Furniture arrival – Galicien style – Organisation and support

We like the fact that no large vehicle can actually get near our house.

On our little calle / camino, squeezing through a normal sized car is not for the faint hearted.
This can be a bit disadvantageous when the super large furniture van including trailer arrives in the vicinity.

Thank god they called ahead and we could intercept them and show them the way around Sober to a place near our house. The bend to or “main” road was deemed to narrow so our load had to be shifted from the trailer onto the main van.

They resigned themselves to the fact that a busy afternoon will be at hand as again they could navigate the van to about 100 meters from our house, respectively the bodegas (cellars) where the stuff had to be moved to.

Neither they nor we expected the friendliness and helpfulness of of our neighbours. 

Carmen saw what was happening and simply offered the use of a tractor and trailer. We all thought this to be a great idea. Carmen rounded up the two sons who happened to be around. Martin (no not me) started up the tractor. This blue beast with its trailer just about fits the tight bend between our two houses.

tractor loadWe learned that 30 year ago they reduced one of their corners by about one foot to make this happen.bodega 1bodega 2

So with so much help the load was shifted in about 5 runs and in record time.

Our neighbours and probably the whole village (all 8 of them) now know that we are here for good and that we do have some possessions that could pass as furniture.

We now have a carton cellar and a furniture / tools cellar. So it’s easy to find things! – They are either in one or the other cellar or already spread throughout the habitable area of the house.

Could I entice the helpers to even take a liquid thank you? – No they just disappeared and and I could only persuade Pepe to have a quick glass of sparkly and some cheese and ham.

It’s just great to be in Galicia.

Organisation and support

We used, for a small fee, an agency to find us quotes and the speed and results where excellent.

I can’t fault their service  European removals – ET Brokers

They found us a great quote including pick up and storage for a couple of weeks and we used

Masons Moving Group

Apparently they do a lot for the MOD and are constantly running lorries through the continent.
They picked up when they said they will and they phoned us a week in advance to inform that our part load is on a lorry and it arrived when they said it will arrived (see above).

Expat