This time of year, the almond trees show off their blossom. The picture below are made from our house.
I am not going to continue to write these blogs as a diary, but these first weeks so much is happening, that it helps us to remember what happened when. And you get the privilege of reading it :).
Thursday 28 January
The day before we left the Netherlands, we had exported our car, which now needed to be imported. We had insurance for 14 days and 10 of those had already passed. Two of the remaining days were weekend days, so we needed to take action. I called our insurance agent to find out if there was a way to get the car insured temporarily, while we were trying to get it imported. There was. If we could get a ‘gestoría’ to write a document that they were working on getting the car imported, he could get the car insured for 3 months. Great!
By the way, a ‘gestoría’ is someone who helps people get through red tape. Some specialize in taxes, some in insurances, others in dealing with government and some in importing cars. It certainly testifies to how complex Spain’s bureaucracy is, if there is an army of people helping other people to deal with all of that.
On Tuesday our lawyer had already told us that it usually takes around 2 months to import a car. What?! I had read somewhere you need to go the capital of the province to get the right papers. Then I found out you need to do a MOT/Smog/APK first, called ITV in Spain. Also, the lawyer on Tuesday said “I suppose you could try and do it yourself, but it is probably better to get a gestoría.
Our neighbors, Mark & Jacky heard about this and had very kindly offered we could borrow one of their cars if we needed to go anywhere while we tried to get the car insured and imported, but we didn’t want to impose on them. They had been too kind already.
So, to get the car insured so we could drive it after Sunday, we needed to get insurance. The next step was to find a gestoría. I found one and she told me via WhatsApp where we could best go for our first ITV. I contacted that company and got an appointment the next day at 10. Great! Assuming we would pass the inspection, we could get the papers to the gestoría that same morning.
So, Friday at 10 we were in the town of Lorca to get our first ITV. You stay in the car, while they test everything.
We’d never seen that before. It took about an hour between our arrival, getting the paperwork prepared and the end of the test. The car passed the test with flying colors. Then they told us they would work on finalizing the paperwork and we could come and collect it on Monday. We explained the urgency and then a man came who spoke English with us. He said they would hurry the paperwork and they would email us when they were done, around 4 or 5 that same afternoon. That was a lot better than Monday. We went home and waited for the mail. It came around 4. So, we got right back in the car and went to collect the papers. We received all the paperwork the gestoría told us we needed. Then we went to the gestoría and handed her the papers. She told us that she also needed proof that we were registered in the town of Huércal Overa. Ah! We had done that and we had a document to prove it. “That isn’t the right document,” she said. We needed to go back to city hall and get the right document. But she would write the note we needed to get the car insured. So most of the missions accomplished.
Back at the house, we scanned in her document and sent that off to the insurance agent. He confirmed on Monday morning that all was OK and we could continue to drive the car.
Our new house has thick concrete walls and although we had internet and wifi from the day we moved in, the wifi wasn’t very good in most of the rooms in the house. I told Mirjam that the only thing I wanted to accomplish on Saturday was to put up the two professional grade wifi access points I had, at central points on the ground floor and the first floor. Because the house is built by a master builder, I wanted the access points to be fixed as nicely as possible, without showing any wires. This meant drilling through thick walls and insulated ceilings, door styles and attic floors. It wasn’t easy, but we were proud of the result.
And now, we have a perfect connection throughout the house. Getting the outside access point up will take some effort as well, but we’ll do that later.
Sunday we took a day off. It was the first day since we left Graeme’s apartment 9 days earlier that we did close to nothing. We just enjoyed the house, the grounds, the fact that the cats are super relaxed and each other. It was a glorious day.
On Monday we needed to get our Spanish mobile phone plans to be activated. We decided to go to the store once more to explain we hadn’t been called yet, even though we were told it would take up to 48 hours max on Thursday. Our Dutch phone plans had stopped working by now. Monday is also one of the two day there is a farmers’ market in town. We decided to explore the market first. It was quite stretched out and there is a lot to be found. Nice to know. We both love strolling along these markets and finding good deals.
