One week left

As promised we’ll write some posts in english to make sure our english speaking friends know what’s going on as well. Where do we stand one week before our planned departure date? The last couple of months were rather stresseful because there was a lot to be organized. Some things can’t be checked off early on in the planning of such a trip. So of course most work comes in the last weeks before one leaves.
Our car (Nanuk) has given us more trouble than we had expected and Jan spend many weekends in the workshop. That was extremely stressful, but now it looks like Nankuk is ready. The good thing about this intense experience is that Jan knows how to repair Nanuk inside out now…So it was good for something. And hopefully we’ll have less trouble later on – then we will look back at this stressful time with a smile.
Jan had his last day at work in the middle of February, with one week left before moving out of the appartement. That was on Saturday 19th of february. Jan and Liliane worked many hours to get the appartement ready – took furniture apart and giving stuff away. Liliane met a lot of people that picked up stuff from our appartement that we gave away for free. The idea was to reduce the amount of things we needed to bring to our storage room in Zürich. We kept some things, but it was a good experience to sort out a lot of ballast that you accumulate over the years.
The move went well, we had some great help and we were able to put all of our stuff into our rental truck and a VW Van. Now all of our belongings rest in a deep cellar somewhere near Zürich.
After moving out we cleaned the appartement for two days and canceled contracts of insurances, telephone, and so on.
Two things need to be done before we can leave, we have to hand in our income tax refund for 2011 and we’re waiting for our Iran Visas. As soon as this one arrives we can pack up and try to go south into warmer areas. Right now it’s pretty cool here in Basel
We’re enjoying our last days here in Switzerland which we spend at Lilians moms house. That way Lola can see her grandma every day – something both of them enjoy a lot.