My Bad Karma Day

Today was the first day of my little trip to the north Atlantic coast of Spain. I had decided to rent a car rather than driving Mel & Sharon's car since it could be very confusing if I was stopped in another country and had to explain why I was driving someone else's car. I wanted to travel over the Pyrenees heading for Bilboa but planned to stop overnight in Lourdes (not because of any special religious endeavors it just looked like a good half way point). So I checked locations for SIXT rental cars (the company I've been using with pretty good luck in Europe the last couple of years). There was a location in Perpignon and it appeared to be on the way so I checked that I would pick up the car at the Perpignon train station. I've driven around Perpignon a number of times and never much cared for it but I figured what the h.....

I arrived in Perpignon at 10 am as planned and had some trouble finding the train station as the roads were all torn up with constuction. The train station is now in a huge shopping center with underground parking. OK - that seemed ok. So unloaded my luggage, put Angel on her leash, and took the elevator to street level, found the train station, and then tried to find rental cars. I saw a sign for National and Eurocar but no other rental car agencies. I went to the information counter of the train station and asked where SIXT was. The woman said she never heard of it.

So I went to National and asked the guy at the counter. He basically said take a right down the hall. I did that but found nothing. I went back to National - this time he said you have to go outside the train station. So I went back up to the train station, went outside where the trains are and walked to the end going left - nothing there, and then to right - nothing there either. So I went back down to National. This time he actually gave me a map and explained that I had to go through a tunnel that passes under the old train station on the other side of the tracks and then several blocks down the city streets. At this point I decided it made more sense to put my luggage back in the car and then walk to SIXT.

I found SIXT next to Hertz that is the good news. The bad news is that no one was there. I went into HERTZ and asked if she had any idea where the SIXT person was. She said you will have to call the phone number that is on the door - he is never there. At this point I definitely would have taken a Hertz car but I had already prepaid the SIXT one. I called the number and the guy answered and said he'd be there in a "few minutes". About 30 minutes later he arrived. We went inside and got the paperwork done in about 2 minutes.

We walked outside, he handed me the key, pointed to a black car across the street, and said "That's it". I walked over to the car and by the time I had unlocked it, he had locked the office and was gone. The car was so dirty on the outside that I couldn't see out the window until I used the window washer on it. Besides that it smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. Ugh.

I drove back to the parking garage and unloaded my luggage. The tried to open the back gate of the car to put in my luggage - it had a push button on the key for the trunk. No luck. It clicked but wouldn't open. I tried it repeatedly but it was obviously malfunctioning. I tried to call the SIXT guy back on my cell phone but got a message saying no cell phones can be used in this building - security. So I stuck my large suitcase with Angel in the back seat.

I drove a few blocks away, parked, and called Mr. SIXT. I explained the problem. He said you have to push the button on the key. I said I have done that about 50 times. He said, "You aren't doing it right, it worked fine this morning. You can come back to the office in 2 hours, I am at home eating lunch." I was livid.

By now it was 1 pm - not the leisurely drive thought the mountains I'd planned on. I put Lourdes into my TomTom GPS and began driving. I couldn't believe it - the TomTom directed my back on the freeway towards the dirction I'd come from and not up the mountains. I checked the map and saw that the TomTom was taking me back east on A9 and then up A80 to Toulouse which seemed far out of the way. It told me that the drive would take 4 hours that way. I tried to tell it to not take any toll roads and it said the trip would take 7 hours. So in the end I followed Ms. TomTom and drove north as far as Toulouse before heading west over the Pyrenees.

At a rest stop I tried the trunck again and, miracle of miracles, it opened. I took my luggage out of the back seat and put it in the trunk. Angel was much more comfortable.

I got to Lourdes at 6:30 pm and the mountains are really beautiful and the countryside is lovely. The air is cool and a bit misty. I found my hotel and tried to open the trunk. IT DOESN"T OPEN!!!!!

I checked in the hotel and told the clerk my problem. I asked if he could check the SIXT website and see if there was a telephone number. He did, there wasn't. I tried calling Mr. "I'm busy eating my lunch" and of course got voice mail. Fortunately the desk clerk suggested - "See if the back seats fold down" - they did and I got my luggage. I have now checked via the web and find that there are no SIXT locations in Spain. Guess I'll just have to fold down the back seats whenever I put my luggage in.

The hotel is also pretty tacky but I expected as much after the day I've had. At least the price was right - 70 Euros.

For dinner I walked a couple of blocks and found a Vietnamese restaurant. Not great, but much better than what expected at the end of this day. I think I'll get up early and hit the road - my karma will surely improve tomorrow.