In the same street as the market is the phone shop. We had to wait outside for about half an hour while they were attending to other customers. When it finally was our turn and we explained we hadn’t been contacted that our numbers were activated, the nice girl who had helped us earlier immediately took action. She called the provider and she did something with Mirjam’s phone while she was on hold. We had no idea what she did on Mirjam’s phone, but when she finally got through to the provider, she spent 15 minutes explaining what the problem was and when the person on the other side was finally to a point she was willing to find out what the problem was, the line got disconnected. So, our girl called back and another 15 minutes passed. The new person she got on the phone asked for our Spanish ID cards, which we don’t have. It will be something like 6 months before we are residents and get one of those cards. But without that card, no phone plan. So in the end we decided to get a pre-paid sim, so we would at least have a Spanish number. We need Spanish numbers to be able to get through so much other red tape. To get the pre-paid cards registered took another hour. By the time we left the shop, we had become very grumpy, but 3.5 hours after we had reached the store, we left with activated sims with a Spanish number. Mission accomplished. Once we have our resident’s cards, we can get the pre-paid cards to be changed to plans that are direct debited monthly (or so we hope).
By the time we left the phone store, the nice girl was not so nice anymore. She wanted to go home to have lunch, but we refused to pay and leave until we had a working number and functioning internet on our phones. Reluctantly, she got everything functioning. Then, the payment terminal refused to work and we were forced to pay cash. Not really a problem, but it just added to the aggravation.
We decided not to go to the town hall to ask for the document we needed for the gestoría; it was too late and we were too grumpy to deal with more BS.
Instead we went on Tuesday. We got the same person as the first time. We handed her the document she had given us the week before and asked her for the document we needed. She told us it would be ready on Thursday. We needed an appointment to collect it though and we were sent to the next window. There, a lady with reading spectacles asked for our passports and proceeded to type in her computer. In the end we got the appointment for Thursday at 09:20. Great, we had something.
We went home and Mirjam decided to make a focaccia. While she did that, I took it upon myself to put the furniture on the porch in its place. Until now, it had looked more like a furniture store than someone’s porch. As the focaccia was proofing, Mirjam came and helped me and in no time, we had a porch that actually looked inviting and is very functional.
Once the focaccia was done, we decided to visit with Mark and Jacky next door and brought them half of the focaccia. We sat on their patio in the sun and had a beer and a nice chat . It was a lovely day and the first day I wore shorts! Wow February 2nd and shorts. I can get used to this.
Wednesday we decided to take a break from going into town and get frustrated and instead stayed home and worked on getting the dining room in order. Happy with the result we had a lovely dinner in our ‘new’ room. In the evening, I put some solar lights in the front garden to get more depth in the view from the porch.
What happend at the town hall on Thursday will be part of the next blog!
Week 1
Thursday 21 January
After a good night’s rest at Casa Barranca and a lovely breakfast, Mirjam and I had to go to the next town to meet with the bank and 2 hours later sign the deed to the house at the notary. Our lawyer was at the bank too so she could translate. We were there at the agreed time of 10:00, but had to wait while our lawyer was finishing up with her 09:30 appointment. While we were waiting our lawyer received a call to cancel the appointment with the notary, because the notary and his wife had gone into quarantine after contracting Covid19. How to proceed now? The movers were coming with all our things the next day. After speaking with the sellers, it was agreed that we would pay them that day and we would get the keys. Signing the deed could be done another day.
When we finally got called to the desk at 11:00, it took a total of 4.5 hours (!) and 50 signatures to open the account in our name, get us internet access and do six transfers. For the six transfers the bank wanted to charge us €600 in commissions. We think it is a tactical move to throw this little curve ball after numbing you for 4 hours. But we were still awake enough not to agree and get it all the hell over with. Instead we asked how we could avoid these commissions and that turned out to be quite simple. There were three conditions: 1) open a savings account and transfer an amount to it, 2) use the bankcards, 3) have an income of at least €600 deposited on the current account. We could easily comply with these conditions and poof, gone was the €600 commissions charge.
Meanwhile, Karim was back at the B&B with the cats and worked on his laptop, doing what he does best. We didn’t get back until 16:00 hrs. We collected Karim and went to the house for the inspection and to show it to Karim. Seeing the house in empty state made it look even bigger. It is a lovely house, with lovely grounds. Mark – the seller – was there and showed us around, explaining things. When he left we had another walk through and then went back to Casa Barranca to celebrate and have dinner.
Despite our excitement, we slept like a log. Tomorrow we would move into our new house.
