Plodding along.

Slowly starting to get our relocation ducks in a row.  Finding that the relocation lady in Austria is well,  how shall I put this?  Leaps and bounds better than the knobs,  er....people that we're dealing with here.

I'm just saying.

I realise it's perhaps a challenge to get us all sorted out and everything,  but when we heard back that we were somehow supposed to stick around until the Monday,  I just knew there were a couple knives missing from the drawer....


I'll let you read what we received a while back.....

 

Household goods will be removed on October 29^th; so cleaning could be done on October 30^th in the morning and move out in the afternoon. But it is more likely that cleaning will take longer than just a few hours in the morning; so then check out will need to take place after the weekend; say November 2^nd. "the relocation company here in the Netherlands"  (I removed the name to protect the stupid)   and real estate agents do not work in the weekend. (sic)


Now I realise that I mentioned this just two entries ago,  and I don't mean to be repetitive here,  but the part about real estate agents not working weekends?  Huh?  How you gonna sell anything?
Didn't have any problems in Austria.  We met with our relocation lady and the real estate agent on Saturday morning.  Signed the lease,  took a look around,  some measurements were made,  notes were taken.   It was all good.

Aparently,  the Dutch don't do that.



And just who are they hiring to do the cleaning?   We're not really pigs y'know?  Shouldn't take a day and a half to wipe down a few shelves in the kitchen,  do the wash rooms and give the place a once over with a vacuum cleaner. 


On the plus side,  they have been somewhat responsive to the schedule that I've more or less shoved down their throats up to this point,  and have offered to help out with sending back the modem and TV receivers to KPN.   This is good.  I'm not too clued in as to where these things should go.  I'm going to be sorting through the papers to see what I can find,  but it's a tad confusing.

The updated planned departure is more likely to be some time Friday afternoon.

Here's why:

The car that we've ordered for Austria is gonna take a while.  Second verse,  just like the first.  You order a car and wait.  Probably won't get it until around Christmas.


OK then.

It's going to look pretty much like this one.  Couldn't find a decent image out there on the net,  but you get the idea....

If you click that link (not the pic,  the pic is pretty small),  it's a review of the car,  and the reviewer does seem to be quite enthusiastic.  I hadn't seen that one up to this point.  I just might have to read it.

So what that means is,  we'd have to rent something for all of November and December?  Doesn't seem to be too cost effective.  Not only that,  but that means muggins here will be doing all the driving since,  getting an automatic up to this point in the rental department has been pretty much a no-go situation in Austria.

I do find this a bit odd,  since we did get an automatic when we first came over to The Netherlands.

Probably some sort of bait and switch.....


So here's the cunning plan:


 We're driving down.

Gabe must have already spoken to somebody and got the green light to take the car there for a couple months,  and we'll either take a "business trip" back up to Bonn (they do have an office there...huge too)  or simply have the darned thing shipped back to Hengelo.  I mean,  it was shipped from Belgium or wherever it was made,  so it shouldn't be that much of a challenge.

I plugged Vienna into the GPS earlier today when I was out to pick out our patio furniture and it's just a little more than 1000 km.   It was telling me that I'd get there tonight just after 8:30 if I continued on.  It was around 11:00 a.m. at the time.
We'll stop over in say,  Munich or where ever.

Did that before on the way to Slovenia.


Here's a slightly better image of the car.........

It won't have the sun roof though,  since when you order a car in Yurp,  you have to order everything,  which is a bit of a drag,  since having an automatic eats up a couple thousand Euros, and there was a budget....
Seems that the company that cannot be named had imposed a new "car policy" on all the divisions,  and the response from one of the marketing dudes was,  "we're going to lose some people over that one".  Seems company cars are a real status symbol over here.  Like that's a news flash.




So the other little nit picky thing that I figured I'd better get sorted out was,  having the bikes serviced.
Last chance,  so to speak,  and if I didn't do it here,  it wasn't happening.  As it was I missed the first service interval after a month,  but with the dough we laid out for the things, I figure it's worth the time and effort to do it right.
Mine is presently in the shop and I'll ride the Ma'am's there tomorrow morning and do a switcheroo.    Then I'll go back with the car and pick up that one after five tomorrow.

Almost forgot to mention......driving down to Austria in a little over a week means having to deal with one more thing.  I've already made an appointment for Friday morning to have the snow tires put on the car.  Apparently it's already snowed a fair amount in parts of Austria..


