Almost a Dozen

Planning Posts

  • Spring Break Trial Run

    Up until last month, we hadn’t taken Bertha over to mainland Europe. However, for the kids’ spring break this year, their Grandma Paula came over for a visit, and we decided to change that! After a bit of planning, we decided on taking a trip to France and Germany. So onto the ferry we drove!

    That part was much smoother than I had anticipated. We’ve taken the ferry before in our smaller vehicles, and the procedure was pretty much the same: Stop at border patrol, check passports (which was a little more complicated as the person had to physically see everyone and the windows are darkly tinted) then on to P&O check in. We lined up with the cars and drove on as normal. You’re not allowed to stay in your vehicle for the crossing, so we clambered out and brought some food for lunch. The crossing from Dover to Calais is only about 90 minutes, which is a great amount to get out and stretch and have some food without it being so long the kids start getting bored.

    Once we landed in Calais, we headed straight towards Paris. Now, I’d done a little planning of my own on this trip, and realized that parking the van anywhere near Paris was going to be a major problem. Not because it’s long, but because it’s so tall. It’s 2.75 meters tall (9 feet for you 'Mericans) and a lot of the parking was restricted to below 2 meters (6 1/2 feet). Even the open air parking would have restrictions, which was a bit frustrating. After some searching, I was able to find a suburb outside of Paris where we could park and take the train in to the city center.

    Traveling with a passel of kids is a bit intimidating in areas when we haven’t been there before, but a bit of courage and strict instructions should we get separated, and we were off. It only took a couple of transfers and we were at the Eiffel Tower. When we got off the Paris Metro, the kids got their first glimpse of the tower. They were... less than impressed. Until we started walking closer, and it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger still! We had tickets to take the elevator up to the top. The kids (mostly) enjoyed the trip up and checked out the view. About 5 minutes later, they were pretty bored, so back down we went! They were excited to say that they had touched the base of the Tower and were definitely impressed by the end of that trip.

    Off we went again on the Metro, back to the van and on to our AirBnB. The next day, we surprised the kids a trip to Disneyland Paris, which was such a good time. Since there were three adults, we split the kids up by age. The boys went with one adult, the twins with another and Winter got an adult all to herself. We went off and let the kids run amuk for a while, then planned to come back together. We took some time to do a couple things together, grab some food, and then split off again with each group getting a different adult after each split. We did end up wearing Grandma Paula out so much she didn’t stick around for the lights show and fireworks (which was AMAZING!!), but it was definitely an fabulous (and exhausting) day.

    The next day, we had a lot more driving to do as we were headed to very southern Germany. According to Google Maps, it was supposed to be about 8 hours. However, with constant potty and fuel stops, it ended up taking us more like 12. One thing I hadn’t expected was that the gas station restrooms would charge for bathroom breaks! Now, that’s fine, except they require Euro coins to do so, and we had no cash with us in the currency at all! Luckily, smaller kids are allowed to use the toilets without paying, so they could utilize the facilities. A couple times we couldn’t quite wait that long, especially with Winter being only 3. Luckily, we had a portable toilet in the form of a 5 gallon bucket with a pool noodle around the rim. This, lined with a couple bags and with some gel-ify-ing packets, makes a great emergency loo!

    We did finally make it down to Edelweiss in Germany, with a short detour through Austria and a border check we weren't expecting. Edelweiss Lodge is a resort specifically for military members and their families who are stationed in Europe. And it is beautiful! The lodge is gorgeous, though, with our large-ish group, (and a late booking) we chose to stay in two simple cabins, which ended up being a pretty good set up. The only real disadvantage being the lack of bathroom facilities in the cabins.

    The next day was Austin’s birthday and I had planned for us to go to Nueschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee Castles, which ended up being a bit of a disaster. First, I misread the email and we arrived late and missed the original ticket times, and had to wait about two hours for the next English speaking tour. After some snacking and a quick walk around the town, we started hiking to the castle. Unfortunately, we hiked to the wrong castle! We were supposed to start at the Herrenschiemsee Castle, but headed to Nueschwanstein instead and they were far enough apart, we wouldn’t have made the correct entry time! So we ended up waiting around about two more hours at the top of the hill and got to visit Nueschwanstein, which is the basis of Disney’s Snow White castle and quite beautiful. After walking several miles by the end of the day, we were happy to take Austin to the all-you-can-eat buffet as a birthday dinner, and then head off to the pool and hot tub.