Friday 22 January
Mirjam woke up with the brilliant idea of asking the hosts at Casa Barranca if the cats could stay at the apartment until the movers had left. The cats seemed to be comfortable there and at the house, they would just be in the way, or would need to be locked in a room or garage. Elaine very kindly allowed the cats to stay. Such a relief.
It was 08:30 and we went to the house to greet the movers. The truck arrived at 09:00 as agreed. It was huge and the driver told us he had more stuff waiting at a parking lot just off the freeway.
Unfortunately, the local hands hadn’t arrived yet and the driver had a hard time reaching them by phone. When he finally did, it turned out they had misunderstood the rendez-vous time and place. But they got there quickly while Mirjam used that time to label each room. Then the unloading could begin. Fifty cubic meters of stuff. Karim and I helped with the unloading and Mirjam stayed with the truck to explain to the movers which room each item was supposed to go in. One of the locals had lived in Holland for 20 years, which made communicating with these guys so much easier.
There was a fierce wind, which caused the electricity to go off. Usually not so bad, but it meant no coffee. When it came back on for a few minutes, Mirjam managed to make 3 cups of coffee, which we gave to the movers. Karim, Mirjam and I had to wait for the next time the power came on.
It took us 6 hours to unload everything and put it in the right rooms. Then, quite unexpectedly, but as agreed, the internet man arrived to hook us up. It took him 15 minutes and we were live. We had internet and a wifi network. Whoohoo!
Then we went to fetch the cats and pay for the extra day, but Elaine wouldn’t accept any money. So kind.
Karim, Mirjam and I spent the next hours making sure our we had a table to sit at, that we had lights and that the bedrooms were in order, with made up beds, night table lights and towels.
While we were busy, we saw, from the kitchen window one of the three neighbors from up the street pass by, with a flock of sheep. That’s the kind of thing we can expect to happen here.
Somehow, Mirjam managed to fix dinner and after unpacking a few more boxes, we decided to call it a day. You’d think we would have been too excited to sleep, but we slept like babies, exhausted, not just from the physical labor, but also because there is so much to think of.
Saturday and Sunday, we spent unpacking, putting things together, hanging things up, moving boxes that had ended up in the wrong room, etc. It was so good to have Karim there to help us those first days.
When we woke up on Sunday, we noticed the most wonderful sunrise, which we went to enjoy from the balcony.
On Monday Karim had to go back. Driving back by himself he didn’t have the luxury of switching drivers, so we made sure he did no more than 8 hours a day. We got him food for the three days and two nights and made reservations for him in Girona and Dijon. We kept in contact a lot and as much as we could, we made sure he was as comfortable as possible. We felt bad having to make him drive back by himself, we felt sad seeing him go, we felt grateful for his help.
Tuesday was the day we finally got to the notary to sign the deed. We now officially owned the house! We also had to go back to the bank to pick up our bank cards. While there we found out that because we have a savings account, the bank gives us back 10% of every bill paid by direct debit. That was a nice surprise and compensated some of the agony of the 4.5 hours we had spent there on Thursday.
Now that we could prove we owned a house in town, we needed to go and register as residents. Off to the townhall we went.
The kind lady spoke English with us and after a short 30 minutes, she handed us a document and told us all was done. Great!
Next stop, the employment office. We were met by a guard who told us we needed to make an appointment first and gave us a number to call and a website to visit.
Back at the house, we were unable to get through to that number he gave us. Making an appointment on the website was only possible if you could enter a Spanish phone number, which we didn’t have yet. That was something to take care of the next day.
Wednesday we found a place where they sell phone plans of the provider the sellers (now our neighbors, because they temporarily moved into the house next door) told us has best reception at the house. The young lady behind the desk was very kind and helpful and it ‘only’ took 1.5 hours to get a contract. But then she told us there was a problem with the provider’s website and that she was told that it could take up to 2 days to fix it and get the numbers activated. There was a slight chance it was going to be fixed that same day, in which case she would call or message us. We went home rather disappointed and hoped she would call. She didn’t.
The rest of the daywas spent unpacking more and giving things a new place. Mirjam even managed to bake some bread!
More in the next blog!
