We started out our 10 day adventure in Ireland in the capital city of Dublin. In fine tradition of traveling you can't everything start out perfectly so we felt that dealing with the rental was the best place to have our first run in. Everything was running smoothly at first to get our Ford Galaxy people carrier (mini van). Then the chap behind the desk asked Kevin how old he was...28 years old..."sorry mate you can't drive this car." Kevin asks why and he says that Kevin is too young, you have to be 30 years old to rent a van with that size of engine....WHAT!!!! Supposedly it is written in their terms and conditions...who really reads over the entire document when booking these things online. I technically was turning 30 the next day but I was not going to drive a stick shift all week long so we had to work out a deal. They dropped us down to the next sized van, a Vauxhall Zafira, but they didn't have any on the lot so they set us up with the Toyota version which looked like a tall car. The kicker was that he said they would have to charge us the same rate as the bigger van...I piped right up because I knew that the Galaxy was 300 Euro more expensive (that's almost $500US) and if I was squeezing into a small vehicle I was not having us pay the same price. I was a pregnant woman on a serious "do not mess with me" moment. The van ended up being really nice...plenty of room for the car seat we rented for Addie (we had to rub it down good...kind of creepy looking) and for me and Sally to sit in the back with all of our luggage in the 3rd row. One nice thing we did get to take advantage of was "Jane" our trusty SatNav. Last time Kevin and I were in Ireland we relied on maps we found in our travel books and our ability to read road signs...yikes! "Jane" certainly makes a driving trip much more relaxing except when my father-in-law wants to challenge most of her navigation decisions. Mike watched her like a hawk along with following his own roadmap to help Kevin get us where we needed to go.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
"Excuse Me Sir You are Too Young to Drive This Car"
We started out our 10 day adventure in Ireland in the capital city of Dublin. In fine tradition of traveling you can't everything start out perfectly so we felt that dealing with the rental was the best place to have our first run in. Everything was running smoothly at first to get our Ford Galaxy people carrier (mini van). Then the chap behind the desk asked Kevin how old he was...28 years old..."sorry mate you can't drive this car." Kevin asks why and he says that Kevin is too young, you have to be 30 years old to rent a van with that size of engine....WHAT!!!! Supposedly it is written in their terms and conditions...who really reads over the entire document when booking these things online. I technically was turning 30 the next day but I was not going to drive a stick shift all week long so we had to work out a deal. They dropped us down to the next sized van, a Vauxhall Zafira, but they didn't have any on the lot so they set us up with the Toyota version which looked like a tall car. The kicker was that he said they would have to charge us the same rate as the bigger van...I piped right up because I knew that the Galaxy was 300 Euro more expensive (that's almost $500US) and if I was squeezing into a small vehicle I was not having us pay the same price. I was a pregnant woman on a serious "do not mess with me" moment. The van ended up being really nice...plenty of room for the car seat we rented for Addie (we had to rub it down good...kind of creepy looking) and for me and Sally to sit in the back with all of our luggage in the 3rd row. One nice thing we did get to take advantage of was "Jane" our trusty SatNav. Last time Kevin and I were in Ireland we relied on maps we found in our travel books and our ability to read road signs...yikes! "Jane" certainly makes a driving trip much more relaxing except when my father-in-law wants to challenge most of her navigation decisions. Mike watched her like a hawk along with following his own roadmap to help Kevin get us where we needed to go.
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2 comments:
You make me laugh ;-))) For the first time, I feel better about my age. Hey Kevin, you are still a kid ;-]
Also, I can imagine Mike's look when 'Jane' speak.
what a young chap he is! so funny....
Andy had to be my guardian on our honeymoon as I was to young to be on the ship by myself!:) Oh to being young!
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