Introducing Sjupergrover from the Netherlands

[Sjuergrover]

Hi everybody,
I found this club while looking on the internet for useful stuff for our California.

We live in The Netherlands and started camping with a campervan in 2012. First we have travelled 6 years with a '79 Volkswagen T2 Westfalia, We travelled to Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, Austria and the UK.
While the daughters grew up very fast (they are 12 and 10 now) we wanted to travel a bit more safe and comfortable, so we decided 3 years ago to buy an T5 California. We found a 2005 model with just 87.55km/55.000miles on it with lots of accessories. This Cali is originally delivered in Wolfsburg to an VW factory staff member, in 2006 the California has been imported in The Netherlands. It's a 174hp Comfortline with manual gear in offered grey. Interior is Indian summer but we have seat covers in the VW blue/grey, which matches more with the outside in my opinion.
The T2 we still have, we only use it now for trips in the weekend.

We made in 2018 the first roadtrip with the T5: Home - Germany - Denmark - Sweden - Finland - Arctic circle - Lofotes - Norway - Sweden - Germany - Home. (5 weeks / 5.500 kilometers without boats)
In 2019 we went on the next roadtrip: Home - Belgium - France - England - Wales - Ireland - North Ireland - Scotland - England - Home
This year it is a little bit different due to Covid-19, but we managed to go to Austria and visit some different parts there.
Good news is that we already booked our trip for 2021, a dream come true, we are going with 3 California's to Iceland by boat for 4 weeks including the Faroer Islands. Looking forward to it!

We are trying to do a lot of things ourselves, just the regular maintenance we let the Volkswagen Camper Center do.
We have built in a warm water tank (Truma), related the seat cushion of the drivers seat, replaced al lot of worn things in the dashboard and a lot more.

Thank you very much for having me here and I will enjoy reading!

 

[AlisonF]

Welcome Sjuer and family. Great photo’s. The 2021 trip sounds amazing as well.

 

[kurienp]

A very warm welcome @Sjuergrover . That first pic with the T2 is awesome. I hope you still have the T2

Some dream trips on the list that you have done, especially Lofoten Islands ... and of course, your upcoming Iceland and Faroe Trip. Anything specific you have done to your T5 to make it Iceland Proof?

Here is a thread on ICeland - which you may have already found - https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/iceland-2016.15397/ Looking forward to your preparation and trip report as well

Happy Travels, and do share your adventures with us. We can come along virtually. Enjoy.

 

[Sjuergrover]

A very warm welcome @Sjuergrover . That first pic with the T2 is awesome. I hope you still have the T2

Some dream trips on the list that you have done, especially Lofoten Islands ... and of course, your upcoming Iceland and Faroe Trip. Anything specific you have done to your T5 to make it Iceland Proof?

Here is a thread on ICeland - which you may have already found - https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/iceland-2016.15397/ Looking forward to your preparation and trip report as well

Happy Travels, and do share your adventures with us. We can come along virtually. Enjoy.

Hi @kurienp

Thank you, we still have the T2, it is become a part of your family, our daughters are dreaming about their holiday with the T2 when they have grown up!

Thank you for the Iceland link, I will read that. We have not done any specific preparations yet, other than what we have done in the past holidays. We ware discussing a aluminium protector plate under the engine, but we do not want to go offroad in Iceland so maybe it won't be necessary.

 

[BrugseB]

Welcome & welkom - we hebben hier al een kleine gemeenschap uit Nederland en Vlaanderen ; voor technische info kan je ook terecht op het weetjewel.nl forum. Enjoy the trips!

 

[Sjuergrover]

Welcome & welkom - we hebben hier al een kleine gemeenschap uit Nederland en Vlaanderen ; voor technische info kan je ook terecht op het weetjewel.nl forum. Enjoy the trips!

Dank je wel!!

 

[ThomasHJ]

And welcome from me as well. Always nice to see other Dutch people on the forums. Love your vans! The T2 of course is beautiful but I als really like the color blue on your T5.