2025 May
For about 15 years now, we have been visiting Bodenheim almost every year in the first week of May, where a gathering of motorhome builders and converters takes place, organised by the Leerkabinen Forum.
To make the most of the trip to and from Bodenheim, we have scheduled visits to friends in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as cheaper refuelling in Luxembourg and dining at our favourite restaurants in France and the Netherlands.
All in all, another enjoyable tour of Western Europe.
We leave on Sunday afternoon and drive to the camper parking in Rhede, where we have been before in 2014. When we are almost there, the road was closed and we had to make a detour. As we are not familiar with this area, it is a bit of a guess whether we drive in the right direction. The navigator keeps sending us back to the road which is closed. In the end everything turned out fine.
The next morning it is only a short drive to our friend Els in Rees, who recently lost her husband. Ernst has known them since over 60 years, as they are old school friends. Ernst needs to have a look at their satellite system, which he helped installing 17 years ago when they moved to Rees. Sadly it cannot be repaired, but luckily a spare one had been installed already. After a nice lunch we decide to drive a bit more.
Late afternoon there is a lot of traffic in the direction of Cologne, so we stay for the night in Leverkusen. A free spot, offered by camper dealer Fritz Berger, a bit noisy but we sleep well. We are just in time to visit the shop and buy a new cap for the fresh water tank.
Next morning we head over to the workshop - which was already closed last night - to borrow a tool to exchange the lock in the cap. There we are informed that the one we bought won’t fit, but… they do have the right one for us. So again, all ends well and we leave for the Mosel region with a water cap that can't be opened without the key.
The weather is beautiful and we do have some time before our friends will be home in the afternoon. So we leave the motorway in search of a nice parking spot. By chance we see a sign to the Open Air museum in Kommern. It is a stiff climb to reach the entrance.
The museums consists of buildings taken from several regions.
We need to cover our heads because of the sunshine.
One of the buildings is a former hotel-restaurant with butcher’s shop and in the taproom a vintage jukebox and pinball machine.
A saw mill driven by a water wheel
A part of the museum is devoted to the reception of refugees after World War II. Nissen huts were used for this purpose, which were converted into living quarters.
One of the visitors expressed his/her feelings in the dust on top of a display case.
No to the AFD (the neo-Nazi party that enjoys frightening popularity in parts of Germany).
The Israeli National Parks Authority hat does a good job.
Last weekend there has been a summer fair in the museum. This perfectly restored old HY contains a generator that the workers use to dismantle temporary structures.
Steam powered Lanz tractor (early 20th century), precursor to the well-known Bulldog.
One of the buildings shows the old school room, where two children had to share one inkwell.
Sick children were ordered to stay home. Combatting infectious diseases before the term even existed.
The sign reads (translated):
Children with a cough (whooping cough) and anyone who is feverishly ill and has a rash (chicken pox) must be reported to the supervisor immediately. These children must not be in the same room as healthy children.
And the steep way back to the car park.
In Maring-Noviand Sabine is waiting for us with coffee/tea and pastries. In keeping with German tradition: Kaffee und Kuchen.
Our friend since 15 years Stevie (Stefan) invites Ernst to join him on a little business trip in the region. 
The Mosel wine grapes still need a little time.
We finish the day with a nice barbecue meal and stay for the night - not for the first time - on the grounds of the house (a former garage and petrol station with ample parking space).
The next morning Stevie offers another sight-seeing trip, this time to the memorial for the deported and murdered Jews of Osann and to the Jewish cemetery and onwards to Kesten and to the river Mosel. 
This former country house is now an (expensive) hotel.
We then leave for Bodenheim. On our way to the motorway we cross the Mosel and a small mountain range with hairpin curves. After that more beautiful landscapes.
In Bodenheim the Roman Catholic patron saint St.Alban is already waiting for us (with his head in his hands).
As expected - tomorrow is May 1, a national holiday and the start of a long weekend - the regular motorhome place is already full.
For our motorhome meeting a field across the road has been prepared. But we can only use half, because it is also needed for two wine tasting meetings where a local winemaker will set up shop. We are the second motorhome to arrive as the meeting officially starts only two days later on Friday.
The next day Ernst finds time to set up his radio antennas and manages to make quite some FT8 QSOs with his recently acquired QRP set. It is clear that you cannot expect DX performance from 5 W with a simple whip antenna.