    The next day, I had to finish homework, so Dallas and took the kids on a lift up to the tallest mountain in Germany, where they collected some snow. That afternoon, we went on an Alpine Coaster down a different mountain in the snow! That was such a blast! Everyone wanted to do it again! That evening, after a quick dinner in the cabins, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub again which was a great end to the day.

    The next day we got an early start and headed to Frankfurt to drop Paula off at the airport for a quick trip to London so she could catch her flight home the next day. We continued on and drove the rest of the way to my sister’s house, which was about half way between Edelweiss and home. My awesome sister made some enchiladas (Austin’s favorite) and had a wonderful, (relatively) quiet evening.

    The next day we were on the road again, and headed to Bruge in Belgium. We had a couple hours to spend wandering around the beautiful city. We had some frites and bought some chocolate, though we missed out on the beer and waffles… Maybe next time!

    Back in the van and on to Calais where we caught the ferry back home again. This time there was a bit more confusion this time on the line up, as we were lined up with the lories (semi trucks)Whew! I lot of driving over a short period of time!

    This was a great trial run. Taking Bertha on the ferry was easier than I expected and driving her in Europe was pretty easy. I was reminded that I need to check the weather before a trip, as we were absolutely NOT prepared for the cold weather and snow we experienced. Nor was I expecting the amount of rain we ended up getting. This trip also helped me realize a couple of concerns such as parking. I was lucky enough to have Dallas drive, so along the way I could do school work, though I had to watch that my computer didn't’ block his vision.. This worked reasonably well, and gave me hope that it will go well for he longer trip this summer as I will need to spend several hours each day working. The rear sliding door kept locking itself when we shut it, which was a little concerning. Also, the passenger side door didn’t seal well. Once we were back home we had those issues looked at, as well as a general check up of all her systems. And I’m feeling more confident than ever that Bertha will manage this trip just fine. (Knock on wood!)

  • Photos or It Didn't Happen!

    I really enjoy taking pictures and feel like it’s a great way to keep memories. You'll probably notice all of my posts tend to be picture heavy. So, something that is important to me for this trip is to have good quality pictures for the kids to look back on - hopefully with fondness - some day.

    In the schedule, Lauren has been kind enough to mark specific attractions with a little camera icon - 📷. For those stops, the kids are required to all be present for a single ("good enough") posed sort of photo. For any other attractions, I will likely be taking a lots of pictures, and those who want to participate can, and those who don’t, aren’t required to. This will, hopefully, make sure that we get some great group shots but aren’t spending all out time trying to heard cats pose the kids.

    Now, we’re trying to fly at least a little under the radar (is that possible when we're basically a small school?!). While I have two Canon DSLR cameras, they definitely flag us as tourists. Not to mention they are big, bulky, and heavy to lug around with everything else kid-related. I’m still a bit undecided as to whether I will be bringing either one along, but I did decide I needed a small point-and-shoot type of camera to have good quality pictures rather than relying on my phone. I headed to the All-knowing-All-selling Amazon, and found one for a price I really rather liked and it had good reviews. (Here’s a picture from one of those reviews)

    Unfortunately, once the camera arrived and I set it all up, I was very sadly disappointed with the quality of the shots. I tried it in a number of different lighting environments and tried focusing on specific areas, but the quality was just exceptionally grainy and I knew this wasn’t a good enough camera for the memories I wanted to capture. I ended up returning that camera, post-haste! Or, actually, via Hermes...

    My search started anew. Back to Amazon I went, and decided a higher budget was in order. I went with a friend to a store to try out a couple small cameras, and found I love the Canon ones, but my price point wasn’t quite that high. I also really enjoyed the Sony ones. Back to Amazon I went, and found a used version of this camera.

    I waited, rather impatiently, for it to arrive, and set it up as soon as it did. The difference in quality was astounding and I was so much happier with this purchase. The zoom is really pretty impressive, it allows the screen to pop up for the oh-so-necessary-selfies and the pictures all come out amazingly crisp. As an added “bonus”, the charging cable that was sent with the camera didn’t fit, and when I contacted Amazon about the issue, they refunded me part of my purchase price! Woot woot! I was able to order one from ebay for a fraction of the refund and once it arrives (in a month *shrug*), I’ll be all set.

