not sure where this was – i’m pretty sure it was just into holland. we were treated to a fantastic day for the journey. 820 miles to calais in 12 hours, averaging 77mph!
observations from the drive:

• the polish drive sensibly and all stick to the motorway speed limit. the motorway was ok. everything else is just dangerous. the roads in wroclaw are appalling – i don’t know how so many people ride there.
• the germans drive sensibly. no speed limit for most of the autobahn stretch but traffic flows perfectly. roads are quiet, even on a saturday lunchtime on the berlin ring road. at one point, we were tooling along at 100mph when we were overtaken by three german coupes, nose to tail doing at least 150mph. amazing.
• the dutch drive sensibly. speedometers could be calibrated on their motorways. everyone travels at the same speed and so traffic flows perfectly – the sort of thing you’d expect from a country with their transport policies.
• the belgians drive sensibly. see the dutch above but with worse road surfaces.
• the english drive like arseholes. sitting in the middle lane, oblivious to the effect that they have for a large distance behind them. people drive with main beam on on the motorways, maybe because they can’t see your lights. they can’t see your squinting face either. they leave rear fog-lights on. they drive too fast on a-roads. they feel invincible cocooned in their metal box. i was reminded how fortunate i am not to have to drive on our roads very often.