The sweetest words I’ve heard in the last 17 days were, “Looks OK to me,” which the Europcar check-in guy said to me after doing his walkaround. A total of 650 miles of dent-free driving through big cities and one-lane country roads. I was not at all sorry to turn in the car and fall back on others to crank the wheel and figure out which exit on the roundabout is number three.
The car, a Toyota C-HR SUV hybrid proved to be a comfortable ride and really good on the gas. I figure we spent less than $100 at 2 euros/liter and averaged 47 mpg. Not bad at all. Parking came in a bit north of $150 in three cities.
So, we made it to the airport this morning but it proved to be something of a challenge. Once again, I bet on the wrong horse, gps-wise. I set the Toyota nav for the Swiss side of the airport and Google Maps for the Europcar location. They didn’t agree. I followed the Toyota, thinking that the Europcar location might be an office rather than the return spot. Wrong choice. Google was correct and the Toyota seemed to take us to the French side of the airport. That meant we scored yet another country on our trip, France, if only long enough to make a U-turn.
The flight from Geneva to Munich (Munich? That’s where we dumped Carter and picked up the rental car) was a bit late and we had a long walk/run through the airport, Passport Control, a second passport check and an x-ray scan of luggage and bodies. We made it with three minutes to spare but so did a bunch of other people. The plane didn’t back off the gate for a good 30 minutes after the published departure. They’re used to this routine, I’d guess.
The 3.5-hour flight was fine and it took about 30 minutes to get to the curb, including Passport Control and Customs. I’d been trying all day to find out about a shuttle from the airport to the hotel but couldn’t get anyone at the hotel to respond. We finally went to the taxi stand and asked for a ride to the Sheraton. A guy talking to the cab dispatcher said, “I’ll take them” and away we went.
Bottom line: we got to the hotel through horrendous traffic but, it seems, we got taken for the other kind of ride. We paid 350 shekels, about $100. The bellhop said it should have been 200 shekels. The guy drove and honked in a way that would make a Boston driver blush. At least he didn’t take us to the Gaza Strip and hold us hostage or something.
Our room is gorgeous. The lady at the concierge desk asked our room number. “1614? Oh, that’s a great room with a beautiful view.” She’s right. Thanks, Jeff, for booking it for us.
Tomorrow our friends Jeanne and Chip from Melrose are flying in around 2 PM. They’ll take a cab (we’ve warned them) to our hotel. We’ve arranged for a van to take the four of us about an hour or so up the coast to Hadera Beach, where we’ll join the tour group from Sun City Center.
We went downstairs for dinner at Manara, a restaurant within the hotel that, according to the maître d has been fully booked since last July. He was able to squeeze us in at the bar but admonished us that our barstools were reserved at 9:30 so we must be finished before then. Judy had grouper, I had a whole sea bass and we were out of there by 9:16. The grub was good and so was the vibe.