Swell.

Blogging from Vienna....

....was pretty much impossible.   So that was that.
The "pay as you go" wireless at the hotel   was absolutely pitiful, and the only places where I would have been able to do much of anything was in one of the wireless hot spots in and around Vienna. You can take a look at the host of locations here, and using one of these places would have been fine,  except the opportunity simply didn't present itself. 
Anyway,  we managed to open a bank account right around the corner from our front door at Bank Austria on the friday.   This was something I had to sort out after we realised that we simply were not going to make it to our Thursday a.m. appointment.  The traffic was just way too unco-operative,  and we would have never made it back out to Strebersdorf to get Gabe to work.  Not only that,  but we were going to pick up one of her associates on the way....

So that meant that I had to reschedule an appointment with the relocation lady and the bank dude for the Friday,  and take the papers for Gabe to sign.  Didn't seem to be a big deal.

Even on the Sunday,  Mariahilferstrasse seemed to be quite busy,  even though all the stores are closed.  We were trying to visualise where we would be riding our bikes,  and the situation didn't look too inviting.  There are bike paths,  and dedicated bike lanes,  but not right there.
That whole traffic situation might turn out to be a bit of a drag,  but we'll figure it out.

Now,  I have to point out at this time that I've failed to mention yet one more annoying thing about air travel.  We've talked about farting men,  crying babies,  but on the way down to Vienna,  we were privy to one of the loudest snoring men I think I've ever heard in my life.
First of all,  this guy was passed out before we even left the jet way,  and continued to snore as we climbed through 30 thousand feet.   Everyone within 10 rows both fore and aft we looking around wondering who brought aboard the jack hammer.
Got so bad the flight attendant had to go and wake the guy and tell him he was causing a disturbance.
I'm not making this up!
And you know fully well just how loud it is in an airplane.  He drowned out everything.


Of course,  on the way back to Schiphol,  I had these two Spanish chicks who yakked the whole way,  and I just so desperately wanted to turn around and tell them to just shut the f--- up!   Before leaving the jet way, one of these chicks thought she wanted to get something out of her bag that had already been put in the hold,  and thought she'd give the flight attendant a hard time over it.  That didn't happen, since she was told in no uncertain terms just how big her carry on could be,  and that they could put it in the hold if it didn't fit in the overhead,  which it clearly didn't.

Stupid little snot.

 OK so, I'll update here a little later in the day if I feel like it.  For those of you on Facebook,  I did put up some pics, and I'll selectively put a couple on here later on.

Heading out to Vienna.

Haven't had a whole lot to say over the last couple of days,  since "getting ready for the move",  consists of mostly just waiting.
We've made all the arrangements we can,  and finally heard back from the local relocation company regarding the events to take place on the last day or so here in the Netherlands.
With the movers coming here for an eight a.m. start,  we could see no reason why the house couldn't be given a going over by the end of the day,  and then go to Goor to de register on the Friday.  Just had to get that point across to the person from "name removed to protect the stupid",  since she somehow thought that would take place on the Monday.

Ain't gonna be here lady.

I've already booked accommodations for that weekend in Vienna,  at a hotel that's within walking distance of the new place.  Not entirely sure when the movers plan to be there on the Monday morning,  but I'll find out in due time.

I had naively hoped to get the grass cut out front,  but the weather hasn't really been co-operating all that much,  so I'm afraid it will be a bit of a mess when I return. 

We've been getting caught up in the daily rain department it seems.

Meanwhile,  we have a flight out of Shiphol booked for this evening at six or thereabouts,  and I'll be leaving the car in long term parking for the few days that I'll be away.  I'm coming back on Monday,   with the plan to do whatever extra furniture shopping next week.  Gabe won't be back here until the 23rd.

I'll just be a lonely guy in a lonely town...


I briefly went out this morning to check out some deals on outdoor furniture,  since it might make sense to have those items here for the movers to cart off.  I did take some pics,  and the two of us will have a look at them over the next couple days when we get the chance.
I'll also be checking out any possibilities when in Vienna,  just for comparison purposes.

According to the guy in the outdoor furniture store,  they "don't have much" in Austria.
Seems he's aware of this from the trade shows they go to in Cologne?

Well,  we'll see.