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We have been on the road for three weeks now and normally we would have to go back to the office on Monday. Not now! Now we feel like we have just left and that is true. Our adventure has only just begun. Four weeks off I once went to the North Cape with a camper for four weeks. All other holidays were at most three consecutive weeks. And now I have stopped working for almost 1.5 months and we have only just started our journey. So unreal! Of course I am very curious about how the colleagues and the turnover are doing, but do I miss it? .... No dear people, sorry no. Not yet in any case. Advertisement: Budget of €500,- The first weeks went, as we had planned, at a high pace. In the meantime we have arrived in Spain and the brakes have been put on. This for two reasons; 1 we want to see much more of the area and 2 we have a budget of € 500,- per month for campsites and diesel. Due to the enormous distance we have covered in the first two weeks, that budget for the month of September is almost gone. Route of Cares Time to walk more and enjoy the surroundings. The last two days we hiked a total of 40 km. We walked the famous Ruta del Cares . A 24 km walk through a gorge along the river Cares in the nature reserve Picos de Europa . The next day we walked the PR-PNPE-20 from the village of Sotres. Mission When you are hiking like this, we are used to looking at passers-by and greeting them. The Spanish, in our experience, hardly look at you and do not greet you spontaneously. Maybe that is even impolite in this region? So I had a mission... I greeted every passer-by with an extremely cheerful "Holá". Unfortunately, I did not succeed in my mission. After 472 "Holá's" I gave up. Mission failed. Maybe more is needed to change a culture. "Walking is letting go of everything for a while" Butter knife in the jam So what I was actually doing was trying to make others adapt to my 'normal'. Is my normal better? Why do we have this tendency to want to change others to our own standards? I notice that between Kelly and me too. For the first time in a long time, we are now only 8 m2 apart and have no opportunity to distance ourselves from each other. My way of doing things is of course the best and Kelly is allowed to adapt... Or not? Am I allowed to be annoyed by the fact that she goes into the jam with a dirty butter knife so that all the butter remains in it? (Now let's hope she reads this blog 😃) How tolerant am I actually? Traveling together in Globus is a bit different than putting together an IKEA cupboard together. Satisfying Don't get me wrong, Kelly and I are doing really well and we are really enjoying ourselves to the fullest. It's quite special that we can so incredibly well be in each other's energy without any irritation. So proud and grateful that we found each other in this and have the opportunity to go on this adventure together. Where are we? 2,261 km from home! On our previous blog someone commented: "From home? You always have your home with you, don't you?" And that is completely true. It must be the withdrawal symptoms. We are now at Picos de Europa, a mountain range about 20 km south of the Spanish north coast. A beautiful area where you can also hike fantastically. It is very green, which is partly because it rains regularly here, something we have also noticed. If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

After months of preparation, we have finally left. Where are we going, many people ask us. We don't want to plan too much and mainly live in the moment. But waking up in the morning and having no idea which way to go is not really nice either. To the south People who know us actually assume that we will be the first to leave for the north. To our beloved Scandinavia. And that certainly attracts us enormously, but since the days are getting shorter and winter will soon fall in Scandinavia, we have decided to leave for the south first. A region that we do not or hardly know. Advertisement: Basque Country Since we are absolutely not Francophiles, the first destination is the Basque Country, and then we will travel further south along the coast of Portugal. We will see how long that will take. On our way to Spain, we first want to visit some remains of the First and Second World Wars in Belgium and France. "A real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes" WWI So we leisurely descend via Belgium, along the coast of France to our first real destination. Kelly in particular is interested in WWI and therefore wants to see some remains. So off to the region around Ypres where several major battles have taken place. We visit Tyne Cot Cemetery , the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world. No fewer than 12,000 men are buried here. Then we visit Bayernwald . Here you can see German trenches. