Hi all, just a quick update to say that after over three years in the planning our adventure to come and live in Spain has just been realised.

A few mini traumas along the way, I have attached a blow by blow account for anyone who is interested. I suppose it is a bit like looking at other peoples' holiday snaps.

We are living in our holiday apartment and are visiting our first long term rental prospect tomorrow.

Once we find somewhere to rent long term and buy a car, we will start on the bureaucracy trail. Watch this space

We are both extremely grateful for all the help we have received both on here and other forums. At least we are a little riper shade of green now than when we started

Well no-one can say that you did not prepare suitably because you have thoroughly researched. Good luck with your adventure, I am sure that apart from the dreaded paperwork you will love it here.

Rosemary

Not the best of starts.....but like the pain of giving birth, it will soon be forgotten once you settle in.


Welcome

Glad you made it safely in the end. When we moved we considered hiring a van to move our stuff ourselves, or even buying a cheap one and selling it after a while, but in the end decided it would be less hassle and not that much more expensive to pay somebody else to do it, and fly over ourselves. Reading the account of your journey makes me quite glad we did!

I hope you find yourselves somewhere nice to rent soon, you have arrived at a lovely time of year and I'm sure you will soon settle in.

Well that's the worst part over!
I guess most of us have similar tales to tell of our move and the stresses involved, but now the fun begins so ENJOY!

Now relax and enjoy

Ohhhhhhhhhh fantastic news - you are so lucky - we hope to be there one day too - enjoy your new lives over in sunny Spain - big hugs xxxxx

hey, I've only been here 10months - big hugs for me too ? ?

Us next.
We make the move in July next year. Good idea to keep a diary, We will do the same. Maybe we could make a library of experiences somewhere in the forum. There must be others who can contribute. Good luck
Pete ( I will have to get rid of the "teuchter" )

Of course chuck - big hugs to you too and many many happy years over there in the sunshine - i dont know why but i thought youd been there for a while - must admit until recently i hadnt been around for about 12ish months so i do apologise xxxxx

Good luck hope you get the rental you want. Enjoyed reading your account at least you can relax now.

Congrats on your arrival in Spain and your retirement. We came out at the end of February but we did use a removal firm and after reading your account so glad we did. They took all our belongings we checked into the Marriott at Baildon and Cee's ex took us to LBA for an early morning flight.
We still had a few small crises but all quickly resolved and have been loving our new life. I am certain you will soon be loving yours.
Hugs to another newbie here in the land of sunshine and bureaucracy.

the BH clocked up 3 years a couple of months ago, left me to pick up the pieces if the job didnt work out, then I had to nurse a sick dog, then got ill myself and had to empty the house for the move.............

Congrats Steve, seems that all those stories about the expats leaving the sinking ship aren't true after all. Was beginning to think I might have been the last to go in a southerly direction.

I toyed with the move myself avenue and decided it was too much hassle. It was enough to have 3 very good guys in from the removal co to box up all the detritus of 60years of living and shift it over. I know I couldnt have done it all by myself - would still be there packing boxes.!

We have found an openended let, surrounded by boxes of our stuff but we call it home, for the moment.
It took the BH 15 goes to find this one and we are fast approaching 15 houses we have looked at with a view to buy. Just take with a pinch of salt the words in the ads - they are absolute tosh. One place was too small to start off with and when we visited the only good thing about it was the pump for the pool worked. the rest of it I would have wanted to pull down and totally rebuild - but not at the price they wanted.

so good luck and see you around on BE
kind regards

Congratulations! And take it easy for a while (although there will be lots to sort out I'm sure). Moving house is stressful at any age, so allow your body to recuperate under the Spanish sun!