Car hassle

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This morning we are have a leisurely breakfast, pack our bags and make our way over to the railway station…less than five minutes walk from our hotel. We are headed back to the airport. No we are not going home, but that’s 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 hire company where we take a numbered ticket and sit in their comfy red sofas until our number is called. We are early anyway as our hire doesn’t 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. It’s clear he doesn’t 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 has come back to complain that the car they were sent to collect is not a Corsa…she doesn’t 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 whatsoever…refusing to be hurried off, Ian goes over it with his fine tooth comb. There are three dents and some scratches. I call the guy at the returns desk over…oh just photograph it and show it to us when you return he says, that’s good enough for us. Huh, well it’s not good enough for us. I am starting to make noises. He comes back waving a sheet of paper at us. This is your contract he tells me…you had it by email. But never mind take this one (the damages are duly noted). No I didn’t, 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 glove compartment). The guy who sorted out our car is ignoring me completely. Back outside Ian has located the triangles (in the boot where he said they were not). And I find the jacket in the glove compartment. Thank goodness let’s 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 will come to look - at this point I have forced myself to start sobbing in their reception area. Embarrassing but it worked! I booked this particular company 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 won’t be hiring a car in Spain again…far 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? Haven’t you got an air machine here, I ask incredulously? Yes they have but the pressures have been checked and are correct…it’s just the sensors/computer thingy that’s wrong. They reset it!

Now we are finally off…out 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. It’s 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 surprise…and also the car behind. Now Ian has figured out the signage we are fine.

Ian is complaining 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 isn’t 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. It’s the mountains we are eventually heading for.

We reach our turn off which will take us up to Valor, via a few small towns on the way. Given that we are now heading for the mountains, we were expecting some dire roads. Not a bit of it…they are well made tarmac roads, though we can see they are new and it wasn’t always this way as we see the old road nearby. There are quite a few hairpins to contend with but this is nothing like the Icelandic hairpins we experienced a couple of months ago.

We are almost at our destination, Valor, but it requires a turn off which takes us by surprise. Oops, Ian we should be over there. Ian cuts over the thick dotted line which we technically should not be crossing. Double oops, there is a police car right behind us! Fortunately they are not interested in our minor transgression and go whizzing off over the bridge, whilst we turn off to the right, then under said bridge and in towards Valor.

The road is much narrower now - with many S and U bends on the way. Fortunately we don’t see a lot of other traffic.

We have reached our hostel. Once more I am thankful for the little bit of Spanish I learnt before this trip. The lady does not speak a word of English so we muddle through in broken Spanish. It’s an authentic cosy mountain home. There is a dubious looking stuffed animal in the hallway with a large statue of Jesus Christ eying us from the wall. He is also overlooking the ‘honesty bar’. We have to write down anything we take in the book and pay before we leave. On the landing is a ‘help yourself to free tea and coffee’ table and a microwave. That’s a nice touch.

We have been given a pretty little room with a balcony overlooking the mountains. We have just bought up some overnight things up from the car which we prepared earlier. Ian thought it was silly at the time but now he is glad as there is no lift here!

I’m gasping for a drink and open my water bottle. A fountain of orange juice emerges and I am soaked…it’s the pressure build up from driving up so high. I really hadn’t realised we’d climbed to such a height! Anyway, I have no other trousers up here so I put on my swimsuit and the trousers can dry off as we walk to the pool.

Now I’d like to go for a swim. We have use of a pool but it’s at another location, up a steep hill. The lady suggests that we drive. To be honest, I don’t want to ask Ian to drive up this incline…we will walk. In fairness it’s only five minutes away, just a very steep five minutes!

We have reached the top of the hill and there’s some nice views from here. The pool is also gorgeous…and I have it completely to myself. It’s 5pm so the sun is not scorching, this is just the kind of temperature I like!

I swim for about an hour then it’s time to dry off and return to the room. Much quicker coming down the hill than going up.

We need to think about our evening meal. As it turns out, there is nothing to think about. Only one of the three restaurants in town is open! But first we make the effort to puff up another hill to Valor town to see their garden. It’s small but pretty…and more stunning views of the mountains. The church tower has bells which chime every quarter…that might be irritating tonight?

The bar/restaurant turns out to be great. And, according to our guide book, a renowned place to eat. Is it renowned because the food is good, or because there is nowhere else?

We have great fun deciphering the menu using google translate and both decide upon lamb chops. They are delicious and so are the authentic chips, none of your frozen oven chips here. It’s nice to sit outside to eat. The temperature is perfect.

We return to our room to enjoy the sunset from our balcony. A huge coach rattles past. It’s the Alsa public bus and it’s heading down the road we came in on. We are returning that way tomorrow. I do hope we don’t have to pass that on that narrow snaking road!

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