Driving in BE is an interesting experience for me.

The first reason is the manual gearing (手排). Although my driving license is for both manual and automatic gearing, I always drive automatic gearing cars in Taiwan. However, for the reason of efficient energy using, most cars in Europe are manual gearing. Well, the first test after renting the car is driving it out of the parking space with a sharp raising slope. The other is remembering to gear back to 1st when stop completely.

The second reason I say "interesting" is, many people drive very fast, but politely. After overtaking (超車), all drivers would switch back to his original lane, unless non-stop overtaking. The speed limitation on freeway is 120 km/hr (show on GPS), but many drive about 140 km/hr or more. Following a "fast" car always makes me feel the driving time is short, so I follow a Porsche, a BMW 320 and an Audi TT on the way from Brugge to Gent.

Sorry, no picture of the Audi TT, because it still left me behind even my car is 160+ km/hr!

In a party occasion, I meet a Belgium police, and I ask her about the speed limit and why many people drive more than 120 km/hr. She said, the speed limit is really 120 km/hr, but actually, policemen are sometimes lazy to deal with racing driving on freeway. But, if someone drive 40km/hr more than the limitation (160 km/hr on freeway), his/her license will be canceled.

The 3rd reason is, in general, the speed limit of other roads in Belgium is higher than in Taiwan. So you do not have to waste a lot of time driving slowly before merging in the freeway. And do not spend you a lot of time while detouring. (Well, GPS is also very useful while detouring)

The last reason and the most important reason is the environment in Belgium is better than in Taiwan. So, open the windows and driving is joyful!!!!