July was one of the busiest months we’ve had in years. Mark and I barely had a moment to breathe. In my last (Vario) post, I mentioned that we finally managed to buy our future overlanding vehicle in the Netherlands.
We are a two-car family!
Our Vario progress
Unfortunately, it wasn’t and won’t be the easiest transition between campers for us, because we found ourselves in a complicated mess here in Europe. In the US, as US residents, the process has always been straightforward for us. We purchased a camper, registered it in one of the states, bought insurance, and were good to go.
Not so in Europe. But we knew this ahead of time, had researched solutions for every curve ball that might come our way (or so we thought!), and set out on our mission to legalize and personalize our 4×4 Mercedes Vario (technically a T2) from the moment we obtained it on July 1st.
First, we bought temporary export plates and insurance in the Netherlands. These would be valid for exactly 14 days. It started the clock and raised our stress levels immediately. Since we wanted to import and register this Vario in Germany—a country notorious for its rules and regulations but the only one where non-European residents can “easily” do this—we had no time to lose. Yet, I still thought we could take care of the entire process within a week and spend the rest of the month visiting friends and sightseeing in Germany. Ha!
Second, after buying motor oil with Duke and getting cash for the next step, the Vario was jump-started and we drove both vehicles to a battery shop, where Mark replaced the two starter batteries. The truck had sat unused for six years in a garage so lots of maintenance was due! Still, we had to prioritize because of our time constraints.
Third, Mark and I drove in tandem to a DIY garage, still in Zeeland, the Netherlands, to change the oil. Since it was our first time working on this truck, things didn’t go exactly as planned, but we did get the job done within our two-hour lift rental.
We did all that on the same day, falling asleep exhausted at a free camping spot in an industrial zone. This would become the norm. Since the Vario box didn’t have locks yet, we parked both campers facing each other’s doors. Not that there was anything to steal yet in our six-year-old-brand-new habitat box.
Our first night with the Vario, which didn’t have locks yet.
The following day, Mark, Maya, and I drove in convoy to Much, Germany, which would become our base for the time being. With lots of traffic and everything being new to us (including a fuel gauge showing “empty” which was confirmed), it was another stressful day. We had to discuss a few things with our builder, Mirko, and he was leaving at 1pm. Needless to say, we felt rushed.
I won’t report in too much detail what happened next, but suffice it to say that preparing our Vario to pass the German TÜV inspection—which, fortunately, was located across the street from Mirko’s workshop—did not take five days. We had to cancel seeing our first set of friends and delay visiting our second set.
Mirko was super helpful and generous, letting us borrow all his tools, giving us the keys to his workshop after hours, and allowing us to use electricity, potable water, and the bathroom facilities whenever we needed. What an angel!
Mark and I recalibrated the odometer (because the truck had been changed from dual rear wheels to single ones, changing the rotation ratio), bought and installed locks on the box, ran to the hardware store, spent hours on Amazon.de ordering parts and tools, and started getting the truck ready for inspection, based on what we knew. Mirko’s employee, Darius, installed a cooktop.
I discovered the backup lights didn’t work. The hood of the truck got stuck. It took two days to force it open and gain access to the front of the engine again. Then the driver’s door acted up. Every time we solved one issue, another showed up, and we felt like we were drowning. That’s what happens when a vehicle sits unused for years.
The first TÜV inspection failed. This was a surprise after the good news we had received during the preliminary check. More work, more ordering, more money, more hot weather, more sweating, more stress, more restless nights.
Here is how Duke and our 4×4 Vario compare, since many people asked. Duke is about the same length (including the bike rack), about 10cm wider than the Vario, and about 40cm lower. It’s hard to tell from photos:
The highlight of that first week was a social evening with Mirko and his wife, Kirsten. It consisted of good food, great conversation, and wonderful company. And we enjoyed a Sunday off in the countryside!
