehicles, and rob them when the unsuspecting driver pulls over with a flat. Always be wary of an offer of roadside help extended by anyone other than a uniformed police officer or civil guard. If a person stops to help, ask them to call the police. Conversely, don't you stop to help a stranded motorist: in the more marginal parts of Europe, roadside brigands are known to feign car trouble then steal your vehicle and/or rob you when you stop to help.

Lock away your baggage overnight, and lock the door to your room as well. When staying in a hostel, take a hint from nature and sleep with your valuables between your legs. Out of sight is out of mind; don't unnecessarily tempt thieves. Passports are a valuable commodity on the black market—keep yours secure. If you travel in a couchette on an overnight train, tie the door shut: thieves payoff conductors, put sleeping gas into compartments, and proceed to pilfer the unconscious occupants' possessions; if you're not careful, you'll wake up minus one suitcase or backpack but plus one big head ache. Italian trains have become infamous for such robberies. If something of yours does get stolen from your person, vehicle, or room and if you have some form of insurance to cover the theft of the item, make sure you get a police report at the next convenient opportunity, if you know what I mean.

And don't give up items for lost if they are stolen. Often thieves are only after cash and will dump wallets and other articles. Many are nice enough to throw the wallet—including credit cards—in a mailbox. The post will check your identification and deliver the wallet and contents either directly to your embassy or to the police who will forward it to your embassy. And police stations in Europe are often rife with stolen articles waiting to be claimed. If you've written your address on your articles, they may conveniently show up at your embassy like your wallet.

Overheating

In hot weather check the radiator's water level frequently. If the water level is low but not below the bottom of the header tank, you can immediately add water. If, however, the water is below this level, you should allow the engine to cool before adding water: otherwise you may damage the cylinder block. If the radiator is overheating, let it cool before very carefully and slowly opening the radiator cap. If you aren't careful, a rush of steam from the radiator may severely burn you. High engine temperatures resulting from some combination of a high ambient temperature, an ineffective cooling system, and extreme strain on the engine from, say, a steep ascent, can vaporize fuel in the lines, the pump, or the carburetor, causing the engine to stop. If such a stall occurs, let the engine cool off before trying to restart it.

Breakdowns & Accidents

If you've rented or leased a vehicle, your contract should entitle you to some form of roadside service. Regardless, chances are that the local motoring club will come to your aid. As I detailed in the Documents chapter, most of the European clubs belong to one of the two international touring organizations, either the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) or the Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) and thus are obligated to reciprocate their benefits to members of likewise-affiliated clubs. If you don't belong to an affiliated club, you can buy temporary membership in any number of European clubs. Even if you aren't reciprocally or directly a member of these clubs, they'll still come to your aid—for a charge. In the country-by-country descriptions, I include the address and phone number of all automobile clubs, and I note if they're affiliated with the FIA and/or AIT.

If you stop your car or van or caravan on the shoulder of a highway, you must place one or two warning triangles along the roadside behind the vehicle. (Motorcycles are exempt from this requirement.) You should also turn on the vehicle's hazard lights. In Table Driving.3, I list the appropriate distances at which you should place the triangle or triangles behind the vehicle.

If you're battery is dead and it's in a manual transmission vehicle, you can get the vehicle started again by "popping the clutch." To do this, push in the clutch and hold it, put vehicle in second gear, have the vehicle pushed up to a speed that matches the speed associated with the second gear, then let the clutch out and turn the key. The energy of the turning axle is translated into the engine where the alternator transforms it into enough electric power to start the vehicle.

Get a receipt for any service you must pay for: your automobile club, rental or leasing company, or dealer may reimburse you if you do. Always secure a cost estimate before submitting your vehicle for maintenance.

Besides the information about automobile clubs, I include in each country's chapter the local telephone numbers for the police, fire, and ambulance services. In many areas, emergency phones are in place along major roads. Laws, unless I note otherwise in a country's description, require you to call police to the scene of any accident that involves you and that results in damage to a vehicle or person. However, sometimes—especially in the South—the parties involved can settle such damages on the spot. Such settlements are facilitated by the European Accident Statement. This form—found in the glove compartment or in the pocket on the driver's side door of most rental vehicles—provides a standard format on which to draw a diagram of the accident, note the information about the vehicles and drivers involved, and note other important facts about the accident. All drivers involved sign the form and receive a carbon copy; they then send a copy of their copy to their rental or leasing or insurance company. Of course you should carefully consider your insurance coverage before settling accidents without involving the police. Note that you should never sign a statement that you can't read; insist on a translation.

The Steps to Take in Case of an Accident

To accomplish some of the steps that I describe below, see the Motorists' Phrasebook chapter for useful phrases in eight European languages. If you have a European Accident Statement form in your glove compartment or driver's-side door, get it out and use it to record the information I mention below. On the EAS it doesn't matter which vehicle you designate as "A" and which you designate as "B". But be sure to have the other driver sign the form. Or if the other driver produces it—and if when completed it's acceptable to you—make sure you sign it and take a carbon a copy. You should mail a copy of your copy to your insurer. Required procedures are more lax in some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Sweden; see the next paragraph for the procedures to follow in such countries.

If you're involved in an accident in a country such as the United Kingdom or Sweden where the required post-accident procedure is more lax, and the accident causes damage or injury to any other person, vehicle, animal not in your vehicle, or to roadside property, you must do the following.