Ikea, anyone?

We had a very busy and 'exciting' weekend moving into our new apartment and obtaining furniture to make it liveable. Thursday night (the one week night Ikea is open late) we took our third trip to Ikea to make sure we knew exactly what furniture we wanted, and where it was located in their 'self-service warehouse' area. While we were there we treated ourselves to their standard 'Swedish meatballs and pommes frittes (french fries) with gravy' meal that everyone is so fond of. It is not particularly healthy, but it is tasty, and actually fairly reasonably priced for a meal out in Switzerland - two dinners and two drinks for about 20CHF is very rare around here.

As we were threading our way through the self-service warehouse section scoping out all the furniture box locations, we noticed that there were only three of the couch/beds left that we had selected. Since we wanted two of them, we decided it might be a good idea to buy them then, and have them held till the next day so we wouldn't come back to find them all gone. We made sure that was OK with the customer service people - they have an area where they can hold things, but the space is fairly limited so it is a good idea to check with them first - and went back and made the first furniture purchase for the new apartment! These are fairly small couches (see pic below), but they do fold out into a bed which will be good if we have any visitors.

MrB took Friday off so we could go to Ikea as planned, pick out all the things we needed for the new apartment from their kitchen/bed/bath section, pick up the boxes of furniture that we had already picked out, and load it all onto the rental truck, which we had rented initially from 1-3. We got there early, headed straight to the kitchen section, and wound our way through, ending up with two shopping carts full of stuff. We decided we had better buy some of the boxes we saw on the way out to pack it all up in and make it easier to transport. Very good idea! Since it was just 1pm, the time we had reserved the truck, we decided that we should go through the registers and buy all the little stuff, go rent the truck, load the boxes of stuff on it, then run back into the warehouse to pick up the furniture boxes.

All did not go as smoothly as planned! The person renting the truck to us did not speak any English, so we were unable to get directions on how to use a Mobility rental. We eventually found out that you have to activate it by pressing the card you are given to the pad on the front window, then after the vehicle acknowledges you (this one had a panel that unfolded from under the mirror), you insert the electronic key and turn it on. Unfortunately, we had no idea about the card part, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't starting. Finally we got help from the other person at the desk, who did speak English but had been busy with other people when we were filling out our paperwork, and found out how it all worked. We also noticed that the truck was basically out of gas, and since it was provided in the rental, asked about it. He said he just hadn't had time to fill it up before we got there, and offered to bring us up to the gas station and take care of it when we were ready.

So, about 40 minutes into our rental, we loaded our two carts of stuff into the boxes and onto the truck, and also the two sofa boxes that we had put on hold the night before. Then we headed back into the fray to pick up all the boxes for the furniture we had picked out. We were going for fairly minimalist, since we have no clue where we're headed next, so there wasn't too terribly much, but it still turned out to be more than would fit in the truck for one trip. We got a bed, the bed slats, a mattress, two computer desks, two computer chairs, an end table and a coffee table, a bookcase, a small DVD 'book' case, and a bookshelf/office cabinet thing to store all the computer stuff in. Of course we forgot a couple things - night-stands for the bedroom, and they would be very handy right now, so we're going to have to go back and get them when we get back from Paris.

We had already extended our rental for another hour because of the previous delays, but when we realized there was no way we were going to get the mattress in, and it was now about an hour and a half into our rental time of three hours, and we still had to get the guy and go get gas, we decided we had better see if we could extend it for another hour or more if we could. We had to wait around for about 15 minutes or so for the guy to extricate himself from the rental madness (the last weekend of the month is a big moving month everywhere), and he drove us around to the gas station.

As there was a line, with a couple of huge semis blocking most of the parking lot, he left us with the gas card and the code to use it, and we waited in line. Then, when we finally got up to the pump, we couldn't get it to work! MrB went in to ask the lady how to get it to pump gas, maybe she had to turn it on, or we had to pay first or something. Unfortunately, she didn't speak any English either. By the time she figured out what he was trying to say and came out to show us, the trucker guys on the other side of the gas tank had done something and it was now pumping gas just fine. Unfortunately, I have no clue what they did! So, with a full tank of gas (I'm very glad I wasn't paying for it! It was 1.78 or so per liter, and that tank was something like 60+ liters), we headed out to the highway to make our way back to Basel.

