der Bayerische March/April 2020 - 16

DRIVING THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS AND OTHER STRANGE SIGHTS

T

he typical goals for family
vacations are entertainment,
adventure, and relaxation.
Unfortunately, these goals are rarely
achieved because the popular
places most families select for their
vacations are expensive and crowded
and, because of today's social
media and 24-hour entertainment,
too well-known. The best family
vacations are the ones in which
everything is truly new and interesting. For that reason, we selected
Ireland for our summer family
vacation.
The northern part of Ireland is
very much a place less traveled. It's
a traditional farming community; it's
the location that was hit the hardest
by the infamous Irish potato famine.
It's NOT Northern Ireland - which is
part of the UK Commonwealth.
Ireland is an independent country
and is part of the EU. Simply put,
"euros' is the currency for Ireland,
"pounds" are the currency for
Northern Ireland. The children were
most interested in seeing the
northernmost part of Ireland, Malin
Head, which was featured in the latest
Star Wars movie, "The Last Jedi".
Arriving at the rental car facility
at Dublin airport, "car guy" instincts
and sensibilities are immediately
challenged with the shock of seeing
nothing but right-hand-drive vehicles. And while a right hand drive
BMW 1 Series with manual transmission may seem tempting, when
one sees that the left side and
bumpers of most of the rental vehicles are significantly scratched and
scraped, you quickly snap back to
reality. If you need further convincing that being a first-time right hand
driver may be a bit more challenging than you realize, the hard-sell
for vehicle insurance by the rental
car agent should be the final bit of
evidence. Even after telling the
agent that your insurance AND your
credit card company cover these
policies, they will still ask for a
"convenience fee" for allowing you
to use your own insurance OR place
a 5,000 euro hold on your credit

16

(Above) Yes, we tested that theory often.
card for any damage incurred
during the rental period.
This is probably the only time
you will need to take the pre-rental
inspection of your vehicle very
seriously. In additional to the inspection form, use your smartphone to

take exterior AND interior (they are
NOT clean) pictures and have a
supervisor SIGN and DATE that preinspection form prior to leaving.
And one other trick these rental car
agencies will pull - they add a
significant fuel charge to your bill,

(Below) A constant reminder from our rental car.

which will be credited back to your
account if you return the vehicle
with a fuel tank of gas. One last
thing, when you are told that that
your vehicle uses the "black pump",
that means diesel. If told to use the
"green pump", that means petrol.
(That's "gasoline" to us Americans.)
Dublin itself is a wonderful
city. Home to Trinity College
and to the Bank of Ireland, it has
young, upscale feel. Culturally,
it's a wonderful place. Handel's
Messiah was first performed in
Dublin at the New Music Hall in
Fishamble Street at noon on April
13th 1742. There is now an annual
open air concert to mark the
anniversary.
Jonathan Swift was the Dean of
St. Patrick's Cathedral. Bram Stoker
was born in a suburb Dublin. U2
fans can walk the same streets used
by Bono, the Edge, Adam, and
Larry. And, of course, there's the
Guinness brewery where one can
enjoy a "free" pint of Guinness
following the 22-euro brewery tour.
Dublin is also the location of
the Easter Rising (also known as the
Easter Rebellion). In fact, some of
the buildings still have damage
from that battle, most notably the
General Post Office.
As with every large city, Dublin
is quite "walk able". For first-time
right-hand drivers, that's a good
thing. We found the Dublin taxi
and bus drivers to be impatient
and unsympathetic. If you've never
driven a right-hand drive car, be
advised that your driving instincts
will fail you. Your instincts will
make you want to stay on the right
after right turns and make wide left
turns when turning left. It is best to
try this new experience on the freeways. On the freeways, the only
thing you'll need to remember is
that you pass on the right and that
most of the exits are to your left.
Exiting the freeway to County
Donegal, the size of the roads told
us that we were no longer in a major
metropolitan area. The roads were
barely wide enough for two lanes of

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