Kehl to Valencia completed

Another milestone…

Some weeks ago, we cleared out our old flat in Germany, in Kehl on the frontier with France at Strasbourg. We hung on to some of the furniture from that clearance. Today, we took delivery of it in Valencia, in Spain. 

That means we feel as though we really have moved into this place. A flat we took as a shell now feels like a home. Indeed, in many ways a familiar home: we’ve been joined by my grandparents’ dinner table, their Welsh dresser (hand built by a joiner friend for their wedding in the 1920s), Danielle’s parents’ antique wardrobe (bought in Versailles before it moved to Eastern France and Germany before coming here), my parents’ desk (built of teak, no longer legal today, and which has now travelled from the US to England, France, Germany and finally to Spain – truly a cosmopolitan piece of furniture).

Our much-travelled desk in place

The fact that the furniture was brought to us from Germany led to an interesting linguistic problem. I can’t say that I truly master German and Spanish, which I speak to a level that can at best be described as passable. So dealing with German removals men at the same time as the Spaniards who were helping us, proved more than my grasp of the languages could handle: I found myself saying ‘Danke’ to the Spaniards and ‘Gracias’ to the Germans or, worse still, getting hopelessly confused and producing sentences even more incoherent than usual. I’m glad to say, however, that they were all friendly and polite, and smiled and nodded at me, as if to say that while they had no idea what I was trying to say, they could tell I was attempting to be friendly and they appreciated it.

Our two sons and our daughter-soon-to-be-in-law from Madrid came to help us and provide company, so the process was a great deal easier than the ghastly stress of the Kehl clearout. It’s also fun to have them around for the weekend. In fact, we’re due to go out with them soon for a meal – just as soon as we’ve finished our celebratory drink and I’ve finished this blog post.

The living room furnished and populated
by son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law

So I raise my glass to your health and our move. And drain it. And post this brief expression of relief for a tiring move successfully completed.

All but drained, to your good health