Solution
Ok. So after trying a lot of stuff I did manage to get contacts and calendars to sync to iCloud.
I followed this (found it in a forum here. thank you Feuillanature):
I went into System preferences
- then into iCloud
- then unchecked the box next to Calendars...
- then I checked the box next to Calendars and it launched a process....
Did the same for contacts. Now they are all merged in my mac under iCloud group and syncing to iCloud.