We Have Visitors!!!

Last Wednesday Marco and I hopped on the bus to Dublin to meet his sister, Carol, and her family (Christian, Sedrik & Naira) at the Dublin airport. They came to visit us from Zurich less than 2 weeks after we visited them! They had never been to Ireland, so it was fun to be showing people our new "home". We had been telling them all along how much it rains in Ireland, so they came fully prepared with rubber boots, umbrellas, etc. Lo and behold, the first 2 days they were here we had spectacular weather and they began to think we were liars. :) Thursday we just sort of had a lazy day, but did walk to the city center of Galway and had some time at the play area with the kids.



Friday morning, we took at taxi to the Galway airport, where we picked up a rental car for the rest of their time in Ireland. Unfortunately, Uncle Marco had to work, but I was free and so I was happy to join them on an adventure to the Cliffs of Moher. Christian was driving, and this was his first time driving on the other side of the road! We decided to take the scenic, ocean route to take full advantage of the beautiful day. The roads are really narrow here and have a lot of potholes. Can you see where this is going? About 45 minutes into our fabulous day, we had a close encounter with a pretty good sized pothole and blew out both of the tires on the left side of the car! Christian handled it like a pro and pulled the car off the road at a safe location. We got out to inspect the damage only to discover that not only were the tires flat, but the actual wheels were bent......ugggh! Here we were, in the middle of the scenic route, not close to any gas station or garage. Luckily, there was plenty of sunshine, so at least we didn't have to deal with rain. Carol set up camp so she could feed the kids some lunch. I called the rental company, who gave me the emergency assistance number and they patched me through to the closest garage. Christian hiked up the road to try and see the hole and search for our missing hub caps. He found one hubcap and brought it back to our spot. I was having thoughts of spending the night in the car or the closest little town while we waited for the car to be repaired. To our amazement, in about 30 minutes we saw a large tow truck round the corner and stop in front of us. Out jumps the driver, who comes over to inspect the damage. He quickly noticed the hubcap lying on the ground that said "Ford". He took one look at our car and asked us what make it was. We all said "Opel", looked at the hubcap and then started cracking up! Christian had picked up some other poor souls hubcap, which means that we were not the first people to hit that pothole! We never did find our hubcaps. Anyway, the driver effortlessly loaded our car onto the truck and we all hopped in the cab for the 40 minute ride to Kilfenora. His family ran a repair shop in the tiny little town. We headed off to have some lunch while we waited, but he instructed me to call in about 45 minutes. I thought we would just be getting an estimate of the repair at that point, but was shocked to find out the that the wheels were repaired and we were ready to hit the road. Our luck continued as the sunshine stayed with us and we were able to make it to see the Cliffs of Moher. We spent about an hour there and then headed back home for the evening. We were all thankful that the trip home was less eventful than the trip we had earlier in the day!