After hanging out with my family and friends and maintaining my van in southern Germany, both my van and I were ready to go on our annual cruise through Germany to visit the rest of my family and all my other friends living in the north. The first destination was Berlin.
It felt great to come back to Berlin. I’ve always liked the vibe of Berlin in the summer. I instinctively drove to my former neighborhood where I found a nice parking right next to Tempelhofer Feld.
When I left Berlin more than four years ago, I didn’t really plan to give up my apartment and live full-time in a van. When it was obvious that I would never move back into my apartment, one of my friends living in the same neighborhood offered to store some of my belongings in their basement. They were about to move to another place, so I had to remove my boxes from their basement. There were six boxes left. I spent the whole night rummaging through my old stuff. I also found some old USB-drives with pictures from the past. Nice and funny memories! There were also a lot of useful things in these boxes: books, electronic devices, clothes, instruments, sport devices and many more things.
All these things seemed valuable but I quickly realized that I didn’t really need any of these things. I haven’t missed anything for more than four years. I also didn’t have any space left to keep all these things, so I decided to keep a few very personal things and put the boxes on the street next to my van. People who were actually able to make a use of these things should just take these things.
What a fun night. I met a lot of interesting people passing by and checking out my stuff. Some people asked for specific things, others just took random stuff as much as they could carry. They were happy to pick up free things and I was happy to free myself from all these things that I didn’t need anymore. After a couple of hours really everything was gone. That was easy. 
Cruising through northern Germany
A few days later, Mariona from Catalonia came to Berlin to visit Germany. We spent a couple of days in the capital city before driving further up north to the Baltic Sea. We cruised though the north and stopped at several places to visit family and friends.
Sometimes we explored places by bike, like this beach bar near Lubmin. Or we just parked the van in the nature,
and enjoyed beautiful sunsets in relaxing environments,
like this small lake near Velgast.
After spending a couple of rainy days in Hamburg visiting Marion’s cousin, we ended up in Lübeck where we found a nice place to stay right next to a river.
The weather was much better than in Hamburg and we could enjoy a nice walk along the river during the sunset.
The spot was very close to the old town of Lübeck that offered a bunch of historical landmarks,
like these salt warehouses on the riverside.
Our journey ended back in Berlin where we spent a couple of days at Treptower Park.
While we stayed in a van on a parking lot, there where people staying on their boats on the Spree river. I got in touch with some of our neighbors and really liked their stories about living on a boat.
Before Mariona went back to Spain, we visited one of my favorite swimming lakes in northern Germany.
The water of Liepnitzsee seems always fresh and clean. Even during the hot summer months. The surrounding forest creates a very nice atmosphere.
Driving back to the farm
After spending a couple of weeks in Berlin and other places in the north of Germany, I drove back to the farm of my friends in Bavaria to reunite with our Canary-camper-crew that I met on Futeventuare during the winter.
On my way down to southern Germany, I stopped at Bleiloch reservoir for one night. There had been a lot of rain all over Germany and the water level was so much higher than the last time I stayed there.
When I arrived at the farm our friends from Switzerland were also there.
It was great to see the crew being together again. We invited a few other people and spent a couple of nice days together.
Experiencing the flooded farm
It rained a lot in Germany during the summer of 2021. I often stayed in the garage with my van. One night there was a lot of heavy rain and when I woke up the entire garage was full of water.
My van was basically parked in a river that flowed right through the farm.
It had been raining a lot for several days. The soil was saturated and couldn’t absorb any more water. The drainage of the highway close by turned into an actual river that flooded the small road leading to the farm.
The river pushed all the water directly on the farm.
The garage, the workshop and the entire court got flooded. What a mess! Luckily, the house where my friends lived didn’t take any damage.
After a couple of days, we managed to clean up most of the mess and the sun was shining as nothing had happened. What an eventful summer!