h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A few things I have noticed about driving in the Netherlands.

1. When merging on to a road (with a Motorway style on-ramp) the traffic on the motorway alters speed to match yours, thus preventing you from entering the new road unless your car has a more powerful engine or you have more powerful brakes.

2. About 300 metres from a set of traffic lights the speedlimit will often become downgrades. e.g. from 100km/h to 70km/h. After the junction the speedlimit is raised back up again. Mostly by a symbol for the type of road rather than a speedlimit sign. This confuses tourists and the elderly who will remain at 70km/h thus causing traffic to back up.

3. Many drivers will memorise the location of fixed speed cameras and apply the brakes at the last minute. Therefore do not drive behind a car with more powerful brakes that you have.

4. Depending on the provice some speed cameras are painted day-glow colours, others are camoflaged as bushes, trees and shrubbery. If it is the latter look for gaps in the bushes as this often indicates the line of view for the camera.

5. German drivers in the Netherlands always ignore the speed limit.

6. The Afsluitdijk (sorry if I misspelt that) which is a dyke about 30km long and connects the provencies of Friesland with Noord Holland is the most boring 15 minutes drive ever. The road is very straight (a slight kink in the middle where the two ends were joined breaks the tedium a little) and you have the Ijselmeer on one side and the Waddenzee (an extension of the North Sea on the other. So no nice pretty views to look at.