Hire a van, what could go wrong

Michael arrives on Friday, finds his way to 188 easily. We head down to Mayfield restaurant for a breakfast/brunch, which also has the added attraction of using their toilet. In fact, the day is pretty much dominated by where we can use a toilet which means we end up going to the pub next doors several times that day to use their toilet – honestly.

The plus side is that we end the day with a working toilet but the more challenging aspect is that there is no door on the room! Michael suggests that we sing whilst on the toilet.

On Friday evening Michael & I decide to take a chance and head to the airport before Peter’s flight arrives to pick up the van. Our thinking is that we could save 20 minutes or so by doing this, then meet him at arrivals and if all goes well we’d be back at 188 by 9pm.

What could possibly go wrong… We got to the airport and headed to the Hertz depot. At the desk they advised us that no insurance had been taken out on the van.  I decided to take a chance and buy that insurance even though it was going to cost 40Euros and I was sure we already had it, but sure why take the chance.

Our van is a Ford Transit and close inspection shows there are quite a few dents and knocks on it. I opt to drive it up to the arrivals carpark.  Michael helps me maneuver it out of the space and we head up the ¼ mile to the arrivals carpark. Have you ever notice how tight the entrances and spaces are in airport carparks… ? I ask because I can now tell you that they are quite tight. This is a photo of the van before we picked it up.

We enter the car park and are not quite up to the first level of the carpark when we scrap a wall! I say we but since I was driving… Yup we didn’t even get out of the airport before that extra insurance I took out was needed. I could tell you that the first words I spoke after scraping the wall was oh golly gosh but it was more like F***, The kind of language if spoken on the TV the announcer’s apologies for.

Anyway what can you do, nothing except try and find a car space, get the van into it without hitting anything else! Peter arrives about 5 minutes after we park up and we head back to 188, load up all the stuff into the van and pour a few large drinks.