This morning we are have a leisurely breakfast, pack our bags and make our way over to the railway stationless than five minutes walk from our hotel. We are headed back to the airport. No we are not going home, but thats where we collect our rental car.
Neither of us have been looking forward to the drive out of busy Malaga on the wrong side of the road! One of the courtesy buses has just drawn in so no waiting required. We are straight to the where we take a numbered ticket and sit in red sofas until our number is called. We are early anyway as our hire doesnt start till midday.
Our number has been called and we are up at the counter. The guy is trying to upsell us a swanky 4x4. We will need it in the mountains, he warns. No we will stick to the Corsa we ordered thanks very much. Its clear he doesnt have one and we are forced to wait until our car ‘comes out of the washing machine. We wait till 1215, meanwhile the lady who was sorted out before us back to
complain that the car they were sent to collect is not a Corsashe doesnt want a different car, she ordered and paid for a Corsa weeks ago (as did I!).
Amazingly we get our Corsa. Still wet from the wash. There is no handover whatsoeverrefusing to be hurried off, Ian goes over it with his fine There are three dents and some scratches. I call the guy at the returns desk overoh just photograph it and show it to us when you return he says, thats good enough for us. Huh, well its not good enough for us. I am starting to make noises. back waving a sheet of paper at us. This is your contract he tells meyou had it by email. But never mind take this one (the damages are duly noted). No I didnt, but strangely it arrives in my inbox sometime after!
Now we need to be sure we have the triangles and high viz vest - as required by Spanish Law. Ian says they are not there. I stomp off inside again. They should be in the boot? No. OK try the plastic at the side (I think she
means the The guy who sorted out our car is ignoring Back outside Ian has located the triangles (in the boot where he said they were not). And I find the jacket in the Thank goodness lets go!
Ian is concerned. The tyre pressure is low. Back inside I go. This time they are all ignoring me! Fortunately the young man on phone duty takes pity and says he to look - at this point I have forced myself to start sobbing in their reception area. Embarrassing but it worked! I booked this despite them being far more expensive than every other car rental in Malaga because they had really good reviews on their excellent customer service. If this is good, god help the others! I definitely wont be hiring a car in Spain againfar too stressful.
The young man has called the mechanic and they are now crowded around the car. Surely they just need to pump up the tyres? Havent you got an air machine here, I ask incredulously? Yes they have but the pressures have been checked and are correctits just the thingy thats
Now we are finally offout of the hire garage and down a crowded side street to a roundabout and up towards the dual carriageway. Unfortunately we should have gone over the flyover. Its a simple drive to the next roundabout and return the other side. Now we are finally on a fast dual carriageway and doing fine. Though it takes a while to fathom out why our lane suddenly peters out to nothing. We are in the crawler lane. It takes us by surpriseand also the car behind. Now Ian has figured out the signage we are fine.
Ian that the digital dashboard is all in Spanish. You should have done some Duolingo then, instead if leaving it all up to me! I hope he isnt going to make me drive!
We have a 150 km drive along various dual carriageway main roads and handle most of the changeovers without difficulty. The road is following the side of the coast with mountains on the other side. Its the mountains we are eventually heading for.
towns on the way. Given that we are now heading for the mountains, we were expecting some dire roads.
