Tuesday, July 2, 2019 On To Killarney

Today the plan was to get up, have breakfast, rent a car for Hertz and then drive on the wrong side of the road from downtown Dublin to Killarney. What do they say about the best laid plans? The helpful rental agent at Hertz upgraded us, free of charge, to a small SUV. I was concerned that this car would be too big to drive around the crowded streets of Dublin and the narrow lanes in and around Killarney. But I kept my mouth shut because I have never been one to turn down a free upgrade.

I got about six blocks from the rental car place when I heard a big thunk and realized that I had been in an accident. I felt like such an idiot. I was so freaked out about driving on the wrong side of the road and I was so intent on giving oncoming traffic a wide berth on the narrow and congested roads in Dublin that I drifted a little too far to the left and scraped the side of an oversized van that was parked a foot or so away from the curb. I took out the van’s rear taillight and side view mirror. There were two guys in the van and they were so nice. They worked for a cable company and the van was only three days old. We called Hertz and they said that the insurance I had through them would handle all of the damage to the van. I drove the SUV back to the Hertz place without a left side view mirror. Not easy.

The guy at the Hertz place told me that I had to drive 10 miles out to the airport and file a claim and get a new car. I told him that I was not able to drive even a mile away from the rental car place with both mirrors before I had an accident. How in the world did he expect me to drive 10 miles to the airport essentially blind on the left side of the car and get there alive. He assured me I could do it and with Dana and Sara sticking their heads out the right and left side rear windows, we made it to the airport.

I filled out the accident report and the nice young man who assessed the damage assured me it happens all the time and that I had insurance to cover the damage. He counseled me to forget about the accident and get on with my Irish adventure.

I will have to confess that by this time I was more than a little spooked 😱 by the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing. The young man who assisted me at the Hertz lot at the airport warned me that the country roads around the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula were just barley wide enough for one car. When Sara and Dana heard this they decided that my driving days in Ireland were over. So we caught a cab from the airport to the train station where we took a train from Dublin to Killarney. After my third Guinness on the train I finally relaxed.

Sara worked her travel magic and booked us a car and a driver for two days of touring around Killarney. As they say, all is well that ends well.

This is our beautiful three bedroom apartment in Killarney.

Can you believe it, Abe has a barber shop in Killarney! He wants to stop in tomorrow and get a haircut and a beard trim.

We had dinner and then ice cream for dessert. Outside the ice cream shop these two guys were playing the heck out of a banjo and a guitar.

I hope everyone had an uneventful Tuesday.

Good evening from Killarney, Ireland.