Seeking the Sun Tour 2011

The sun having been pretty much absent in the Netherlands this summer, or at least well hidden by clouds and rain, we decided that the sun was the object of our inaugural trip in our new green camper van. And when I say inaugural, I mean, we hadn’t even taken it out for a weekend, or even taken the kids for a ride in it yet. But here we were, heading out on vacation.

We bought the bus on July 2 – here it is then:

However, there were a few important items we needed to add to it before we could go, namely a bed for Liam in the roof and a three point seatbelt. The seatbelt involved a day-trip to the Reimo store in Germany, Reimo being another company that builds camper van interiors, including ours. The bed we put in ourself and we’re quite pleased with it. It wouldn’t sleep an adult, but it’s huge for a three-and-a-half year old. Here’s Liam demonstrating it (without a mattress):

And the front attachment – we put in one layer of wood, and attached it to the existing wood – then we added a movable piece with a protector ridge – secured it in the back with chain locks (think old suspicious women opening the door to see who it is), and in the front so (see the bumpers that hold it in when it’s down too):

But we didn’t finish getting it in until July 24, after long discussions about how best to secure it, and a lot of time in hardware stores:

This was one day before our planned departure date, which was to be Monday July 25 in the morning. In typical Ivo-Harmony fashion, we didn’t leave that day, we left Tuesday July 26 in the afternoon. In our defense, I had some stuff I needed to take care of first.

Silly cat thought he could come too:

And Kaya helped to pack the toilet wipes:

Finally ready to go:

And the first thing we did was let Ivo’s family see the van in Tilburg, where we stayed for dinner. At one point Liam was on Ivo’s cousin Jesse’s computer, while Jesse read the Gruffalo. Here’s the whole family looking at something on YouTube:

And in their pajamas and ready to go:

So we made it just over the border into Belgium for the night. At least we avoided the trap of staying with family and delaying our start in the morning even more.

And that’s where the cool thing about having the van came in. While in Germany I’d picked up a guidebook to RV camping areas, many of which are free. So we found ourselves in a parking lot by a tourist farm and slept our first night in the van, for free. It was great, except the bed had one hard spot and Kaya didn’t sleep very well, adjusting to her tent camping bed, which of course she hadn’t used before (we bought it for Liam when he was a baby). And packing up was faster than camping in a tent and even than schlepping stuff in and out of hotel rooms. Very cool. Here’s where we spent the night:

After packing up, we headed out back on the road, making a stop at the huge Carrefour for a few things we’d forgotten, mostly things we’d forgotten to switch from one vehicle to the other (mandatory things, like a safety triangle, fire extinguisher and safety vests – I’m not used to needing to have these so forgot about them). And where are we going anyway? We knew that we wanted to see if the sun was hanging out in Slovenia, but how to get there? We decided to head through Switzerland, based mainly on that the van came with a 2011 Swiss highway sticker. And we thought we’d head through Luxembourg because Kaya hasn’t been there yet. So, we did. Random Luxembourg:

We stopped at a empty/abandoned works lot to eat lunch and let the kids play. They demonstrated that they really don’t need toys to amuse themselves, Liam building a spider-trail from rocks and Kaya filling an empty cherry container with rocks and making a shaker – here’s Liam taking a picture of her doing so:

The pile of stones also provided a lot of possibilities:

And Liam taking a picture of Ivo:

I’ve given him my old digital camera, one that I bought in 2002 and couldn’t kill. I haven’t uploaded his pictures yet, we’ll see what he gets.

We stopped for dinner at a rest stop in France – it was Ivo’s birthday and we made tacos – just needed to heat up the beans. Kaya taking Papa and her doll for endless walks:

I also surprised him with a chocolate cake I’d bought in Luxembourg. Of course, Kaya stole Ivo’s first piece, little greedy guts:

Then onwards to Strasbourg to spend the in another parking lot. Of course, the exit we needed was closed so we had a long detour through the city to get there, and I was blessing the GPS. We eventually found it, pulled in, set up and slept there. For free. In the morning Ivo read to Liam a bit:

And Kaya was cute, cuddling with her doll:

And then the kids were entertained by the horses who lived next door while I packed up the van. After two nights without a shower we decided to head to the swimming pool, which we knew the kids would love, and we’d get clean! The GPS led us there, through a really complicated route we’d have never found otherwise. Again I expressed my happiness with the device.

We ate breakfast in the van before we went swimming. Here I’m telling the kids to sit down, and they’re being cheeky:

Planning more mischief:

The swimming pool was interesting – Ivo had to borrow speedos as his swim trunks were not allowed – nothing baggy is. And after the pools in the Netherlands which are mostly oriented for fun and family, with slides and wave pools and obstacle courses and other play areas for the kids, this French pool was utilitarian. One big pool for swimming laps, no kids under 6 allowed in there, and one small shallow pool for the kids. And men and women had to go in separate areas to change, no family rooms as in the Netherlands. This is the best picture I got, should have done more, but it felt weird:

But the kids really loved it, we had fun playing with them, and clean and refreshed, we were ready to hit the road again. Except for one small thing, but I’ll get into that next post.

For the first time I’m going to try blogging a trip as we go along, if I can find wifi to upload along the way. Means they may be clustered or delayed. Oh, yeah, and I will eventually post pictures of the last 6 months or so, but I’ve fallen behind for a few reasons I’ll explain whenever the pictures get posted.