This is our day to leave Germany, drop our German rental car (Msr. Citroen, the wonder car) in a small border town, catch a bus or train into Strasbourg, France, find our way to the Hertz counter, check out our French rental car, and be on our way. Simple plan, right? Only one wee problem: our German border town is Kehl and there is a second German town named Kiel (both pronounced 'keel') which is 423 km away and that's the one shown on the rental car contract! Tim is very confident that it's not an issue . . . our trusty Garmin navigatress doesn't agree. According to her, there is no Hertz facility in Kehl!!
We do locate what looks like an 'auto row' (this is a very small town) and a McDonald's (free wi-fi worldwide) and somehow Tim locates the Hertz rental facility (close by), identified by a small yellow and black sign behind a chain link fence with two old cars in the lot. There's a doorbell for Hertz and a second one with someone's name over it. We press both and wait. The owner of the non-Hertz doorbell appears and and tells us 'not here, don't know when they return'. Oh good!! And then, the first angel appears - it's the Hertz man (or someone claiming to be)! He just happened to stop by on his way to some town we never caught the name of - tells us to top off the gas tank and dump the keys in the mailbox - no problem with the 'right' Kehl/Kiel.
Now to find the bus or train into Strassbourg. McDonald's clerk tells us not to take the train ('too expensive - take bus') and sends us off in the general direction of the bus stop. A couple of blocks later and no bus station in sight, we stop a couple of ladies, the second set of angels. Not only do they walk us to the bus stop and tell us the #21 will get us into the center of Strasbourg, one of them reaches into her handbag and gives us two bus tickets!! She refused to take our money . . .
We have the Hertz address in Strassbourg, but this is a city of 500,000 and we are clueless and mapless . . . while discussing how we're going to find it, this older gentleman seated next to me says 'I speak English, where do you want to go?' Enter our Vietnamese angel, a refugee who worked with the American military in South Vietnam 40 years ago and then emigrated to France. He is retired and uses his 24 euro unlimited monthly transit pass to ride the busses and trams all over town for amusement! He rides with us to the center of town, gets off and walks with us to the Hertz counter.
We walk in the door precisely at 2:30, the time appointed on our contract to pick up our car. Thank you angels all!!
PS -Two days later Tim receives an email from the Hertz facility in Kiel asking where their car is??? He writes them that we dropped it in Kehl and shortly thereafter they write back saying all is well; they found their car :))
We do locate what looks like an 'auto row' (this is a very small town) and a McDonald's (free wi-fi worldwide) and somehow Tim locates the Hertz rental facility (close by), identified by a small yellow and black sign behind a chain link fence with two old cars in the lot. There's a doorbell for Hertz and a second one with someone's name over it. We press both and wait. The owner of the non-Hertz doorbell appears and and tells us 'not here, don't know when they return'. Oh good!! And then, the first angel appears - it's the Hertz man (or someone claiming to be)! He just happened to stop by on his way to some town we never caught the name of - tells us to top off the gas tank and dump the keys in the mailbox - no problem with the 'right' Kehl/Kiel.
Now to find the bus or train into Strassbourg. McDonald's clerk tells us not to take the train ('too expensive - take bus') and sends us off in the general direction of the bus stop. A couple of blocks later and no bus station in sight, we stop a couple of ladies, the second set of angels. Not only do they walk us to the bus stop and tell us the #21 will get us into the center of Strasbourg, one of them reaches into her handbag and gives us two bus tickets!! She refused to take our money . . .
We have the Hertz address in Strassbourg, but this is a city of 500,000 and we are clueless and mapless . . . while discussing how we're going to find it, this older gentleman seated next to me says 'I speak English, where do you want to go?' Enter our Vietnamese angel, a refugee who worked with the American military in South Vietnam 40 years ago and then emigrated to France. He is retired and uses his 24 euro unlimited monthly transit pass to ride the busses and trams all over town for amusement! He rides with us to the center of town, gets off and walks with us to the Hertz counter.
We walk in the door precisely at 2:30, the time appointed on our contract to pick up our car. Thank you angels all!!
PS -Two days later Tim receives an email from the Hertz facility in Kiel asking where their car is??? He writes them that we dropped it in Kehl and shortly thereafter they write back saying all is well; they found their car :))
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