As I wrote yesterday, we were on the fence about whether we should stay out with our new campervan or we should drive home and stay there in the Ammergauer Alpen. Upon seeing many camper travelers park their homes in random places, we thought that we could give it a try. In fact, we found one parking lot that had about 15 other campers, so we felt something reminiscent of group pressure that told us to stay.
And so we did. We parked our new home in the only place that was still available. The place was nog ideal, as it was slightly sloped. I thought I could solve this problem by parking the van backwards. It would still be sloped, but it felt more natural to sleep with our heads up. As we saw all around us, most camper folk have special blocks they use to even out their vehicles. We knew these things existed, and we had even talked about whether we would need these things, only to conclude that we of course didn’t. Heike and I are idiots like that. (I can tell quite a few stories about all the parenting equipment that we were once convinced that we would personally never need ‘because we were so different’) So we had no blocks and our camper was at a 20 degree or so angle. Being on a slope is difficult because it means all your plates and cups slide off the table, and as you can imagine, cooking is funny too. Sleeping on a slope, of course, is alright, because we don’t need those blocks – as we had told each other from the start.
Our idea was to use the high roof on our camper van as the communal sleeping loft. (Technically there is potential for a two-person bed downstairs as well). For now, Heike and I share the upper bed with our boy of 2. The bed is about 150 cm wide, so it is reasonably spacious. And to be honest, I’m too lazy to unfold the second bed, which is a bit of a hassle. I personally thought that the slope really would not be a big deal. But it was a big deal. I essentially created a slide, but one that was very very slow. You didn’t immediately feel that something was happening, but somehow I had to crawl back up every hour or so, because I had slid down into the front of the loft. Heike said she dragged Rafa up several times. That explains why I wasn’t bothered much by getting head-butted or kicked in the face by him – he was sleeping somewhere at knee-level. I’m glad I took the decision to park the van backwards, because one of us – and most likely Rafa – would have slid onto the kitchen cabinets or the Port-a-potty toilet otherwise. This would have made for a much better story, but would also have been much more unpleasant for him and ultimately us.
I give our first night a six out of ten, and that’s because I’m feeling generous.
And now I’ll order some of these blocks.
Robin Heinen 