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like at that time. WWII After examining the First World War, we continue to Normandy where we zoom in on the Second World War. We visit Point du Hoc . This was an important conquest for the Americans and largely determined the success of D-Day. We drive on to Omaha Beach and then visit the American cemetery nearby. The cemetery is very large and truly American. As we walk past the graves, we hear the Star-Spangled Banner on the trumpet. It makes us speechless. A striking detail is perhaps that the opening scene of the film Saving Private Ryan was filmed in this cemetery. Further south After all this attention for the wars we need lighter matters. We decide, now that we are here, to visit the island of Mont Saint Michel and further south the highest dunes of Europe Dune du Pilat . Furthermore we search for the most beautiful places to stay overnight, which we succeed in doing quite well with a few exceptions. Our first week ends just across the border with Spain at a spot with an amazing view. 2,000 km from home The week has flown by and the first 2,000 km are on the counter, we have seen so much and we are having a great time together. The first week together on 8m2 we have survived fantastically. Now that we have arrived in Spain it is important to slow down our pace a bit. Less driving and more walking, reading and studying. If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

End of July and yesterday we finally had a really warm sunny day. Today, however, it is pouring again. What a lot of wetness we have had. We are really a bit fed up with that rain. Yet there is something very special going on with all that water that we do not think about every day. Mud splatters Large puddles at the campsite, mud splashes on our clean legs after showering when we got back to Globus. Water, water and more water. Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto has spent 12 years researching water. And specifically the memory effect and its energetic properties. He discovered that water can be influenced by music, words, radiation and even by positive or negative thoughts. The experiments were quite simple in nature. Water from the same source was poured into the same type of glass bottles and exposed to opposite influences such as: Bottles of water were covered with loving and hateful words. Bottles of water were covered with photos of nature and photos of war activities. In another experiment, the effect of mobile phone radiation on water was compared with water left in nature. To investigate the reaction of water to music, water was placed in front of speakers playing calm music and rough music such as Heavy Metal. To make these influences visible, the water was frozen by Masaru Emoto's team and photographed under a microscope. Advertisement: Results The results of these experiments are astonishing. Water samples that were exposed to positive words, images, music, etc. crystallized with extraordinary beauty of form. This is in contrast to water samples that were subjected to negativity and/or rougher influences. These crystals often deformed or could not crystallize. What we find even more fascinating is that it has even been shown that crystal formation is different when you meditate near water. So the crystals form differently with certain feelings and thoughts of people nearby. The environment has an influence Water is therefore capable of being a carrier of information. It converts information into form and the form contains the information that can later be 'read back'. If feelings and thoughts can 'sit' in substances such as water, could this not also be the reason that food that is prepared with love and care tastes better than something that comes out of a packet? Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, thought it was important that when producing medicines this was done with love and attention. At Weleda, where I worked for many years, this is still standard protocol. "The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear." Water from the tap Water always seems like just water. You can drink it and it quenches your thirst. Although the water from our pipes may seem clean, it cannot be compared to water from a flowing mountain stream where the crystals are beautiful and complete. With this knowledge and the knowledge that we ourselves consist of 70% water, don't you look at water very differently now? If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

Surprise! Suddenly my family was there at the campsite in Enschede. No expense or effort had been spared. They had brought streamers, snacks, drinks, cake, BBQ and presents. It was a great farewell party and also the last time we would see each other before our big trip. Charity When the family members arrived I was actually a bit irritable. The things we still had to arrange so close to departure were really getting to me. We had lost the connection with each other, but especially with myself. At first we were not exactly excited about this surprise party. An hour later we were happily sitting very relaxed with a piece of home-made cake and a cup of coffee. Of course we were overwhelmed by this surprise visit, but afterwards we felt so loved. Grateful with these lovely people around us, the program 'Ik vertrek' was nothing compared to this ;) "If everything goes according to the book, you have no say" Final countdown In the meantime, I have also completed my last working day and it is also becoming very concrete for me now. Packing the last things, selling the car, taking out a different telephone subscription, adjusting insurance, all things that had to be arranged. Next Wednesday we will leave Enschede behind us to visit a beach concert in the west. To then finally travel through Europe on Friday. Advertisement: Concert But first we had an open air concert of Xavier Rudd