Friday evening we traditionally go out for dinner, this time with ca. 20 people. Every year another restaurant is visited. They are run by winemakers who serve their own wine, “pub food” and sometimes (but not here) also beer. The weather is still beautiful so we can sit outside.
One of the participants has offered a demonstration of how he has build his own motorhome, using carbon fibre reinforced epoxy, lighter and stronger than fibreglass. He managed to build a full-size truck camper and keep it under 3500 kg. 
The weather forecast is “thunderstorm" so it was decided to move the traditional BBQ forward to late in the afternoon. Excellent decision, also because it makes cleaning up still in daylight so much easier.
The weather forecast was right!
We are about a two hours drive from the French border. In Amnéville we have found the perfect combination of a motorhome parking by Camping-Car Park and a Buffalo Grill restaurant on walking distance. So we can have a glass of wine with our dinner.
On the motorway we see this old-fashioned combination, a circus or fairground attraction?
Exit Amnéville. The town is some distance from the motorway and looking for the camper park takes some time since we only have the name of the (very long) street. But in the end we find it and it has all the basics we need, including fresh water.
Dinner at the Buffalo Grill. Sadly not quite what we expected. The food was OK, but the waitresses fairly uninterested. Maybe next time we will not drive so many extra kilometres again…
We are back at the camper area in time for the 8 o'clock memorial of the end of WWII in the Netherlands.
After having congratulated Anat with her birthday we head for some shopping. We are in France after all. So we googled the nearest E.Leclerc hypermarket. Again a bit disappointing: we are not allowed to enter the parking lot with our camper van. Of course this is not meant for us but to keep out the so-called “travellers”, in other words: Roma. We park nearby and walk to the hypermarket. All surrounding shops are empty. Since COVID??? We had hoped for a pharmacy in order to buy a certain cream for muscle relaxation (only sold in France) but no such luck. We would have bought much more in the hypermarkt, but decide only to take what the two of us can carry to our parking spot. Two pain-au-chocolats from the neighbouring bakery for lunch and we are on our way again.
It is evident from this idol who is the primary supplier of meat.
The region is mainly known for its mining industry and not very inspiring.
After this small sliver of France we head for Luxembourg in order to fill the tank with affordable diesel fuel.
Our next destination is in the Netherlands so we need to cross Belgium. Fairly empty motorways.
Motorhome Park in Han-sur-Lesse, the French language part of Belgium. But .. the lady in the tourist office, when she understands that we are Dutch, switches to Flemish.
We still have two German beers on board… Carrying water to the sea? Or owls to Athens?
Next day back on the motorway. Even here garbage is divided into recyclable and not. We have not seen these bins before, but we know the system from the time we lived in Belgium.
Suddenly, we see the Lessive satellite ground station.
In the 1980s, Ernst visited this location with the management circle of NSEM, a sister company of BTMC, which supplied and installed the ground station.
Still very quiet on the motorway.
We still need some shopping so we google for a Lidl shop somewhere around our route. We find one but … once we arrive it is an empty building. It turns out that it moved to another part of the village and it is the most sophisticated Lidl we have ever seen.
On to Antwerp. After "The Ring" there is a big traffic jam, fortunately in the other direction.
Next destination: Bergen op Zoom, where we visit Markus and Corrie, another couple of long-term friends of Ernst from his Utrecht days. Nice dinner with asparagus and salmon, sadly no pictures. The camper van and we sleep well in the garden, next to the horse stables.
From Bergen op Zoom it is only a short trip to Utrecht where we meet Ernst's daughter Eva for a nice lunch in Buurten in de Fabriek, an old factory building.
Then on to Hoogeveen where we park for the night. It is still not possible to buy a “camper overnight ticket” but we are told that we may just buy a day ticket for € 5.
The restaurant we wanted to visit is closed on Wednesday. We looked for an alternative and found it in Restaurant Ohrid, on walking distance. We had a very tasty dinner and a nice and friendly waitress. We will certainly be back!
We are two hours from home, but of course we have to cross the border to Germany. Border control at 10 km/hour but we passed without problems and were home around noon.
All in all, we were only on the road for 12 days and 1584 km. But due to the multitude of impressions, it seemed much longer. Conclusion: we did well!
