Driving in Ireland
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- and back
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- and there may be rock wall hiding in the greenery
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- trains are looking better and better
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- and have no shoulders
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- Cathy at the ready
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- Front flat
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- the roads are narrow
We rented a car in Dublin anticipating keeping our own schedule and taking a lot of pictures along the way in our travels. Unfortunately, that is a bad idea in Ireland. There are a dearth of pullouts and shoulders, almost none at all. And the roads are so narrow that you are not admiring the scenery; complete and utter attentiveness is required at all times. This was compounded by a VW Golf (small cars are a necessity) supplied by Hertz that was not mechanically sound. The lack of response to the gas pedal meant that within minutes of picking up the car I had run over a curb while failing to merge resulting in two flat tires. I should have returned the vehicle then, but sometimes I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It took another 36 hours before I gave up. We returned the car to Hertz in Cork where they could not replace it with another automatic. There was no way I was going to shift with my left hand while driving on the wrong side of the road while attempting to not impede traffic on a road with a speed limit twice what it should be. Hertz got their POS back and we went to alternative transport – private drivers, busses, trains, and taxis.