on the schedule. Unfortunately we had to leave the terrain in a hurry after the supporting act due to the sudden storm. To our great joy the concert could still go ahead a few days later! It was a beautiful evening. Xavier's music fits perfectly with our future vanlife . After party After the concert we were still full of adrenaline. We decided to park Globus 2 near the exit in the hope of persuading other concertgoers for an afterparty. Music from the speakers, “disco lights” on and dancing. Soon people came to take a look and party along. Eventually three spontaneous women from Nijmegen too. They enthusiastically entered Globus 2 and looked around in amazement. Not much later I suddenly heard Richard say "honey, there are two strange women in our bed, but I'm not doing anything". The ladies asked unfiltered questions such as "can you have sex well in such a small space". What fun and craziness that evening, but especially also connectedness and living completely in the here and now. How many more of these kinds of evenings are we going to experience? Sitting around a campfire with other people, having nice conversations and experiencing the essence of life. Select again The unrest of the past few weeks was unnecessary. I am not restless, I feel restless. We tend to identify with what we feel and let it determine our entire mood. If you can separate these two, you choose what affects you and what does not. Often it is your ego that dominates, but it is not who you really are. And all the dissatisfaction you experience and criticism you express to others only says something about yourself. Therefore, choose every day for pleasant feelings that may affect you and let feelings of dissatisfaction quickly slide off you. This all sounds very simple, but in practice it is quite difficult. In the book Choose again by Diederik Wolsak a handy step-by-step plan is described on how to tackle this. If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

Last week was all about letting go for me. Last Wednesday, despite the official farewell party being last month, was my last working day at Weleda. So handing in keys, laptop, cards and car. It all felt very final and of course it is. Why do we generally have such a hard time letting go? Letting go For nine months I have known that this day was coming. I have not regretted that decision for a single day and yet... Last weekend I gave Kelly's family a tour of the building and the garden. When I talk about Weleda later, they will at least have an image of it. Why is letting go so hard? This is exactly what I want, isn't it? Underneath the difficulty of letting go is a piece of fear. What if traveling is not our thing? Will I ever get such a good job again? Will I ever find an employer who is just as socially responsible? Can I leave my children and other family members behind? I now know what I have and I choose so much uncertainty, is that wise? Advertisement: The trees and the leaves The past few weeks I have of course been thinking about it a lot. Every day was all about transferring and final appointments and saying goodbye. And every time you think: I can let it go. But the funny thing is that the more you actively work on letting go, the more you actually hold on to it. In the sweat lodge (A sweat lodge ceremony is a ritual used by Native Americans in preparation for important events) they often talk about allowing it instead of letting go. Just like the trees in the fall. They really don't let go of their leaves. No, they allow the leaves to let go of the tree. If you allow it, you are not so tense about it. Of meaning If you are really deeply attached to something, whether it is a person or a job, then separation hurts. Of course you can trivialize this: No, it was just work or no, I always knew that we would break up one day. Or you can get angry: my partner is really a big &%# I never want to see him/her again or my manager was so &%# happy that I am gone. But if you do that, the time together has actually been pointless. Then you could have spent your time better somewhere else. If you separate lovingly and take your time to grieve, then the time together can become very meaningful. The time I worked at Weleda had a great positive influence on my personal development. "Letting go is not always necessary, letting go is usually enough" Future Now this all sounds very heavy but on the other hand a lot of responsibility has been lifted from my shoulders. Only when you have really stopped working do you feel how heavy that burden actually was. We are also now at the beginning of a fantastic adventure. For seven years I have been working on later. And what if you never make it to later? Now later has really started. Stopped working and at the end of this month, when Kelly has also stopped working, our big adventure that we have been looking forward to for so long will start. We are so looking forward to it. Bring on future, I will gladly allow those other things to let go of me. If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