Having never driven here before, I was very nervous. I did manage to get us slightly lost getting off the highway - the street signs around here leave a LOT to be desired - but because of MrB's love of wandering around on extended walks, he had been through the neighbourhood we got lost in, and navigated us out to the street we wanted to be on. We went straight to the new apartment rather than stopping to pick up all our stuff from the studio as originally planned. The truck was too full of Ikea stuff, and we were running terribly late by this point. We still had the mattress on hold back at Ikea, so we were going to have to make another run back and forth anyway.

Unfortunately, by the time we had unloaded the truck with the help of a couple of MrB's co-workers, our rental time was up, and we couldn't start the truck!!! So, we called the guy again, and he gave us the code to punch in for the next reservation so we could get the truck started. We also made a reservation for Saturday morning at 9am-10am so we could get the bed and stuff from the studio over to the new apartment. I was very doubtful we could get this all done in an hour, but that was all that was available so I took it. Luckily, we still had the bed in the studio that we could sleep in for the night.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, as it takes about an hour to get to Ikea from the center of Basel. We caught the old familiar tram #14, and had an early morning stroll from the tram station to Ikea, where we tried out their chocolate muffins and some coffee. Their breakfast isn't as good as their meatballs, though we didn't try the croissants that seemed very popular with everyone else.

The store didn't open till 9am (the cafe opens at 8:30), so as soon as it opened, we threaded our way through the warehouse to the truck rental area, which is right next to customer service. MrB picked up our mattress from customer service, and I took care of the paperwork for the same old red Mobility truck. Much to our dismay, by the time we got the mattress loaded and were driving out of the Ikea parking lot, it was already 20 after 9! Rushing as much as we dared (we didn't want to get a speeding ticket on top of everything else), we made it to the studio with no problems - luckily managing to find the right way off the highway this time. We hauled all our stuff downstairs from the 5th floor studio (thankfully there is a small elevator in the building) and loaded it into the van as fast as we could possibly go, but by the time we pulled up to the new apartment it was already 10:15, so we left the truck running (didn't want to chance it not starting again), called them to let them know we were running late, and basically threw the boxes off the truck.

Then I left MrB to haul them all up to the apartment, and drove back to Ikea as fast as I could legally go. They have speed-trap cameras everywhere, and since I have no idea where they might be or what they even look like, I kept to the 80km posted speed limit. I have no idea what the general in town speed limit is, as I couldn't find a sign for it anywhere. I made it back by 10:40 or so, and turned in the keys with visions of angry people waiting for their truck. Luckily, there was no-one there except the rental staff, so I was able to turn it in safely.

As I was leaving Ikea, MrB called with a request to pick up some more stuff that we had considered but put off till later. I ended up carrying back another bag full of some couch pillows and drapes for our windows and a laundry sack/cart frame. Some of you are probably not familiar with the Ikea bags, they look pretty small, but fold out into a surprisingly large sack, and mine was stuffed full. I don't think I could have carried anything else! I waited for the #80 bus which stops just up the hill from the Ikea and goes to Aeschenplatz, where I was able to catch another tram to very close to our new apartment. Thankfully, because I couldn't have carried that load very far!

MrB put the bed together after he finished bringing the boxes and mattress upstairs, while I was racing back to Ikea in the truck. When he was done with that, he headed out to the electronics stores (Interdiscount and Mediamarkt) to see if he could find an iron and a drill. He found irons, but no drill. Luckily he ran into a friend, who explained how to get to the store where he could find one, off tram#11 in the M-park. He called me to let me know about the irons he had found, and we decided to meet at the Marktplatz, where the Interdiscount had an iron on sale. While we were there we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at the Mövenpick for making it through the past couple days. We'll have to go back there sometime to enjoy their yummy-looking ice cream dishes, we were both too full from lunch to try them. After lunch, MrB went off to get the drill, and I headed back to the apartment to start putting together some furniture. I managed to put together one of the sofas and most of a computer desk while I was doing laundry and waiting for MrB to get back from his shopping trip. Then we both put together the other computer desk, chairs, and the other sofa and the little end table. We're well on our way to a furnished apartment! At least we have a bed to sleep in now, and just in time, too, as we turned over the keys to the studio today.

By the way, there are no 'flat sheets' here. Instead, they have only a fitted sheet that goes on the mattress, and a duvet (like a quilt, but plain white), with a 'duvet cover' and you sleep directly under that. I am not too fond of this, as I like to have a sheet over me when I get too hot and kick the quilt off. One of MrB's coworkers who is from Mexico, and lived in the US for a while, told me all about her unsuccessful efforts to find a flat sheet, so I guess I'd better get used to it!