What to expect
It’s time for an adventure!
Our road trip has started. On Saturday we left Essen to pick up our camper van in Gelsenkirchen. We booked it through a homepage called „PaulCamper“ (if you book it through this link, you will save 30€ on your first rental car) where private people rent out their own camper vans and RVs. It’s like airbnb, only for vehicles. It was pouring down buckets combined with a strong hail. But since this was the exact same weather as it was when we left for the summer road trip to Slovenia and Croatia last year (which was an amazing trip), we took this as a good sign.
When we picked up our van, the first thing we saw (or I saw, Blake didn’t understand it since it was German) was the license plate that said “GE IL 55” (= horny). Okaaaay… The guy who rented it was really nice and helpful though and answered all our questions patiently (we were newbies when it comes to camper vans, at least in Germany). We had both rented camper vans in Australia before, with the only difference that I had actually stayed in them whereas Blake still stayed in hostels. Eventually that was what led us to each other in one of the dorms in Cairns but that’s a different story). The camper van guy asked us whether we were also staying in the camper van. Wasn’t that the whole idea of renting it? We knew hotels, airbnbs, guesthouses and even campgrounds were still closed due to the lockdown in Germany, so we saw this as our only opportunity to still explore my home country while staying isolated and “sticking to the rules“. And who are we kidding: as soon as borders are opening up again, we will explore everything but Germany. So now was the time!
First attempts of driving the van
Blake started driving the camper van all the way to Regensburg. Some might say this was a bit naive or even risky by us since Blake hasn’t driven a car in over a year, let alone a manual, let alone in Germany. Oh well, what could technically go wrong ;-)?!
With a first few bumpy starts and me holding onto everything I could grab on the passenger seat, we started our two-week-road trip.
Regensburg
Reunion with “old friends”
About 6 hours later and no accidents (shockingly), we arrived in Regensburg where we met up with Cathrin and Philipp, two friends of ours who we met at Lake Bled in an airbnb on our last summer road trip. Secretly I was a bit happy that we didn’t have to sleep in the van just yet and our adventure of wild camping was put back another day. Philipp and Cathrin were already awaiting us with a home made pasta dish and LOTS of drinks. It was a great catch up and a really comfy first night in a real bed.
After a delicious breakfast and surprisingly no hangover in the next morning, we headed out to see Walhalla with the two of them.
Sightseeing in Regensburg
Walhalla is a hall of fame that honours laudable and distinguished people in German history.
wikipedia
The weather and the view from there were great and it really felt like a holiday! We also went to another lookout from where we could overview the city of Regensburg before going into town where we had our first ice cream of the year.
lookout over Regensburg 
right in Regensburg
Königssee
Another side of Germany
Around 3.30 pm we said our goodbyes and drove to the Königssee for about 2.5 hrs where the real outdoor adventure was about to begin.
Driving through amazing countryside, passing huge mountains and clear lakes, it honestly didn’t feel like Germany to me anymore, or at least not like the Ruhr Region where space is rather limited.
We had one van driving in front of us for about half an hour, taking every same turn as us and I already pictured them stopping at the same car park, staying overnight there and us becoming van buddies. Well, it looks like there are more car parks than just one in that region and sadly we never became van buddies as they took another turn shortly before our final destination (or maybe they were a bit freaked out by us following them the entire way, but that would be veeery unlikely of course ;-)).
We finally made it to one large car park right by the Königssee which looked almost deserted (blaming covid and the season). So where to park?
Our first night in the van
The choice of this massive car park was overwhelming so we ended up driving in a circle three times before we found THE perfect spot (at least in my mind). Luckily there was one open pizza place right beside the car park so we got a pizza to go (we also asked the pizza guy what attractions might be open in this area, such as the boat ride over the Königssee, but he stressed more than once that EVERYTHING was closed! Okay, no need to get over-dramatic!). We pulled out our camping chairs and had pizza and beers in front of our camper van surrounded only by snowy mountains and the stars above us (definitely sounds more romantic than it was, it was actually pretty freaking cold).
Then it was time for our first night in the camper van and I knew we are officially back to being backpackers again.
Leave a Reply