    Riana
    April 5, 2019

  • Activity Books

    We wanted to have something for the kids to do in the car (in case they don't like the country-appropriate podcasts, movies and music selections I've spend waaaay too much time curating - more on that later?). I thought I would collect some free "activity book" type stuff from the internet and put it all together.

    I found a lot of great free coloring pages to print out, but wanted to have word searches and other puzzles, too, and wasn't finding much. I realized that the Teachers Pay Teachers website was the place to go! Yvonne Crawford has a collection of worksheets for most countries in the world. I bought the European Bundle and printed out the 6 pages from each country that I thought the kids would like best. There was even more stuff in the bundles - like hands-on crafts for each country - but I couldn't use it all. I also found and printed two coloring pages for each country.

    Let me tell you, reader, I would NOT recommend doing this for your European trip! Unless you are taking a whole class of 30 kids and have a copier to use at your workplace, this is not a cost-effective means of entertainment. I did not think it all the way through.

    The bundle from Teachers Pay Teachers cost $60, the ink cost about $40, the folders were $10, and it took me ALL DAY circling around the printer, getting things to print just the right way, and then assembling them into books. So...that means that these Activity Books cost $12 per kid to make. And half of them probably won't even crack them open.

    Oh well, live and learn I guess! I don't regret doing it, and maybe they'll really come in handy on our trip...but probably not to the tune of $110. We'll see!

    Lauren
    March 27, 2019

  • Money, Money, Money!

    Coin collecting on a European road trip isn't quite as fun as it could have been a few decades ago, with the integration of the Euro. (But it certainly makes traveling easier!) Our kids should be able to collect a fair amount of coins, though. Here are the different currencies we're hoping to get a bit of in coinage:

    Euro (most of Europe) British Pound (UK) Swiss Franc (Switzerland) Złoty (Poland) Czech Koruna (Czech Republic)

    The picture above is a coin collection sleeve that can fit conveniently into their itinerary/journal folder.

    Lauren
    March 27, 2019

  • Bedtime Stories

    I love a good bedtime story. Who doesn't? Riana and I were discussing my daughter Meadow's need to have a book on hand at all times, and she suggested that it would be cool if we had some books on European folklore handy on the drive. I agreed and took it one step further - I bought enough books to have a country-related bedtime story every night! For instance, when we're in Italy, we'll read an Italian folktale. When we're in Scotland, we'll read a Scottish folktale. Most of the stories will come from folktale collections, so I didn't have to buy 40+ books for 40+ nights! The most challenging countries to find stories for were Switzerland (since it used to be part of Germany maybe?), Slovenia, and Slovakia. In those cases, I did have to purchase some individual stories. I think I spent about $60 in this endeavor. Was it worth it? I guess we'll find out how much the kids like bedtime stories soon enough...
    Lauren
    March 27, 2019

  • Meetings

    I hate meetings. But they are a necessary evil when you’re trying to get people to work together. So, we plan to have a short morning and evening “meeting” with the kids every day.

    At the morning meetings we will assign chores, go over the itinerary, and re-emphasize any rules that need some work. During the evening meetings we will decompress, read a bedtime story, and write in our journals before heading to bed.

    I took some time finding bedtime stories that have to do with the country we’ll be staying in each night. Most are folk tales. The books are headed my way in the mail right now. Once they arrive I will probably make a separate post about them.

    Their journals will be in the same folder as their itineraries. I’m thinking that the itinerary for the day will be on the left page, and the journal entry on the right, and that way they can look at the things we did that day, while thinking of what they might want to write about.

    I made 11 different journal pages for variety. They all have a picture spot, and then the other three spots have various writing prompts in them. They always have more than one prompt to choose from in each box. I’m hoping that will reduce the amount of whining when journal time comes!

    Lauren
    March 15, 2019

  • Maps

    I made a bunch of maps for this trip, to put in with the kids’ itineraries, mostly because I’m a visual person. Also because even as an adult I can’t tell you where most countries are on a map (well, at least before making all of these maps I couldn’t!) and I thought maybe including some maps would help the kids visualize where they are traveling in the context of the world.

    I made a map of the whole world using an image I found on Google Images:

    I made maps of the entire journey for each trip on Roadtrippers (you can put up to 40 stops in for free):

    And for the cities/locations that we’ll be spending a lot of time in, I made more close-up maps with Bing Maps. (I could have also used Roadtrippers for this but I like how Bing Maps uses letter instead of numbers, to help the kids distinguish the difference between the small maps and the big ones. So, the “whole trip” maps have numbers, and the “small parts of the trip” maps use letters.

