I have now checked into our accommodation here in Alfama, Lisbon and a big, heavy stone has finally been lifted from my heart, the rental car. If I were a car manufacturer, I would have seen rental cars as an advertising window towards potential customers and thus tried to make all rental cars of my brand well equipped, comfortable, complete and working without problems. Our rental car met exactly zero of those criteria.
After almost two weeks of driving, CarPlay suddenly started to work yesterday, even though I chose No when asked if I wanted to allow CarPlay. A little curious is that I have tried to get this function to work since I picked up the car without success, but now, for no apparent reason, it started. The comfort in the car was beyond criticism, I have sat on park benches that are more comfortable, the AC in the car gave neither cold nor hot air. The car usually started but sometimes it just died right after starting, another attempt to start the car seems to work and even though it is 120km/h on the motorways in Portugal, I never got up to that speed, I was about to bounce off the road due to the lousy roadholding. As I said, a large stone has now come loose when I returned the car and it will take a lot for me to buy a Citroën in the future.
Alfama where we live now is one of Lisbon’s oldest areas and it shows, the houses are close together, the streets are more alleys that wind up the hill and here they are teeming with churches, forts, cafes, restaurants and tourists, lots of tourists. Of course, this can also contribute to the fact that it is nice to leave the car because it was no fun to drive here. One-way, narrow, hilly and people everywhere. Add to that trams and traffic signs in a language you don’t understand and I think it is acceptable that the stress level increased a level or two but we got there in the end.
