What they don't tell you when you hire a car online

We booked a hire car online for our trip to Spain. If you are over 75, you apparently cannot drive in Europe, but you can nominate a driver. That was me. I duly got the required international driver's licence and Dad hires the car. On arrival at Madrid airport, we produced the credit card and the driver's licence. But no, the credit card and the driver's licence must have the same name, they tell us. But he isn't allowed to drive, so I am the designated driver. That is too bad, they say, preparing to serve the next customer. Dad digs in his bag and finds a copy of his temporary licence which he happened to have collected on the morning we left. It's nothing but a piece of paper. However, they are very happy to have it and say he can drive! No problem that he's 83 and doesn't have an IDL. As long as they can swipe that card. Who knows what we would have done if he hadn't had that temporary licence on him? And who knows what the rules really are? It seems that they depend on who's working that day.

So, keys in hand, we head off for a strong espresso to brace ourselves for our foray onto the unknown highways of Spain. We then go out to the immense car park where the hire cars are kept and walk for about 500m to, typically, the last row in the corner. The other thing they don't tell you is the size of the boot. The car, a Seat, took 2 large and 1 small suitcase, and assorted hand luggage. If there had been 4 of us, at least one suitcase would have been left in the parking lot.

We hired a Garmin, thinking that we would need it to find our way through Spain. It cost 14 euros per day, and the other thing the car hire company doesn't tell you is that it doesn't work very well in Spain. Due to extensive national roadworks, the instructions are outdated and you can find yourself going in circles while the woman berates you for not taking the third exit on the left when there isn't one. We gave it back after two days and found the signage more than adequate to get us to Marbella without too much trouble, but more about that another time.

(Mother's diary records this interlude as follows:  The car hire place was near the luggage pick-up and, after a nice cup of coffee, we were on our way!)