Driving on the right

An unusual day. It began at a lakeside south of Munich, where we were based for the launch of the new VW Polo. In beautiful weather, we drove - on the right, of course - back to Munich airport for the flight home. By the time we were ready to leave, the cars were all lined up in military precision ready for another, incoming group.

Hooray, we landed early back at Stansted, which allowed time for a very quick pop-in to another Lakeside on the way home, the shopping centre just off the M25. I thought I'd still manage to be back indoors ahead of schedule, but no such luck.

Turned off the M25 and onto the A20 to find a very long queue of stationary traffic ahead. Pretty soon there was a long queue behind too. Nothing on the carriageway moved for a couple of hours, although all manner of emergency vehicles sped down the hard shoulder. All we trapped motorists got out of our vehicles to chat. It transpired that a mobile crane had crashed into a railway bridge over the road, rendering it potentially unsafe, so nothing was being allowed to drive underneath it while rescue and inspections were ongoing.

Eventually the police turned up in droves to organise a massive traffic turn-around. So there we were, driving on the right again, but this time the wrong way up a British dual carriageway to escape the jam. Home early? Nah, nearly three hours late. But safe, unlike the unfortunate lorry driver. Hey ho.