My life as a solo female in a van with my two dogs started in mid-August. I sold my cottage in Bromley and bought Matilda, my VW Crafter motorhome conversion. I planned several months of travel around Europe to revisit beloved places on my continent and to discover new treasures.
Letting go of my past was hard
For the new start, I had to let go of my home of 17 years. The sale of my house took several months and clearing my possessions accumulated over my 54 years in the UK was a physically and mentally difficult process. I needed help lifting furniture and boxes. I was lucky to have a strong male cousin and a well organised, helpful friend of a girl friend.
The most painful thing was letting go of hundreds of books and files which held memories of my past. Some of the books were handed down to me by my parents and many were in languages other than English. There were shelves of German, Hungarian and French language books. I had novels and poetry as well as science books. There were psychology, sociology and history books from my student days. To me, they were all precious.
But, there was no market for 18th century Hungarian poetry, or for a book with black and white photos of art in the Louvre, which I visited in the 1960’s. I filled two large skips with items which had memories attached to them. I read about how freeing decluttering was meant to be, but I have yet to experience the promised sense of freedom.
Driving Matilda the van
When Matilda arrived, I was awed by her size. I have never driven any vehicle this big. She is 6.5m long, 2.2m wide and 2.8m high. I admit that the thought of driving her was daunting, and parking in ordinary car parks was out of the question.
Driving the van, however, proved to be really easy, apart from the parking. The powerful engine, huge windscreen, the large side mirrors and the fact that one sits high up give a great view. The exercise of climbing in and out is great for my leg muscles.
As for finding large parking spaces, a camping expert recommended an app called park4night which proved a fantastic aid to locate free and safe places to stay for the night.
Crossing the Channel
When my old life was dealt with, I barely had time to take a deep breath as my new life started. We crossed the Channel on the mid afternoon Eurotunnel train. There was a short hold up before boarding, as an official checked Matilda’s LPG was turned off before I drove onto LeShuttle. I was speechless to hear that this was necessary. Some people actually use their gas hobs during the brief train journey, putting the whole crossing in danger.
From France to Belgium
From Calais, I wanted to drive for around two hours before parking up to sleep. The above-mentioned app recommended a spot in Antwerp. I got there while it was still light and was delighted with the location.
It was just outside of the city, at the side of a river. There were several vans parked up which gave a sense of security. The houses along the side road were semi-detached town houses and the area looked affluent. There was a wide grass verge on the main road to walk the dogs on, with a park winding around a boating lake opposite my parking spot.
The dogs loved the walk and were happy to eat their first supper in the van and settle down for the night on their couch, converted into dog beds.
Antwerp – our first night in the van
The first night sleeping in the van was peaceful and comfortable. The road became quiet in the evening and the temperature was just right. In the morning, we went for a bigger walk along the park and the river, noticing that Antwerp city was just on the other side of the water (see photo below). Two elderly ladies stopped to stroke my dogs and I asked them what it was like living in Antwerp. They liked the area they lived in and recommended a couple of sights to visit.
However, they were worried about immigrants, especially Muslims, moving in. I listened without much comment, wondering if they were victims of right-wing propaganda inciting fear. I did mention that I had a Muslim GP and worked with several Muslim colleagues at my former employment. I said I was worried about misinformation in the media. They agreed about fake news being a problem and expressed regret about the UK leaving the EU. They returned to telling me what was worth seeing in Antwerp and I decided to walk along the river to the wooden escalator which crosses the river to Antwerp city.
A small town in Germany and on to Bonn
My next stop was Marl in North Rhine Westphalia. I lived there in my youth until my international baccalaureate. I visited a former classmate and after supper decided to drive on for another two hours to Bonn, the former capital of Germany. After reunification of Eastern Germany with its Western part, Berlin became the German capital again with some government functions remaining in Bonn.
I was becoming tired and stopped at a large service station just outside of Bonn for the night. There, I experienced how far motorway noise travels, even if there are rows of trees separating the parking places from the road. This was a less peaceful night than in Antwerp and in the morning, I craved a bit of nature.
The useful Google Maps recommended a good parking spot near a big dog walking park, leading down to the river Rhine. It promised to be a hot day and the dogs love swimming. This choice turned out to be just what we needed: the river was less fast-flowing at that spot as there was an island cutting it in half, and there was a large park. There were several dog walkers with friendly dogs who seemed to know each other. They were also prepared to greet us visitors and admit us into their midst.
They were fascinated by my English-speaking, Spanish-born dogs and took a photo of us as a reminder of our second day full time in a van.
Editor’s note: the author has also written about her experience stuck in Hungary during Storm Boris. Further articles about Magdalena, Matilda and the dogs’ adventures will be coming soon…