After the failed inspection, it was back to the drawing board, sometimes literally, since all of a sudden, we needed to add items to the Vario that we hadn’t expected and that required planning the roof space—something we had hoped to do in phase two of the conversion. Phase one was supposed to be straightforward: get the Vario approved as a motorhome in Germany.
We had exactly one week left to do the following:
– improve the underride protection (somehow the faulty version had passed the Dutch APK inspection, which we’d been suspicious about) so people wouldn’t get crushed under the truck. This is a requirement for trucks.
– buy and install two vents of different sizes: a smaller one in the floor of the box and a bigger one in the roof (which meant cutting our first holes)
– hook up a rear fog light (while finding the correct wire and a dashboard switch that worked)
– buy and install a seat belt for the middle seat in the cab (this one was easy)
– obtain and install two clearance lights at the top of the back wall of the habitat box (less easy!)
– finish our other ongoing projects and paperwork
After five long, sweaty days and uncomfortable, hot nights (plus a weekend in the countryside), we received the wonderful news that our Vario had passed the inspection. This happened on the last day it was legal on the road.
So that evening, we parked it on safe private property, locked it up, and left it there until we return for phase two in a month or so.
The Vario is stored for a few weeks, until we return the end of August.
While waiting for the TÜV inspection report and validation from Stuttgart, we returned to our future home a couple of times to measure everything inside (so we can better plan the new layout) and to cut out the existing (new) toilet, which we sold. This exercise proved how difficult and damaging it would be to remove any furniture already built. Sigh.
We also made a little side trip to Waldbröl to empty and fill Duke’s tanks and to have a look at the town.
Here’s the deal with the Vario we bought: it was built out very professionally and with the highest-quality materials, but only for one person. Plus, the build wasn’t complete, because owner J got into a fight with his builder.
So now we have to – somehow – fit a bigger fridge into the cabinet (through a narrow door or other space), add a little sink to the bathroom, install hoses, wires, systems, and tanks, buy and fit roof hatches, extra windows, an air conditioner, solar panels, and storage boxes, and, most importantly and challengingly, rebuild the dinette and the space underneath plus install a lifting bed that fits two people in the area currently designed for one. And everything I’m forgetting right now.
These projects are planned for September and October, after we take care of all the maintenance on the truck’s engine at the end of August. Here is a video of our Vario habitat box. I’ll make a more-detailed one of the cab and living area once our camper is finished.
Mark, Maya, and I picked up our coveted TÜV paperwork the day before the office closed for three weeks and finally left Much for more fun endeavors. That is, if you don’t count our issues regarding the actual registration and insurance for which we needed this paperwork and which is still ongoing.
Visiting good friends in Murnau
Duke brought our little family to pretty Murnau am Staffelsee in two days, skipping everything of interest along the way. We visited our good friends Sabine, Michael, and dog Sam, who had moved here recently. Their house and garden are gorgeous. The exterior is a place of peace, beauty, and comfort.
The interior looks like a museum, with all their extraordinary photos (taken worldwide by photographer Michael), Sabine’s original pottery creations, and souvenirs collected during decades of overland traveling in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This is how we met, in Mexico, in 2006, both traveling in RVs before “overlanding” became popular.
Murnau am Staffelsee is a colorful little tourist town bordered by beautiful scenery with several trails and stunning views of the Alps.
Michael showed us his 4×4 Vario, which we toured and from which we happily stole a few ideas.
And Sabine took us to Füssen, the southernmost town on the Romantische Straße. This area in the foothills of the Alps offers pretty views and the famous Neuschwanstein “Disney” Castle. Since we had decided to explore the Romantische Straße next, this was a perfect first glimpse.
The three of us enjoyed four glorious days in the company of our friends with never a dull moment. There were so many stories to share, home-cooked meals to enjoy, fantastic wine to savor, sights to explore, and precious time to spend together.
Sightseeing along the Romantische Straße
When we left Murnau, Mark, Maya, and I had six days left for sightseeing, returning to the little house in Belgium, and dealing with the necessary paperwork for registration.
