Moving Day! #2!

truck with our air shipment + internet van

At long last, Tuesday was moving day!  We woke up in our temporary apartment, threw a few things in the car, and drove over to our real apartment.  I walked the kids to school, Pete walked to work, and then I went to pick up the apartment keys (conveniently, the real estate agency is right below our apartment).  When I arrived, our air shipment truck was unloading and our internet was almost set up.  With cars parked on both sides of the street, and traffic was now completely blocked.

Air shipment boxes!  Kids' bikes!

Our relocation agent and the real estate agent were conducting the inspection of the apartment (speaking in very fast German, so I was totally lost.  Well, even if it had been slow German, I'd have been lost).  Basically, this is an old building, lots of stuff doesn't work, and the owner will only fix or replace certain things.  I couldn't really do much protesting.  I had only spent about 10 minutes total in the apartment before this, so I was learning how stuff works (or doesn't work), where the garbage goes, where our "cellar" is in the basement maze, and trying to pay attention to things that are already wrong with the apartment so we won't be accountable for them when we move out.  It was overwhelming.

Next the truck arrived with our temporary furniture, plus another truck with a special elevator for bringing in the larger items.  By this time, the traffic situation was horrible, and I felt pretty guilty for causing such havoc, even though there wasn't anything I could do.  Apparently there was a no parking sign put out by the furniture company since last week (to give people plenty of warning), but two cars were parked in front of the building anyway.  So then the police got involved.

police filling out tons of paperwork + 2 shipment trucks + luxury SUV parked illegally

Next, two tow trucks showed up to grab the cars (just what we need, more trucks on our street).  Tow trucks here actually lift the vehicles off the ground and place them in back - I wish I'd got a picture, but here it is already lifted on..

bye bye luxury SUV :(.  The owner showed up a few minutes later.  Poor lady, she was not pleased.

Now, the elevator truck had room to pull in front and send furniture up through our balcony doors, since the apartment's staircase and elevator are much too small.

up it goes...

and in through the balcony door.  Wish the kids had seen it!

About the time this process finished, I retrieved the kids from school.  On our way back inside we ran into our neighbor from the 3rd floor who is SO, SO nice.  She is originally from Munich, speaks amazing English (and German and French of course), and has lived upstairs with her husband and 11-year-old daughter for over a decade.  She invited the kids and me up for some lunch and gave us a much needed roll of toilet paper (forgot to bring that over from the temporary apartment!).  

We are so thankful for a great neighbor!!!!

eating yummy spaghetti

and...they have bunnies!

After lunch the kids were itching to ride their newly-arrived bikes, so we rode to the park for a bit.

Then we headed to the temporary apartment to continue packing and cleaning.  When Pete came home, we went out for pizza, and it was time for bed!

story time on temporary beds

Well, time for kids' bed.  Then Pete went back to the temporary apartment to pick up the rest of our luggage and supplies we've collected over the past couple of weeks, and I made a very minor dent in unpacking.

The end.

Wild day!