Swindon’s Magic Roundabout

Here I am in Spain.
Where the drivers are good, except at roundabouts. ‎Seriously. It’s quite tricky, trying to predict where a Spanish driver is going, on a roundabout.

So what do I see this Sunday ‎morning, on a TV “magazine” show?
Swindon’s Magic Roundabout.
Laugh?
All down my leg I laughed.

If you haven’t been there, you have to go.
Five roundabouts in a circle. As you exit the first, instead of getting the right of way, you have to negotiate the next roundabout, etc…..
Tricky even for Brits.
Hence the name. Given by the locals. And now formalized even by the transport department. The sign proudly proclaims it’s name as ‘The Magic Roundabout’.
You can read more about it here…… en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Am sure the Spanish viewers who saw the show, are shaking their heads, and wondering why anyone would build such a crazy junction.
I know I was, after I first encountered this in 1982.
And this was before Ola, my little sister, negotiated the first roundabout correctly, then drove us straight through the next two roundabouts, as if they did not exist. ‎Luckily, there was a lot less traffic back then!

And it’s not just Spain, where this roundabout is known.
When I popped into Zurich in 2018, I met travellers from the USA and Canada who’d experienced the Magic Roundabout.

Stonehenge or The Magic Roundabout?
The Magic Roundabout is free.
And Swindon has Arkells Brewery 🙂
Just let me know if you survive!
The roundabout, not the brewery 🙂