To our surprise, we thoroughly enjoyed the medieval towns along the Romantische Straße and wish we had had more time. Those attractions deserve their own blog post, which is on my agenda next week.
The iconic view of Rothenburg ob der Tauber
July ended with a couple of family visits, more research and planning, and me dropping Mark off at the train station. He made it back to the US safely for his annual health check-ups and a visit with his family and friends. Maya and I are enjoying our girl time in Berlare at the moment.
Expenses for July 2026
As expected, driving around with two diesel-guzzling vehicles made our fuel cost extremely high. We had to fill the Vario once and top it off before having it weighed during the inspection. And Duke was our car as well as our accommodation, so we had to keep him happily fed.
With prices high again due to the conflict in the Middle East and German fuel stations being allowed to raise their prices every day at noon, it’s almost no surprise we spent more than $800 (!) on fuel. While Americans complain about their high fuel prices, I’d like to see them pay over $10 a gallon because maybe that might help change things. Europe surely is hurting now, and I have a feeling this was part of the strategy behind the conflict all along.
At $359, our grocery bill was average, and dining out for $130 wasn’t too bad either. We had a meal delivered to our camper once, ate small plates at a beer garden, and treated our friend to a pizza lunch.
Maya was suffering from neck and shoulder pain again, just like during that awful time in Chile. We decided to take her to a vet in Belgium to finally confirm that these pains were arthritis related ($46). We also bought more homeopathic medicine (Traumeel), which seems to help ($46). We might keep her on a small daily dose to help reduce her bouts of pain and discomfort. She’s almost 12.
Mark and I bought a bunch of items for Duke, like sprays, toilet chemicals, mats, USB fans, tape, and a fridge thermometer. The total cost was $93. Mark also ordered a few pairs of shorts online ($44), which he is picking up in the US.
After running out of our Belgian propane, we bought a full bottle in Germany. The deposit should be refunded when we leave again, but the gas itself cost about $40, much more than in South America. We will swap the Belgian bottle soon, so we have a backup. We also changed our data plan to a German one and seem to have been billed for two months in July ($30).
We “bought” a German propane tank to have a spare which we can actually fill in this country.
We didn’t spend too much on beer and wine ($57) and tried to keep the costs for postage as low as possible ($24) by arranging as much of the Vario registration paperwork as possible within Germany: receiving documents, printing them, filling them out, making copies ($2), and sending them back via registered mail on the day we crossed the border. We were only partly successful and had to send another envelope from Belgium later.
We finally had time to take care of Duke’s issues, like a fan that was broken.
Mark ordered more toothbrush heads in the US ($21), took a train to Brussels Airport ($18), and fixed the fan in Duke’s dashboard for $12. The entertainment category was low at $13. We visited the grounds of Harburg Castle, and I climbed 340 steps in the church tower of Nördlingen for a fabulous view over the city.
I also spent $5 at a pharmacy, bringing July’s expenses to $1,768. With almost half of that for fuel, there’s not much left to live on. We certainly plan to drive less in August! Luckily, all our nights of camping in July were free!
Here is a breakdown:
- Car (fuel): $828
- Groceries: $359
- Dining out: $130
- Household: $93
- Dog (supplies – Traumeel: $46; vet: $46): $92
- Clothing: $44
- Utilities (propane: $39; internet: $30; water: $1): $70
- Alcohol: $57
- Postage (Vario registration): $24
- Health & Fitness (toothbrush heads): $21
- Transportation (Mark’s train ticket): $18
- Entertainment (Harburg Castle, church tower): $13
- Camper (fan part): $12
- Medical: $5
- Miscellaneous (copies): $2
TOTAL: $1,768
PS: Expenses related to our Vario build-out – actual registration, insurance, taxes, parts, labor – are not part of this report. I might post a separate overview when that camper is finished.
Next up: A whirlwind visit to the fabulous medieval villages of the Romantische Straße in Bavaria, Germany
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