    You might recall from an earlier post that I recommended “Google My Maps” for pinning potential destinations. So, why didn’t I also use them for making the trip maps? Well, unfortunately their program only allows you to put a max of 10 destinations if you want to map it as a “route.” You can put in as many “pins” as you want, but if you want them connected by a line, or you want them to be numbered/lettered, it stops at J. Bing maps goes all the way to letter Y, meaning that you can put up to 25 destinations on your map. (Side note to Bing: I know 25 is a nice number to stop at, but it’s way more annoying that you stopped at Y and can’t put a Z on the map. Please consider going up to 26 so that the alphabet can be completed!)

    Lauren
    March 15, 2019

  • Itineraries

    One of my least favorite questions that my children ask me is, “What are we doing today?” (Mostly because they will completely forget and ask me again ten minutes later.) So, I decided we should have an itinerary. It need to have pictures for the little ones in the group, and I also wanted to type up descriptions so they kids would understand why we are visiting that particular place.

    Of course, things snowballed from there. I made a numbered map to include in their itinerary (I’ll explain the maps more later), and also put the location, language, and currency at the top of the page. The bottom of the page has the miles we walked that day (Riana’s idea) and where we would be sleeping that night.

    You might be wondering what the red star and camera icon are. Let me explain the red star first. There are times in the trip (like art museums) when we want to compel the kids to be on their best behavior. We also wanted the kids to have a chance to earn a bit of souvenir/candy money while on the trip. So, the red star represents their opportunity to earn some money for good behavior. Each day they can earn one dollar/euro/ pound/swiss franc. We’re not going to physically give them the money - instead we’ll use an app of some sort to keep track of their earnings. So, whatever area of Europe we’re in, the number they’ve earned will just translate to the local currency. (With the exception of a few places like Poland or Slovenia, where the conversion rate is so different that it would be super unfair to count 15 earned stars as 15 Polish Zloty - which only equals about 4 US dollars! In those places we’ll have to do a little converting.)

    The camera symbol represents the one time per day that they are required to be in a group picture. I added this one because my son, Moses, does NOT like to have his picture taken. So, limiting the number of required pictures to only one per day will help him to be able to participate in the photography at a minimal level.

    Lauren
    March 15, 2019

  • The Rules

    When Riana and I were discussing the logistical aspects of having a fun vacation with 9 children while still staying sane, we realized that there would have to be some ground rules. But, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible for the sake of the kids. That’s why we came up with these 6 rules. They will go in the front of their itineraries (more on that later), so that they will see them every day.

    Rule 1: You are responsible for keeping track of the adults.

    Of course, we’re going to be watching our kids, but practically speaking, it’s a lot easier for them to keep track of we are, than for us to keep our collective four eyes on nine kids. This sends the message that they also share responsibility for staying with the group.

    Rule 2: You are responsible for your own happiness.

    We made this rule to hopefully cut down on the whining. Sometime in my childhood I realized that, unless it’s a traumatic situation, generally I have control over whether I enjoy a situation or find the negative in a situation. Hopefully this rule will help instill some of that in our kids, but probably not. At the very least, we can point to this rule when the whining sets in!

    Rule 3: You are responsible for your own stuff (and don’t touch anyone else’s without permission).

    We plan to have a little box under each person’s seat, that contains some small personal belongings - their journal/itinerary, a workbook and coloring implements, souvenirs, and maybe something from home. Hopefully this separation of stuff will help them to keep out of each others’ business!

    Rule 4: Keep your hands to yourself.

    Obviously the kids are going to occasionally touch each other, but the idea behind this is that we don’t want anyone to get injured or feel like their personal space has been violated.

    Rule 5: Tents and bedrooms are quiet spaces.

    I added this rule for my daughter, Meadow. For her sanity, she needs some time alone each day to relax and read books. Other kids probably need this, too, and just aren’t as vocal about it. So, we decided that the sleeping areas would be the space where people could have some quiet time if they needed it.

    Rule 6 - Do you chores each day - we are a team!

    This trip is a big production - and we need all the help we can get! Each morning we plan on assigning a chore to each child, to help things run more smoothly.

