We went on holiday.

That is to say, we wanted to. And for that we needed a car (for those not in the know: our Vectra gave up the ghost on a trip to Germany a few years ago, leaving us with only the Corsa).

So we rent one. We do this regularly, but don't usually travel abroad with it.... all the way to far-away land called The Black Forest. And wouldn't you know: it snows over there!!

And that's where the problem starts. We need tires that will allow us to legally drive around over there. These winter-tires exist for all types of cars; there are even all-year (all-weather) tires, that are allowed. But it's difficult to come by on rental cars. At least in Holland that is. Last year Avis couldn't deliver them at all no more, because we asked too late. This year we're renting from Hertz, and we asked for them a month in advance. Should be enough time one would think.....

Here's what happened.
We couldn't find the "winter-tires" option on the internet, so we just booked a car with regular tires, and called up for special tires. Well, we were really in the nick of time (yes, it seems to take a few weeks to arrange tires), but we "might not get them" for the car we booked. We were recommended to cancel the booking, and call international travel. We did, and yes, they could get us a car (not the one we wanted) with winter-tires; them tires costing us a whopping 20 euros plus VAT per day extra (we would be cheaper off buying them ourselves, and selling them afterwards). Considering this, we were recommended to perhaps rent a car for one day, drive it to Germany (just across the border), and rent a car there, as they presumably would have winter-tires on them anyway. Well they don't, because winter-tires are only mandatory in southern Germany. Back to square one. We (i.e. my wife) phoned around a lot, spend half a day on it, and ended up at..... Avis. Yes, you're right, the ones that couldn't deliver last year.

And here we thought it would be easy enough to rent a car....