This morning after breakfast we were off to visit some more
of the small towns and villages in the Alsace region.
Our first destination was Kaysersberg, the town where Albert
Schweitzer was born.
Once we were
on our way, I noticed that there was a flashing symbol lit up on the dashboard
of the car.
I had never seen that
symbol before, so out of concern I stopped into a Peugeot dealer along the way
to Kaysersberg to inquire about the light.
Luckily the gentleman at the garage spoke English and told
me that there was something I needed to have checked out, so I set the GPS for
the local Europcar (the company I rented the car from in Zurich) office, which
was only about 10 minutes away in Colmar.
Once at the Europcar office, one of the men came out and told me there
was nothing he could do for me!
He
did not even seem concerned that I had an issue and had no suggestions for me
other than to go to a local VW dealer since they are the “mother” company of
Skoda.
I tried to convince him that
since I rented the car from Europcar he was obligated to help us.
He just outright refused to provide any
assistance and told me my only option was to go to VW.
I drove to the VW dealer that was only
about a five-minute drive ……… at VW, I was told that there was a Skoda dealer ¼
mile down the road.
Once I arrived
at the Skoda dealer, they told me they were closing for lunch and to come back
in over an hour, once they reopened.
The car was drivable, but was definitely very sluggish and had no
pep.
What was my choice at this
point??
We drove to a local
department store, browsed for a while, had great Napoleans as a snack and
returned to Skoda at 1:30 PM.
They
immediately took the car into the garage and within 5 minutes the mechanic came
out holding some small black hose.
I was informed that some rodent had eaten the vacuum hose in several
locations and that was the problem; an easy repair.
Within 45 minutes we were on our way again after paying 42
Euros for the repair.
The service
advisor & mechanic at the Skoda dealer were extremely friendly and did
everything possible to help us, even though neither of them spoke any
English.
It was fun, trying to
communicate with them. I called the Europcar office in Zurich and was informed
that I would be reimbursed once I submitted the invoice.
By 2:30 PM we finally arrived in
Kaysersberg, walked around for about an hour and continued our journey to many
of the other small villages and up through the Vosges mountains.
Today was a beautiful day and we did see
a lot considering the “detour” with the Skoda in the morning.
One very interesting stop we made was
at Col du Wettstein, where there is a cemetery honoring thousands of French
soldiers that were killed by the Germans in WW I.
It was getting late and finding a place to eat in the small
towns was difficult; no restaurant would seat us without a reservation.
We eventually made our way back to
Colmar where there are many restaurants.
We had dinner and were back at our B&B by 9:15 PM.
It was a very long day, with a bit of
aggravation early on, but overall we really enjoyed our drive through the towns
and mountains of the Alsace-Lorraine region of France.
This morning after breakfast we were off to visit some more
of the small towns and villages in the Alsace region. Our first destination was Kaysersberg, the town where Albert
Schweitzer was born. Once we were
on our way, I noticed that there was a flashing symbol lit up on the dashboard
of the car. I had never seen that
symbol before, so out of concern I stopped into a Peugeot dealer along the way
to Kaysersberg to inquire about the light. Luckily the gentleman at the garage spoke English and told
me that there was something I needed to have checked out, so I set the GPS for
the local Europcar (the company I rented the car from in Zurich) office, which
was only about 10 minutes away in Colmar.
Once at the Europcar office, one of the men came out and told me there
was nothing he could do for me! He
did not even seem concerned that I had an issue and had no suggestions for me
other than to go to a local VW dealer since they are the “mother” company of
Skoda. I tried to convince him that
since I rented the car from Europcar he was obligated to help us. He just outright refused to provide any
assistance and told me my only option was to go to VW. I drove to the VW dealer that was only
about a five-minute drive ……… at VW, I was told that there was a Skoda dealer ¼
mile down the road. Once I arrived
at the Skoda dealer, they told me they were closing for lunch and to come back
in over an hour, once they reopened.
The car was drivable, but was definitely very sluggish and had no
pep. What was my choice at this
point?? We drove to a local
department store, browsed for a while, had great Napoleans as a snack and
returned to Skoda at 1:30 PM. They
immediately took the car into the garage and within 5 minutes the mechanic came
out holding some small black hose. 
No comments:
Post a Comment