"Do we drive or blow the trip? Just before we started we had a real crisis: we were not allowed to sublet our flat, which was one of the conditions for our travel budget planning to travel around Europe for almost a year Six weeks before departure, we were suddenly faced with the question: apartment or travel?

We were pretty windy and asked ourselves: is that a sign? Should not this trip take place? On the other hand, we had been looking forward to the shared adventure for months. Our second daughter Tilda was born healthy, Vincent had eleven months parental leave. Not without Muffensausen we have fortunately decided to terminate the apartment just then. Quickly organizing an excerpt with a toddler and a baby and housing furniture and boxes has cost us some nerves. But it was worth it.

In September, we exchanged the 70 square meters of old buildings for seven square meters of campers and have been touring through southern Europe ever since. We discovered our vehicle on Ebay classified ads: a discarded fire engine bus. Vincent converted the Mercedes Benz 310, built in 1991, into a new home in about 300 hours of work. We want to be on the road by July.

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One year through Europe: a family, a fire engine bus

From Hamburg we drove via Leipzig and Munich to Austria. Goods in East Tyrol, are from there to Italy and France. For several weeks now we are in Portugal. Especially the area around Sagres in the Western Algarve is fantastic, and hardly a morning goes by that we do not think: what a blessing that we can take this parental journey.

If we wake up in the morning between 7 and 8 o'clock - depending on when the children report themselves - and open the roll-up door of our small, red hut, lies before us the Atlantic. Under thick blankets, we usually remain cuddled up for a while and look outside.

In general, the mornings are among the most beautiful of our trip: we had a particularly magical wake-up in Monte Fasce near Genoa. Wild horses grazed in the sunrise directly at our camper. Or in Andalusia: When we were just following a gravel road near Almería and were looking over a dream bay in the morning light.

Not more than 150 kilometers

Sure, in such a small space we had to first arrange each other. And learn that the Vanlife also consists of a lot of clearing. What you are looking for is certainly just in the box that is most difficult to access. We are amazed that we never freeze on the bus, although winter is also in southern Europe.

On days of driving, we agree to drive no more than 150 kilometers. For us, it works best to make the morning run. Here in the Algarve it is easy to find great pitches. Quite different than in Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. There we had to turn around very often, because suddenly a chain or barrier blocked the way to the potential sleeping place.

Also, you have to live on the go: sometimes just the worm is in it. We had a low point after about three weeks in Italy, Tilda was whining, Greta missed her kiteboarding friends. All the better that in between we meet again and again other families with whom sometimes real friendships.

We can now laugh about a completely botched stop in Spain, north of Valencia. In Castellón de la Plana we had to go to the workshop with a broken clutch, Janine had a gastrointestinal - and a birthday. In addition, it was raining heavily. But after such low points, there are always great twists. Recently we travel to five. At a shelter north of Faro, we adopted Quinta, a seven-month-old bitch.

Plan changes are part of it

We will stay in Portugal until the end of February. Then it's on to Barcelona. We want to take the ferry to Sardinia, then to Corsica and across the French mainland and Switzerland back to Northern Germany. Originally we wanted to go to the Balkans, but we realize that it would be too much for us and too exhausting for the children. We just enjoy the slow life very much.

With Vincent's parental allowance, we get along well. Of course, we spend less money than in a normal vacation. Our old fire truck cost at least 6000 euros. 1000 Euro we put in repairs and spare parts. For the interior of wood, the Vincent himself made, we spent about 4000 euros.

The prospect of being without an apartment after our return does not worry us. On the contrary. After such a journey simply to return to the old life, both of us would feel pretty strange now. We are looking forward to a new start. Let's see where this journey takes us. "