    Lauren
    March 15, 2019

  • Preparing for a BIG trip - Phase 4

    Phase 4 is the “Booking Stuff” phase. Especially for AirBnbs that will fit a family and still be affordable, you’re looking at wanting to book about 6 months in advance. That’s about as far ahead as most AirBnb hosts list their availability.

    Here’s something I learned the hard way: only reserve things IN ORDER on your itinerary. Even if only one week has passed since you made your itinerary, you’re going to come across some AirBnBs that are unavailable. Maybe they decided to unlist the property, or change the minimum number of days allowed. But if you don’t go in order on your itinerary, you may suddenly find yourself with a hole to fill, but nothing to fill it with!

    For instance, when planning out Ireland, I found that one AirBnb we had planned to stay in from June 24-25 had changed their minimum stay to 3 nights. This had happened just in a few weeks’ time, so I decided to message them to see if they’d let us violate the new 3 night rule. They were slow at replying, so in the meantime I went ahead and booked several AirBnBs and campgrounds that came after this location. Well, the guy who owned the AirBnB came back with a “no.” Not what I was expecting! But suddenly we had nowhere to sleep that night – the other AirBnBs in that area that would fit us were much too expensive, and by that time we would desperately need to do laundry, so camping would not be ideal.

    Fortunately, I was able to find an AirBnB that fit 6 people, but they were willing to let all 11 of us stay there, with the kids sleeping on the floor. (Better than camping, right?)

    So, even though the process of buying everything will be slower, make sure you do it all in order. If a cherished AirBnB location falls through, you might have to change several days’ worth of plans. (You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after the Ireland incident but nope, I made the same mistake in Orkney, too!)

    I guess the “booking stuff” phase was mostly about reserving AirBnBs and camping spots, but we did also purchase a tent during this part, some eye covers to make sleeping easier in the far north, and some waterproof/windproof jackets (it’s gonna be windy in Scotland!)

    Lauren
    January 24, 2019

  • Preparing for a BIG trip - Phase 3

    When you’re traveling with 9 kids, you can’t just go where the wind takes you. The kids need a schedule. Okay let’s face it. I need a schedule. I need to make sure that we’re not cramming too much into one day, or attempting to do too many “boring” activities and not giving the kids time to run around, etc.

    It’s also important to get a working itinerary going well in advance if you’re looking to save money. People spend less at the grocery store if they’re working off of a list – I feel that vacationing works the same way! Spontaneity on a trip is great (and this itinerary isn’t set in stone) but from a budgetary point of view it’s good to lay the groundwork for the trip.

    You can see that the amount of planning ahead going on here is pretty extreme. I fully expect many things to change. But my main goals in creating a detailed itinerary was this:

    1. Have a good mix of camping (to save money) and AirBnbs (to save our sanity).

    2. Have a variety of different activities and experiences to please everyone.

    3. Make sure we’re grocery shopping often enough, doing laundry enough, etc.

    Later on, Riana added some color coding, and I added some (optional) restaurants with playgrounds in case we get bored with the “canned” dinners. I also added some relevant podcast episodes and movies that we can watch/listen to in the car when driving sometimes.

    I want to re-emphasize that I don’t expect that this itinerary will be followed exactly. When Riana and I have done trips in the past (we’ve gone to Vegas, California, and New Mexico together with 7 to 9 kids), t here were days when we were tired and knew we needed to skip something. Or that time when her camper’s tire got a flat…twice in one day!

    But for reserving AirBnBs at a good price, and for the few tours we are going to do, the itinerary is an necessary evil.

    Oh, who am I kidding!! I love planning!!!!

    Lauren
    January 24, 2019

  • Preparing for a BIG trip – Phase 2

    I might call Phase 2 the “Let’s be Realistic” phase.

    After several months of adding pins to our map (see Phase 1), a pattern started to emerge that helped us figure out about what route we should take. For instance, Germany (especially the southern part) was mostly devoid of pins, and so was southern France. So, we knew we weren’t going to visit those areas. It just wasn’t realistic to go traipsing around those areas when there didn’t seem to be much that we could do there with the kids in tow.

    Spain had a lot of pins but also added a lot of drive time. Same thing with Denmark and most of the Netherlands – it just wasn’t realistic to drive hundreds of hours to every corner of Europe.

    And because Riana lives in Thetford, England, it made sense to split the road trip into two – one UK/Ireland trip (about 3 weeks long) and one mainland Europe trip (about 5 weeks long) – with a week’s rest in between.

