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I thought it best to create a separate blog post about what was probably the most memorable albeit terrifying part of our trip to Majorca.
If you've been on our Instagram page, you have probably already seen a reel hinting at what went down. If you haven't seen it, you can view it here
We recently took a very quick four-day trip to Mallorca Spain, since Mallorca is a large island, and we wanted to explore as much as possible, we decided the very best thing to do was to rent a car.
Luckily for us, my husband knows how to drive a stick shift. If you're renting a car on the island of Mallorca, you best get in early, there are not very many automatic transmissions available, and they go early.
I will not go into all the details of our trip to Majorca, if you haven't read my previous post, all the details are here on my previous blog post!
When we arrived at the rental car desk at the airport, they offered us a larger luxury vehicle. I requested that we stick with a small vehicle since I knew the streets in the towns were very small and winding. The rental car attendant told us that the smallest car available was a Fiat 500, "perfect!" I exclaimed. It's basically two seats on wheels!
To set the scene, it was day three of our trip, and we were driving from the town of Soller to the town of Deia. We left the town of Soller at about 1:00 PM. and had a lunch reservation at Miro at the Belmond hotels, La Residencia for 2:00pm.
The views from this route were unbelievable, I couldn't stop myself from hanging out the window to snap pictures. The rolling hills, the valleys, the olive groves sweeping down into adorable hamlets dotted along the countryside, were all simply breathtaking.
At 1:25pm we reached the crest of the hill, and my Husband suggested he pull over so I could jump out to get some pictures of the view.
I got out of the car and started walking briskly up towards the crest of the hill, to get the best view possible. Suddenly I heard the sounds of a revving car, the sound of gravel crunching, an expletive ("Fuck")
and then as I turn towards the sounds, I see and hear what can only be described as the compact and neat Fiat 500 buckling backwards into a small retaining wall. As this happens, the front left wheel, as if by some sort of illusion, projects up into the air, and the whole car is sitting crookedly on 3 wheels. I start shuffling as quickly as my grip-less Oran sandals can take me towards the car, just in time to see the door swing open, and my baffled husband jump out of the driver's side (remember, the front left wheel is up in the air, so he had quite a way to jump to safety!)
We were both worried the car could tip over, since it was precariously perched on its two right wheels.
We were in shock, and didn't know what to do, but it wasn't long before friendly passers-by stopped to lend a hand. We were both pleasantly surprised at how many people stopped to help us, at one point it had created quite the traffic jam, and we had to keep telling people to move along since we didn't think there was anything we could actually do ourselves safely.
A passer-by gave me the number to call for emergency services (112) since neither my husband nor I had cell phone reception to call the car rental company. When the emergency operator answered, I asked gingerly if they could speak English? "yes" he replied. I explained the situation, making it sound worse than it actually was in effort to have them send the cavalry immediately, but was met with "This does not sound like an emergency, lady, call a tow truck!" I hung up with emergency services, and my husband said to me that I should ride into town with some passers-by and make the call from town where I would have reception.
I hopped into a small car with 3 German tourists that were going to Deia, they were concerned, but between giggles were telling me that the car looked "quite funny" with the wheel sticking up in the air like that. I started to try to call the rental car company immediately. About 1km away from where the incident happened, I began to get reception again. The rental car company said they would send somebody and that it could take a few hours.
The lovely Germans dropped me into town and since at this time it was almost 2:00pm I decided to walk up to the Belmond hotel, to alert the restaurant that I was here, but since my husband was dealing with car troubles a few miles away, I may be either dining alone, or that perhaps we wouldn't be dining until help had arrived.
Once I arrived at the Belmond, I told the hostess what had happened and showed her the pictures on my phone. She couldn't believe what had happened, and insisted she bring me a glass of Cava to settle my nerves.
Feeling a little uncomfortable to be sipping bubbly while my husband was miles away in the hot sun, waiting for help, I received a phone call from my him, "You would never guess what just happened. A truck drove past looking for a KIA, I told him, were not a KIA but we need help." Apparently, the truck had been sent to help someone else, but my husband offered him all the cash he had on him to help him get the car out of its pickle. The truck driver declined the offer of cash, and immediately got to work, he tied a rope attached to a winch to the front tire that was sticking up, and then told my husband to help him push down on the left side of the car, while he wound the winch. with a lot of creaking and crunching, they were able to pull the car free. The truck driver gave the car a once over and saw that it was safe to drive, and my husband was on his way!
At 2:30pm a very hot and frazzled man entered the dining terrace at the Belmond hotel, and all the staff exclaimed "He's here! He's here!"
I was very surprised to hear that the damage was surface damage to the rear bumper, and besides that, everything was just fine. Crisis averted.
We enjoyed a beautiful lunch on the terrace of the Belmond, at Miro, and both reflected on the fact that it had been a close call, and we were very, very lucky it wasn't worse. The location the car got stuck, was at the top of a hill, and had the car slipped, it could have tumbled down the hillside to the ocean, or at least ended up in a tree downhill. We were both shaken but thankful that we lived to tell the tale, and both reflected on how we made the right decision not to try and get the car out ourselves as we could have turned a bad situation much, much worse.
We called the rental car company back, and told them not to worry about sending help, and that somebody had already helped us.
Tips for renting a car abroad
Book with your Amex card. Amex has built-in travel insurance for this sort of thing. So, if you're going to rent a car abroad, don't forget to use your platinum Amex if you have one! (Same goes for hotel rooms, flights etc.)
Always have a list of local emergency numbers to call. In hindsight, I could have called the concierge at our hotel and asked them to send a tow truck. Hotel concierges have the best contacts and are there to help you!
Never reverse a car without looking behind you (this tip is for my husband...)
Take extra care driving in areas where you don't have cell phone reception. Help isn't always close by.
Pack an extra pair of shoes (for walking long distances) for each passenger, as well as an additional change of clothes, and keep it in the trunk.
Make sure you have a days' worth of water in the car.
Well, that sums up my memorable trip to Mallorca. We had the most marvelous time, and this served as a reminder to always be careful, and extra vigilant, as accidents can happen quickly.
Have you ever had any car troubles abroad? If so I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below,
Fallon xo
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