We have had some interesting showers in the past few weeks.  This is the third time we have seen this arrangement.  A switch outside the room and a control box thing inside the shower.

We have reserved a car for the next 8 days.  After we pack up we walk down to the Budget office that is about a kilometer away from the B&B.  We arrive at the office and find a line up with about 10 people ahead of us.  This line does not move quickly, they appear very short staffed.  There are many people picking up and lots of other people dropping off.  There doesn’t seem to be a very good system here.  We wait for at least an hour before it is our turn.

We booked the car through carrentals.com.  In Scotland we paid $140 CAD for the six days.  Nothing else, no other charges, except for 200 GBP deposit!!  Here we booked and paid about $140 CAD for 8 days, but also here we pay 8 Euros for Road Tax, 25 Euros for paperwork because we decline the Collision Damage Waiver, 25 Euros for a Preferred location pickup????, a fuel deposit of 93 Euros AND a 5,000 Euro ($7,500 CAD) deposit (also because we declined the Collision Damage Waiver) on a Nissan Micra with  scratches, scrapes and 92,000 km.  We should get the 5,093 Euros in deposits back at the end of the rental, but YIKES!!!!

We have insurance coverage with our credit card.  We tell the guy this and he asks if we are sure that the credit card does not exclude Ireland.  I read the very boring conditions, but didn’t notice that exclusion.  As we were planning on renting a car in Ireland, I think I would have noticed that.  However, he plants a seed of doubt!  I ask that if we decide now, not to buy the CDW if we can add it later if we find that our credit card excludes Ireland.  He assures us that we can call and add the coverage.  We get the car back to our B&B to collect our bags and double check the conditions on our card and also Google “credit card car rental exclude Ireland”.  A Rick Steves post comes up where he says that some cards have exclusions for Ireland and Italy.  CRAP!!  It is 3AM in the Centre of the Universe (Toronto) so if we call now to confirm, no one will be there.  We decide to believe the document we found for our credit card and just get out of Dublin.  We will check with our Credit Card when we arrive at our destination for tonight, Westport.  This is our route to the West Coast.

We didn’t have any photo op stops today.  I am getting more comfortable driving.  I was up to 120 kmph today and Stu is getting better at using the phone for navigation.  We make it to our next B&B without a problem.  We didn’t post any photos of the Dublin accommodation as it was nothing very special and quite cramped.  We found Dublin to be a very expensive city.  We are happy to move on.   This is what we get for 23 Euros per night less than in Dublin.  We paid 98 Euros per night in Dublin and 75 Euros for this!

We head out for a walk as we have been in the car most of the day.  We have logged a lot of kilometers recently and we need to get out and walk a bit.  Heading down to the port to explore.

We stop into a place called “The Towers” for bite to eat.  We share a pot of mussels and each have a different “Red” beer.  Stu has Smithwicks and I try a local Westport Red.  We both agree that we prefer Smithwicks 🙂

Tomorrow we explore the Wild West Coast!!