Navigating the Derry city we try to settle on a Hotel, B&B's have been nixed and we are hotel bound. Settling on the 'City Hotel' (Good Name!) I wheel the car around the roundabout towards the hotel. As I try to park at the hotel I am diverted to a underground parking garage. As the car nudges through the parking lot entrance, my right brain is still too much left and the car front tire hits the curb (Note: reference other two times). We now have a flat and a rental and problem. The tire is cooked - split beyond repair. Fortunately we are meters from the Hotel - Aisha goes to check in and I review the tyre situation (tyre not tire).
I have pulled into the taxi roundabout, underground and away the rain - something is working. I nab the jack, tyre from the trunk and begin the Indy 500 jack-and-go. The lugs are off but the tire will not move. I enlist the support of the venerable parkign security cop and he lends me a hammer from the security office to 'nudge' the whee into submission. I start with a few gentle taps and nothing - he take the hammer and gives it the 'English' - it is starting to move. I see the method and take over, with a series of rotating taps getting harder and harder. Wheel is free, spare on, hands greasy, I thank my enlisted hammer mechanic and wheel the car back into the hotel garage.
Being Saturday night it will be unlikely to find a replacement in the morning, Sunday. We resolve to stay in Derry until Monday morning when we can source new rubber. Sunday (Happy Fathers Day) we will risk the spare to brave the Northern Ireland coast and explore
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