If you've ever visited Texas, you won't have missed a slight obsession with how big it, and everything in it, is. It's not entirely unwarranted: the state is three times larger than the UK.
You definitely notice it if you drive anywhere: my brother lives near Houston, and once on holiday we drove 17 hours to visit New Mexico, which shares a state border with Texas. It makes you realise how lucky we are that LeShuttle makes it easy to drive to multiple European countries relatively easily.
So when my 16-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew visited from Texas recently, keen to travel, I hatched a plan to take them and my mum on a road trip that would tick off three European countries with a total mileage that wouldn't get you from Houston to Amarillo.
The BMW X3 M50 seemed the ideal choice. I didn't want anything too small, since my niece and nephew are used to holiday road trips in my sister-in-law's spacious Audi Q7 (which is actually modestly sized in Texan terms). But nor did I want anything massive, since I'd need to navigate the narrow roads of Brugges, Belgium, to reach our hotel.
I still held my breath driving onto LeShuttle but negotiated it without clipping any of the alloys. The boot easily housed everything the four of us needed while the rear seats proved sufficiently spacious and offered enough charging ports to keep various mobile phones, iPads and Switch consoles powered up. And, it would turn out, ample cubbyholes to stash Belgian chocolate.
This wasn't exactly the sort of road trip where I was going to make full use of the X3 M50's 393bhp, but that power did make motorway driving in the UK and through France and Belgium effortless. Traversing Brugges offered plenty of challenges that tested the BMW, not least the many cobbles. Despite the M50's stiffened suspension, the ride remained good and there were no complaints from the back seats.
I was certainly glad I wasn't driving anything bigger in our hotel's ultra-tight underground car park. The spiral ramp down was tight enough to give the sensors a field day, but it fitted. Just. The ventilated front seats prevented me from sweating too much.
Time in Brugges (waffles were eaten and boat rides were taken) was complemented by a few outings, including a trip into the Netherlands to tick off another country and spot some windmills. I'd hoped some country roads would give me a chance to push the X3's handling edges, except I'd forgotten that part of Europe is flat and features largely straight roads.
Still, we visited three countries with ease and my niece in particular was left amazed by the rich, deep history on offer in Brugges and the surrounding area - something Texas definitely doesn't have.
