Arrival at Los Angeles

8 pm at landing or 5 am biological clock in the morning. At least, the immigration procedure is already done and we begin to look after the car rental counter. As it - funny enough - turns out it is about 2 miles from the airport and accessible only by shuttle bus.

Once again a short queuing-up and then Ms. Maria from Alamo Rent-a-car starts her cross-selling. Booked a minivan? Bad choice, because you are only four people. For only $ 770 additional charge, she can offer a superior SUV. It is shorter, but more cylinders. Who could say no? Me, for example.

Which airline have we used asks Ms. Maria in an apparently spontaneous incident. After looking over our boarding passes and a half minute of senseless typing on her keyboard, the charge is reduced to 315 dollars because we were flying Air Canada. What a lucky, though. Although I am dead tired - so stupid I'm not even after three days of sleep deprivation and subsequent waterboarding Guantanamo brand.

I have after all booked a minivan, most expensive class of all in our Austrian catalogue, good woman. Yes, maybe, but not eight cylinders and with more ground clearance. This form of negotiation, I know more from an Egyptian Bazaar and so is my "No thank you" already decided. Maria counters with the prospect of additional insurance for just $ 5 a day. Excuse me, I have already chosen CDW with the most expensive stage. Yes, but damage to the tire or on the windshield is not covered with it and yes that happens most frequently, so the additional insurance is highly recommended. Thank you very much, that I must now also learn this, and NO, THANK YOU. We want the car just as ordered.

Maria changes her behavior from Egyptian Bazaar to service type "Russia 1980" and answers questions about the GPS, or where we can get our car from, only very reluctantly and at best, murmuring single syllables. We find the exit and hear from a guy outside that you simply pick a car right out of line. The keys are inside and the minivans are located in the last row.

These are all Chrysler Town + Country (for us Grand Voyager), significantly longer than five meter, have seven seats and even when we manage to unfold the third row of seats, we still get our luggage with two large pockets, two medium-sized trolleys and a hand baggage not covered. Super. Something that our Opel Astra Caravan, which is three feet shorter and weighs probably a third of this monster, swallows without any problem. We already see ourselves crawling back on our knees to Ms. Maria to pay the premium and perhaps be able to rebook.

But there is one more car at the end of the row. Although at least 30 centimeter shorter, but the last row of seats can be folded down and the baggage fits just into it. Deep breathing. Dodge Journey - the name fits.

The automatic transmission and I meet each other but from the start with great reluctance, and the visibility in the Dodge is just a bit better than in a tank, but I make it to the parking lot exit. There turns out that the Dodge Journey, according to Alamo, is a Superior SUV. Will Maria succeed in the end and we must hope that she is satisfied with $ 315 extra charge? After two minutes of palaver, the crew at the exit leave us with congratulations for a free upgrade. (Later at home I can see on the web page that a Dodge Journey is a minivan and not a SUV and, including its eight cylinders, costs measly $ 24,000).

But now relieved we use our navigation system and go to Holiday Inn LAX, which is only about a mile away. It was probably built in the 70s, not renovated since then and is a little grubby. But they have four beds for us - that counts.

It is now 10 pm local time or 7 clock am at home and we all fall prostrate. Two restless hours later I swallow half of a sleeping pill so I can get four hours of sleep. Then my two blankets, to protect me against the furious air conditioning at 20degrees outside temperature, wakes me because it is too hot lying under them. Two and a half hours in bed with reminiscences of the trip so far and failed attempts to fall asleep again, it is time to get up. At least the subsequent shower wakes me up, because the hot water is not working. Good Morning America.