I'm exhausted!

In the morning Lamia and I looked warily outside: no heavy snowfall, but yet enough to make us wondering whether getting serious with the move today and rent a van for the weekend would be really the right thing to do.

We then took the practical approach and drove to the new apartment to check the street conditions. And see, it was not that bad, after all.

So we drove further on to get a van. Lamia had discovered a van rental, which looked very promising: Dockx Car & Truck Rental, with a location in nearby Vilvoorde.

Agent: Normally there wouldn't be a single
van in the size you want, but with the snow
today, nobody rents a van...

(at Dockx Car & Truck Rental)

We only got a van which was one level bigger than the one we initally wanted (medium versus big size Mercedes Sprinter 309 cdi) and then I drove this baby (6 meters long nearly 2 meters wide and roughly 2 tons heavy) to Lamia's apartment.

Not a problem, actually.
The Sprinter drives really nicely and the only time when I was slipping a bit on the road was in one of the smaller streets in Brussels, which had not been cleared, yet. The van even just fit into the garage at Lamia's apartment - with folded-in side mirrors there was a clearance of roughly 5 cm in width.

I drove the van nside when Nadia and Andi showed up and shortly after we already carried and dragged all the packs and the furniture downstairs. Ioana joined us a little later and eventually Jeroen completed our happy group. And though we did not expect it, we managed to get everything we wanted to move today into the van and our cars in one go! Great!

Soon enough our little convoy was on the way to Meise, where (naturally) neighbours of us had chosen the same day to move in. Here a photo after I had parked the van:



Thankfully, our neighbours were nearly finished carrying their stuff upstairs and so we did not have too much interference with them.
Some of the things we had to bring up were quite heavy, bulky or both, but eventually we got everything into the apartment, which was quite an achievement, really!



The place is a mess now - of course! - but overall the whole move of Lamia's things went very smoothly. The only thing that we did not get through the staircase and had to lift up over the terrace was the huge frame of Lamia's bed.
I am a little worried this might be different with my things tomorrow. At least my beloved sofa will be certainly a problem...

The photo below shows the dream team (Ioana and Jeroen look a bit... hum... unfortunate :) ).



Now it is past 10 pm and I am really exhausted. My knees ache and my back is strained, but I still have to empty some drawers to give the best chance that things will be as easy to move tomorrow as today.

Keep your fingers crossed...