And….. we’re off
On January 18 2021 we started our trip to Spain. We had intended to leave on the 19th, but both Belgium and France had just changed their anti-covid lockdown rules. In France the curfew was now from 18:00 to 06:00 hrs and in Belgium we weren’t welcome until 06:00 hrs, making it impossible for us to drive from Holland to Spain in one day, or even two. So, we left a day early and booked two nights in apartments along the way. Because restaurants were closed as well, Mirjam had prepared and frozen meals for us for the first four days. Staying in apartments rather than hotels allowed us to cook ourselves and Mirjam just heated up the meals and ensured a feast every day. Breakfast and lunch were also taken care of by packing bread, coffee, tea, cheese and everything else that we thought we might need.
We also packed things for the cats of course; Food, bowls, a litterbox and litter. They drove in Karim’s car, because their carriers didn’t fit in our two-seater. I had made sure the apartments were pet-friendly.
When we left Graeme’s apartment in Breda, where he graciously allowed us to stay the five nights between the day we sold the house and our departure, Fred & Hanneke and Willy were there to send us off. That was so nice of them. And they gave us a care package filled with items we might miss, or need, or that might help us if we feel homesick.
On the first day we drove from Breda to an apartment close to Dijon. Not a very long drive, but stressful for the cats who had just gotten used to Graeme’s apartment. They whaled for quite a while and poor Karim had to endure that most of the time. We had decided to change drivers every 1.5 hours, so no one would drive for more than three hours at a time and every one had at least a 1.5-hour break. That made the drive easy peasy lemon squeezy.
When we were close to the apartment, I called the host who gave me the code to the key-box next to the door. He also told me he had switched on the heating in the morning so it should be nice and warm. It wasn’t. It was very cold indeed. They owner came and let out some air from the radiators and that made them work a lot better. But it was too late for us. We spent a very cold evening and the apartment didn’t get comfortable until about five minutes before we left. Another thing with this apartment was that although it slept a maximum of six people, there was just a two-seater sofa. The dining room table had six chairs, but they all felt like they would collaps the moment you sat on them.
The second day we drove to Montpellier, again a 6-hour drive or so. The drive was uneventful and we got to Montpellier as planned at 17:45 hrs, 15 minutes before the curfew would start. I had received a message from the host of the apartment with a link to a video with instructions on where to find the key box. In the video they also said that the GPS probably sent you to the wrong address. It had. But I quickly found the key box, which turned out to be empty. I called the number we were given, but rather than getting the host on the phone, it was a number to “telephone support”. The man on the phone told me that he would contact the owner for a solution. We waited for a call back as the curfew started and we were outside the gate of a wrong address with two cars and two cats. After a long while of nothing, I decided to call the support number again and the gentleman told me he now had received instructions on how to get us in. I explained we didn’t know the correct address and unfortunately, neither did he. “Just go into the hall of the main building,” he said. I didn’t see a hall, just three locked gates and a complex of buildings behind it. When one of the gates opened to let someone out, I decided to go into the complex and try to find a hall. I walked around for around 15 minutes with the telephone support man telling me to go into the hall of the main building. There was no main building. I decided to go into every hall I saw and finally found the right one. Now, the man was able to give me instructions on how to find the key. I had a look for a red box, which turned out to be a fire alarm box the glass of which was broken. In the box was a key to the mail box of the apartment. In the mail box were the key to the apartment. I managed to get in and found the electricity to be shut off. In the dark I managed to find the main switch and was now ready to go get the others. An hour after arrival, cold, tired and hungry, we finally got in.
This apartment was cold too, but warmed up quite quickly. Mirjam heated up the lentil soup she had prepared in Breda and the cats quickly found their way about the apartment. Good thing we had soup, because there were no knives in the apartment.
Day three was the longest drive. 12 hours.
Just like the previous two days, we were never stopped and questioned about the reason why we were driving through these countries. We had worried for no reason. We drove the 12 hours without any trouble and arrived at our B&B Casa Barranca in Santa Maria de Nieva in Spain around 19:30 as planned. Mirjam and I had stayed there before in July 2020 and we knew they had apartments as well as rooms and we had rented an apartment. What a remarkable difference with the two apartments we had stayed at in France. This one was spacious and clean and well equipped. The hosts, Elaine and Gavin were as nice as we remembered.
The next day, we had an appointment with the bank and the notary, where we would sign the deed to the house.
The day started off great, with a lovely sunrise:
More in the next blog…
You’ll have to wait for our first blog a little longer…