They say that life is a party, but you have to hang the streamers yourself. For us, the streamers were hung last month. We had two parties to celebrate. 100th blog The first party is that this is our 100th blog. Wow, the hundredth! Two and a half years ago we started writing blogs about the conversion of our Globus. The entire conversion process was recorded to inspire other people and they could learn from our experiences. After all, we ourselves also scoured the entire internet for information. At the time, the blogs were clicked by about 100 to 200 people and now our blogs are read between 1,500 and 5,000 times. We are proud of this and we would like to thank everyone for following our stories! All blogs about the conversion can be found here . "A party creates a sense of community because you celebrate together" Party There was another party. Last Thursday was my farewell party at Weleda. They did not let that pass unnoticed. After 14 years and 7 months it is time for a new big step. During the annual Weleda summer party there was also attention for my departure. There were speeches by my boss from Switzerland, who had come over especially for this occasion and my colleague director. There were also nice presents such as a farewell book with contributions from all employees, new rims for Globus and special home-brewed Weleda Limoncello. All in the presence of my family and while enjoying delicious food and drinks, music and beautiful weather. What a great evening and a valuable memory for me. Rituals I have always taken the farewell of employees seriously when writing speeches and organizing receptions. Now I could experience firsthand how important they are. Herman van Dijn (philosopher) explains in his book ' Rituals. Why we can't do without them ' why rituals are so important in our lives. According to him, without rituals people have no natural or rational way to deal with major moments in life. Advertisement: Mourning The weekend after the party I was grumpy and I didn't really know why. I had just had such a great party and was still enjoying reading 'the farewell book'. Poor Kelly who had to suffer a bit because of my mood. Until I suddenly realized that this was mourning. Yes of course, I am going to do something wonderful, on a great adventure. At the same time I am also leaving something behind that I love. Weleda was "my" company. The role that I was allowed to play there also determined my identity to a large extent. Now that is gone and I am choosing an uncertain future. When I realized that and said it out loud, my grumpy mood disappeared almost immediately. It is okay for it all to hurt a little. If you like to follow our experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page if you haven't already done so and you will receive, maximum 1x per week, an email when we have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything else than this! See you in the next blog!

Anyone who has a camper knows that 'weight' is the crucial factor. Especially when, like me, you convert a bus into a campervan yourself, everything revolves around weight. Of course I kept accurate records of the costs incurred in Excel, but much more attention was paid to keeping track of the weight. After all, with all the trimmings, including a full water tank, myself and my girlfriend should not weigh more than 3,500 kg. That 3,500 kg may seem like a lot, but the bus itself already weighs 2,578 kg. Just over 900 kg for the installation, luggage and occupants. Below is a list of the heaviest parts I installed: These things alone account for 1/3 of the weight that I can install. I therefore used light poplar plywood to finish the ceiling and walls. "At my weight I should actually be 2 meters 10, but I can eat and eat whatever I want, I just can't get any taller" RDW At a certain point you have to have the bus converted into a camper. At least if you want to qualify for the affordable camper rate. During the inspection, Globus2, empty, weighed 3,200 kg. Well below the maximum. However, after approval I installed a lot of extra things such as the upper cabinets and various other small things. The cupboards also had to be filled with kitchen utensils, clothing, etc. Girlfriend The maximum weight of 3,500 kg includes the people inside. With a girlfriend that means an extra person, extra toothbrush, curling iron, brush, books, clothes, drinks, food, etc. etc. Now it is of course highly unkind to suggest that my girlfriend can be compared to a cow. That is by no means the case. In fact, my girlfriend weighs barely 65 kg, is nice and compact in size and therefore fits perfectly in Globus2. If anyone should lose weight, it's me. Let's hope she doesn't see this blog herself :-) Energy It can be quite a challenge with the two of us in such a small space. You could quickly get in each other's way and get in each other's way. Especially in winter when you spend a lot more time indoors. So far we have not had any problems with this. Okay, we haven't been together that long, but we can enjoy each other's energy very well. I also have enormous admiration for Kelly, as that cow... er, sorry friend is called, that she feels so at home in my Globus and does not feel confined at all. If you would like to follow my experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page, if you have not already done so, and you will receive a maximum of once per week, an email when I have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything other than this! I occasionally post affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a product via this link I will receive a small compensation. This way you support our way of life. See you next blog!