    A important dose of realism – an important one – was figuring out what we could afford. We wanted to do a combination of camping (to save money) and AirBnbs (to save our sanity). To figure out where the more affordable AirBnbs were, I used hypothetical summer dates and searched for houses that could fit 11 people for under $150 per night. We determined that Berlin didn’t have any cheap, large AirBnbs for us, but Krakow was full of cheap apartments AND cheap food (and so we added Krakow pins to the map when it wasn’t on there previously). We also discovered that western Ireland has some dirt cheap beach houses, so we decided to make sure to add that to our plans.

    So, taking into account where the cheap AirBnBs were, in combination with the places with the things we most wanted to see, we made a rough route on Google Maps for each of the two trips. (This is not the final route we will take – during the next few planning phases we came to find that some places weren’t available, or there was something extra we wanted to see, or that the ferry was waaaaay more expensive than we estimated, etc.)

    Lauren
    January 26, 2019

  • Preparing for a BIG trip – Phase 1

    When Riana and I first started dreaming up this trip, we knew it was going to be BIG. And a big trip requires BIG planning – even if it’s just a couple of adults schlepping around! For us two moms with 9 kids and a budget, we knew that to pull it off we’d have to do a lot of advance planning (with the realistic expectation that many of the plans will be dashed in the future by the chaos that is kids!).

    Planning began a full year before the trip. For the first six months, we went through what I might call, “The Explorer Phase.” During this time, whenever Riana or I needed a mental vacation from our everyday lives, we would browse Tripadvisor, or Atlas Obscura, or google things like “Paris with Kids” or “Free things to do in Rome.”

    Whenever we would find something cool or interesting, then we would add it to The Map.

    We could put ANYTHING on the map, as long as it followed these rules:

    1. Must be somewhere in Europe (duh).

    2. Must cost less than $100 for all 11 of us to get in. (I also placed a lot of weight on adding free stuff, no matter how small, just in case we happen to be traveling that direction.)

    3. Must be something that all the kids can reasonably tolerate (no bar hopping or 20 mile hikes).

    The map was created using Google My Maps. It’s free. You can color code it (I did green for food destinations, red for normal tourist stuff, and yellow for particularly interesting stuff). You can also put notes in there like “7 euros per person” or “only open 2-5 PM” to make the next planning phase easier.

    Not sure if you’re headed to Europe any time soon? That’s okay! You can still start your map! Whenever you see something posted on Facebook or Reddit that looks awesome, you can stick a pin in your map and remember it years down the road! (I haven’t done a cross-country United States trip with my kids, but when I do, I already have a bunch of pins on the map!)

    During this planning phase, I think it’s important to keep all options open. Don’t assume (like I did) that you won’t make it all the way out to Poland and ignore that country, because later on you might discover that it’s friggin cheap over there in Krakow and it’s worth the drive! Don’t assume that it’s not worth the drive to Northern Scotland, because later you might find out that “wild camping” is legal and you’ll get a great bang for your buck if you head that direction! Keep all options open.

    That’s it for Phase 1! The sooner you start this phase, the more pins you’ll have for when you actually do go on your big adventure.

    Lauren
    January 21, 2019

  • Birth of Big Bertha

    So, one of the major considerations of traveling with so many people is how best to transport them. Well, we've got that covered! In May of 2017, Riana bought a 2001, 17-passenger Puegeot Boxer minibus. In England, caravans/travel trailers often list how many "berths" or beds they have. So our van was quickly named "Big Bertha". Now Bertha was a bit under the weather when we got her and needed a bit of TLC. Luckily, Riana's crazy and loves big projects like this. Check out the floor replacement in the Big Bertha Gallery!

    Riana also rearranged the seating, taking out 4 of the seats. This still leaves us with 13 seats, and much more room, especially with the new layout. One of the many things that is cool about this layout, is that we can hang hammocks inside from the drivers seating area to rope hooked around the rack at the back. We've had a many as 4 hammocks up at a time, but 3 is more comfortable, even considering the kids are small-ish. Another benefit is the ability to put a table in the middle. this can be used for games, or tablet setup while driving, or meal prep when camping in the lovely British weather.

    There were a couple other additions, including limo tinting on the windows (don't look too closely at the pictures!) and replacing the radio. The van has had almost no mechanical issues the entire time we've owned it, though there have been issues with it passing MOT (British vehicle inspection) because of things like rust.

    Riana
    January 30, 2019