Since we returned from our vacation in Italy, the car has been acting rather funny. Between the strong metallic smell that was emanating from the car while driving, and the large puffs of smoke that came from the exhaust pipe, I knew something was not "quite right". So, I informed Brian of the situation and I asked that he try to set up an appointment to get the car looked at before my sister arrived in Germany... (I didn't want to drive the car in that condition while Stacy was here... Knowing our luck, it would have broken down somewhere in the middle of Germany! Can you imagine the two of us, neither of us able to speak the language, and trying to figure out what's wrong with the car?? :))
Brian was able to set up an appointment for this past Monday. The dealer actually sent someone out to pick up the car, and we were informed that the car would be returned to us that evening. Well, Brian received a call that afternoon, and they told him that it was taking longer than they expected, but we would have the car back by the following evening. Ok, no problem... So, the following day we waited, and waited, and waited for them to return our car... And the car never showed up... Hmmmm... (In the meantime, we found that we had a problem with the pipes in our kitchen, resulting in water leaking onto the floor from behind the cabinets and our sink being backed up... So, at that point, we were without water and waiting for the problem to be fixed... Lovely!)
Around 7:30, Brian and I started to get quite concerned about the fact that we still didn't have a car. We got in touch with our landlady (Gabi) and explained the situation to her... After hearing our plight, she offered to help us. :) She called the dealership that had picked up the car, and asked about its progress... Their response to that question was classic. They told her that they didn't have the car there... WHAT?!?! They told her that the car had not been taken to that dealership and that she should try to call the other auto shop in the area. So, Gabi called the other auto shop, and they informed her that since it was "after hours" they couldn't help her... Seriously?!?! They did tell her that they didn't have record of our car being serviced there, but that we should try calling back in the morning... Just great! And, being that the shop was closed, there was nothing that we could do, so we literally had to wait until the following morning... Not a good feeling! Gabi was just as concerned about our lack of a car as we were, so she offered to come over early the next morning to help us call the shops and try to locate our missing vehicle. Let's just say that it was a very long night!
Like she promised, Gabi arrived at our apartment bright and early this morning. We immediately began calling everyone that we could think of that might have an idea as to where our car was. At that point, we were frantically trying to locate the car being that Brian had a doctor's appointment at 10:30, and since his leg is broken, it's rather difficult to make him walk there! :) After about an hour of Gabi getting the run around from every person she contacted, she finally hit the jackpot! Someone at Brian's company was able to locate our missing car... And, guess where it was... At the same dealership that had told Gabi the previous night that the car wasn't there... Nice! Gabi immediately called them back and after calling them out on their mistake, they conveniently "remembered" working on the car. It was then that they told us that it was taking longer to fix the car than they originally anticipated... No kidding... :) They explained that there was a problem with the catalytic converter, and parts had to be sent to them from the dealership in Stuttgart... They informed us that they would try to fix it as quickly as possible, but they weren't exactly sure of a timeline. After hearing this, Gabi phoned Brian's company and requested another car for our use... And thankfully they agreed to it! :) So, Gabi and I drove down to Brian's company and picked up the rental car so that I could take Brian to his doctor's appointment.
After all of that work to get a car so that Brian could get to the doctor, Brian's appointment turned out to be a complete waste of time... Go figure! We literally walked into the office, they took off his cast, the doctor looked at his wounds and said they looked like they were healing up nicely, the nurse put the cast back on and rewrapped it, the doctor told us that he would like Brian to come back next Thursday, and then after telling us to have a good week, the doctor walked out of the room... I think it lasted, in it's entirety, about 5 minutes... Nice!
We did receive some good news once we returned to our apartment though... The dealership called us and informed us that our car was ready... yay! After all of that chaos, we now have our car back... And the best part being that it doesn't smell anymore when I drive it.... Hooray! :) I now feel much more comfortable driving it to Stuttgart to pick up Stacy at the airport tomorrow morning! :)
Needless to say, it's definitely been a chaotic few days... I'm hoping that things will calm down a bit now so that we can enjoy spending time with Stacy during her visit. I can't tell you how excited I am about her visit!! :) I look forward to showing her as much of Germany as possible... Let's just say that we've got alot of places to go and people to see while she's here... We may just have to cut out sleeping for the next week in order to fit everything in! :) So, stay tuned... With the two of us in Germany together, I'm sure we'll have quite a few "adventures" to share! :) The question that remains to be answered... We're ready to take on Germany, but is Germany ready for the Moore sisters?? :)
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