Was this in the middle of nowhere in Belgium on a Sunday - I was there two weeks ago and bought fuel with UK credit and debit cards (we bought three lots over the days) without any problems - although one of them had us negotiating the pre payment menu in dutch which took a couple of goes. You usually get the choice of pre pay in cash in the shop or stick your card in the reader to pre pay at the pump.
The cash option is a real pain on a bike - go in, queue up and hand over money, go back out, fill bike, go back in, queue up, argue over how much you handed over in the first place because you dropped the receipt, eventually get change and go back to bike. With winter clothing, balaclavas, earplugs, wet gloves etc its taken me half an hour to go through all that in the past
Small containers are a pain to fill from a pump. Unless you really concentrate you overfill it and fuel comes shooting out the top like a shaken up coke bottle. If you're filling a container in my local garage they won't switch the pump on unless it's on the ground - no holding it in your hand. When it all sprays out then you get it in the face.
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