Although I found a lot of public sheltered places to work on my van, I haven’t been able to make a lot of progress recently. The glaze didn’t dry well because of the cold and rainy weather. I also couldn’t fully charge my battery while parking the van under roofs. The van wasn’t ready for traveling, but there was no point in staying much longer. It was time to hit the road towards the south!
Packing everything into my mobile construction site
I fitted some of the wooden wall cladding without properly mounting it. I’ll remove it somewhere in the south to properly glaze it.
By leaning the cladding against the walls, I gained some space in the van to install a temporary bed construction.
After playing some Tetris in the cold, I had everything packed into my van: my tools, building supplies,
and of course all my belongings like my bicycles, surf board, clothes and so on.
I was ready to hit the road again! 
Blue sky, the sun and new tires
A few kilometers south of Berlin, I could finally see the blue sky again and charge my battery. 
My first stop was in the middle of Germany where I visited Marion. She had given up her project and sold all the parts of her Mercedes 608D. I had been desperately looking for all-season tires for my 508D which weren’t produced any more. Luckily, Marion had a full set of relatively new and almost unused tires that she didn’t need any more. We spend a nice day in her garage where I changed the tires and found some other useful parts for my 508D.
Although the rims of Marion’s 608D had a different shape than the rims of my 508D, they fitted perfectly.
My van was already full of stuff, so Marion offered me to leave my rims and tires at her garage. I’ll pick them up next summer. 
Meeting the gang again
Equipped with proper tires, I felt more comfortable approaching the alps. 
After spending a quiet and relaxing night next to a lake lighted by the moon, I drove towards a small village in Bavaria.
Alex, Markus, Severin and their friends had invited me to their farm. We met last summer and spend some amazing weeks in northern Spain.
It was great to see them again. I really enjoy hanging out with these Bavarian surfer dudes. They offered me to stay in their barn where I should be able to make some progress building out the interior of my van.
I’m really looking forward to the upcoming weeks! 
