A Day at the Beach

We took the Smart Rental Car out west. Drove to the coast and just kept going - right on the beach at Weston-super-mare. It seemed to be normal practice to use the beach as a parking lot over there - the sand was hard and wet and very level. That's a picture of me next to the car - it's a tall car. 

I still can't believe we drove around the country with those obnoxious graphics on the doors. We got stares on the motorway but weren't sure if people were more surprised by the diminutive size of the car or the loudness of the graphics splashed across the car.

Traveling Incognito - Not!

Thought it would be fun to find out out how this little car we'd been seeing everywhere actually drives. Rented a Smart Car though the German rental company Sixt out of the Stansted airport, north of London. We were impressed by the spaciousness of the interior and the extremely deft maneuverability. I got a kick out of the funky details of the interior - the protruding dials and vents - it all worked with the lighthearted design theme of the car. I found it surprisingly stable at speed - we easily kept up with traffic on the rain swept motorways heading east. We especially appreciated the "subtle" rental car graphics on the car which advertised the too-good-to-be-true rental rate of five pounds a day (which turned out to be a fraction of the final bill  due to a few pesky clauses in the extremely inflexible rental agreement).  A couple of pictures of the car in the charming old town of Wells, south of Bath.