Globus2 is black, which I think is much nicer than a white refrigerator on wheels like most campers are. The question is whether this is very useful during sunny days. But all black might also be a bit boring. I regularly think about stickering my bus. I often see buses driving with those standard stickers on them. Stickers with mountains or a large compass. Tastes differ of course, but I personally don't like that. I would prefer something more original. I've been thinking for some time about sticking a self-made photo on the back of the bus. There is even a possible candidate already. I'm curious if you think this is a suitable record. Moose There are currently two small stickers on Globus2. A moose and a flower of life. The moose of course has everything to do with my beloved Scandinavia. The moose symbolizes that. Almost everyone who has been to Scandinavia with a camper has had one of these taped to their house. However, it was quite a job to find a white version, because of course a black sticker must be placed on all those white refrigerators. On Globus1 there was a white sticker of a polar bear. Bought at the time in Spitsbergen. If only I had bought two. I love polar bears. I have seen several "pacing things" in the bus; cuddly toys, t-shirts, socks, books. No matter what you think of it, it makes me feel like a polar bear, which sometimes leads to frowning eyebrows from my girlfriend... "Geometry will lead the soul to truth" Plato Flower of Life Since Globus2 went to Norway for a week this year, he also has another sticker on his butt, namely the flower of life. Entire books have been written about this figure. It is an ancient geometric symbol consisting of 19 circles that overlap each other. The circles symbolize creation. In addition, it represents unity and connection with all life in the universe. It is therefore seen as the blueprint of life. In addition to its spiritual meaning, it has a mathematical basis, such as the golden ratio and all mathematical forms can be found in it. An oh so seemingly simple symbol with a beautiful, profound meaning. Could that be why it might be called sacred geometry? If you would like to follow my experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page, if you have not already done so, and you will receive a maximum of once per week, an email when I have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything other than this! I occasionally post affiliate links. This means that if you purchase a product via this link I will receive a small compensation. This way you support our way of life. See you next blog!

I have been to Iceland several times, but never with Globus. This is on my wish list, but I really want to make time for it. The long crossing from Denmark and the trip to Iceland on the ring road take so long that the usual three weeks of holiday are far too short. Last month I was in Iceland, for season II of the outdoor trainer training. After I braved the cold in Sweden with the Arctic edition in February, it is now the turn of the 4x4 edition in Iceland. This time, Globus2 stayed in the parking lot of the campsite. In this blog you will find various pictures and the route we drove. "Life is like taking pictures, use the negative to bring out the positive" Route Let me start with the route. In Iceland you actually only have 1 real main road and that is the 1 also called the ring road. All roads in the interior are off-road and can only be accessed with a 4x4. In winter, almost all internal roads are closed and with good reason. We slept several nights in a teepee, in a cave or right outside under the stars. A good sleeping bag, a liner and a bivouac bag are of course essential. In addition to the well-known tourist spots such as Geysir and the Jökulsárlón glacial lake, we also visited many other beautiful places. It really is a fantastic journey where coaching, outdoor life and beautiful nature come together. The trip could not have been worse as we were able to see the northern lights in no less than three evenings. Now I have seen it several times, but never before have the northern lights moved so fast and we have been so surrounded by them. It was truly magical. I was of course very disappointed that I didn't have my camera with me. However, this trip was about coaching and not photography. Fortunately, today's smartphones can take very acceptable photos. Coaching I don't want to advertise too much here, but if you want to know more about this tour, you can find the information here: decoachingsreisvanjeleven.nl. For people For those who likes personal growth and likes an intense adventure, this is really a great opportunity! If you want to follow my experiences, sign up at the bottom of this page, if you haven't already, and you will receive a maximum of once a week, an email when I have posted a new blog. Your email address will not be used for anything other than this! I occasionally post affiliate links. This means that if you buy a product via this link I will receive a small compensation. In this way, you support our lifestyle. See you next blog!