It will be over 3 weeks ago now that I was looking at hiring a self drive lorry, (I have my HGV) but was having problems trying to get insurance for a lorry big enough. You can get fleet insurance but when you are just a private person and not a company it is really difficult to get. So whilst this was going on our 'fixer' in CZ was having a chat with a client who just turned out to be a haulage contractor and when he heard of our situation said that they could help as they had a lorry delivering that week that could return via our house in the UK and pick up furniture and deliver to Krumlov. So ... how much I hear you ask ??? ... well, lets put it this way, we were being quoted by the likes of Pickfords International around 5K .... !!!! our Czech company did it for 1.3K !! needless to say the proverbial arm was bitten .. !! what a price. I hope they don't mind me mentioning them as to be honest they were absolutely excellent ... ferry tickets etc. were all arranged and I even travelled over with the driver .. what a journey ..., the company was Katelines Europe s.r.o from Blatna in CZ. The driver was at my house before 6am on the Weds and helped to load, (very carefully) our furniture to make sure non would be damaged. We had some friends over to help .... thankyou to Roy, Richard and my son and his friend for their help.
See the attached clip of us having a 'break' whilst loading ... we 'filled' the artic lorry with everything from the lampshades to the ride on lawnmower !!
The driver .... was well, brilliant, spoke very good English and was great company ... I have made a new friend and plan to keep in touch ....
We left the the UK house at around 4.30pm on the Weds and made the 8.20pm ferry from Dover to Calais then drove through the night and made Koln in Germany by 5am where we rested the mandatory number of hours .... the lorry Cab was a Scania highliner I think it is called which has 2 berths in it so I slept quite comfortably although these cabs get quite warm when the sun is shining on them during the day ... To note the road services in Europe are just so much better than the UK .... food is usually excellent and the toilets are well maintained ... so, we left Koln at around 5pm (Thurs) and was at the house in Mirkovice by 4.30 am on the Friday ... tired but elated .. my next worry being the state of the furniture !!!
We had arranged for some help to unload at Mirkovice so after a couple of hours sleep I was up again with our builder and his mate who, consequently were a little worse for wear after celebrating the birth of our builders new son, (congratulations to P & P on your new addition) and after a breakfast toast of Becherovka we started the unload. Bearing in mind the amount of stuff to unload and the condition of some of our 'team' we had unloaded over 1/2 of the contents in 2hrs and took a well deserved break where we visited what can only be described as a 'soup kitchen' in a neighbouring village !!. This kitchen is run by a wonderful but rather large local lady who prepares a very basic meal of soap, rice and stew and feeds local workers and villagers for a small fee of 60Kc which is about £2 ... food was great as was the company, being the solitary Englishman was no matter to anyone ... so after a good meal we returned to the house to finish unloading. By 2pm everything was unpacked and stowed away, ready for us to decide where it is all to go. A couple of things had small scratches, (nothing the couldn't be polished away) but aside from that the furniture had arrived in the same condition that it had left which is testament to the quality of our drivers loading skills. The extra blankets, quilts and cardboard in between furniture had done their job.So, two days after setting off I was exhausted but happy that it had just gone so well .. all aided by our Czech friends, old and new. Thanks again to all those that helped ... also to Katelines Europe and the driver ... I cannot recommend them highly enough. That evening was spent having a couple of beers and relaxing ..... but that's another story and a large headache later !!! .. Naschla .... cau fur the noo .. Tim
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