Last trip before official take off

Zeeland, The Netherlands

By Where's Herr Gruber?

August 9^th, 2020

Ready?

So, upcoming September we leave for a one-year-trip with our van... We know that the next few weeks will be crazy with finishing the van, moving all our stuff back to my parents' house in The Netherlands and saying good-byes. Simon is also finishing his Doktorarbeit (read: PhD dissertation). I have been driving back and forward between Aachen and Brabant to spend as much time as possible with family and friends before we leave.

You can imagine things have been a tiny bit stressful here in Aachen... That's why we took a holiday in July, drove to the Dutch coast for a little trip and made camp at our favorite campground in Vrouwenpolder, Zeeland. So, let me share some pictures of the state of the van in July.

Outdoor Kitchen Vibes

Very proud of this one, since I've made it all by myself. Doesn't happen so often if your boyfriend is an engineer... We have two portable camping stoves, so we use this outdoor kitchen to make some good coffee. I use it to just store things on, do my skincare routine and of course it has been already used as a bar as well. To be fair it is not my design entirely and it was also super easy to make, using inspiration of this cool vanlife vlog. Also note the magnetically fixed thermometer, recently discovered magnet tape and it's amazing!

Privacy Please!

We've tinted our windows using foil to have bit more privacy. Now people cannot look into the van and see us or our stuff, but we can see everything from the inside out. This is going to cause some hilarious situations for sure. It's also a bit safer, theft-wise. Plus, the foil protects us and our inside build from UV and heat. It also makes the van look kind of bad-ass. At least from the outside. Once you enter it's all macrame errrrything...

Fun fact:

As a kid, Simon would spend every summer holiday with his family in this small coastal town in Zeeland. Same for me. Same for half of the population of Nordrhein-Westfalen. Germans love a good beach in 'Holland'... Of course we've never met back then, at least not consciously. We did though in New Zealand in 2013.

Veere View

On Sunday, we parked up at the Veerse Meer. Right at the water, with a view of Veere. And chilled on our Fatboys until it was time to drive back home. Perfect.