Vanlife Germany 🇩🇪 | Lake Constance to Cologne – Our Full Campervan Road Trip

Vanlife Germany 🇩🇪 | Lake Constance to Cologne – Our Full Campervan Road Trip

We are David and Cla and if you’ve been watching our channel, you’ll know that we took our camper van over to Europe. If you’re new to our channel, welcome and thank you for joining us. Join us in this episode as we explore the delights that Germany has to offer. I also lose my wedding ring. Hello and welcome back to the channel. We are now in Lake Constance, Germany. Yes. So, we are on the third country of our trip. We went for a walk this morning and we’re actually staying on a little island. We went round sort of the top left hand corner of it round by a church and we were looking for a beach where we could go for a swim. Now, we stumbled across this place. It’s like a restaurant, but there’s a beach with changing rooms and there also showers. So, with that in mind, we’ve come back to the van and we’ve told the gang all about it and we’re going to head out there now. Right. So, after dragging everyone on the walk that we went on this morning, we are at the pub restaurant that we suggested going to. We’re outside. Everyone’s choosing what they want to eat. But look at this view. How gorgeous is this for a background? So, as if we thought the view was going to be stunning enough, food’s come. What you got, Cla? I’ve got a burger. She’s got a burger. Of course, she’s got a burger. Um, she’s probably got better footage of it than me. And I’ve got a pizza. So, we’re going to eat our food and we’re going to look at that view. And, uh, we’re going to make each other laugh. Not just me and Cla, everyone else as well. [Music] So, that is where I’m going in the water. Cla’s decided that she may or may not. Cla, you doing it? I don’t know. It’s not warm enough out here. Okay, here it goes. Wish me luck. It won’t be as cold as Switzerland cuz Switzerland was glacial. That’s nice. That’s pleasant. Well, nearly fell over though. I’m in. She’s in. Nice, isn’t it? That’s fresh. So, we were having a lovely swim and then things went wrong. I went in there a married man and I come out still a married man, but a married man without a ball and chain. He’s lost his wedding ring. He loses everything, but I did not think he’d lose his wedding ring. It’s really annoying because I swam in Switzerland with it on. I’ve swam in swimming pools, everything. I don’t take it off. So why it chose to fall off now, I don’t know. So yeah, gutted. But it’s in that lake somewhere. Sailor finds it. You know where we are. If you’re a scuba diver, come to Lake Constants and find my ring. So to try and cheer me up after losing the ring, we decided we’re going to try and have a drink in this place behind us. I think it’s primarily a restaurant. We can’t eat any more food, but hopefully they’ll let us have a drink in there. So, we’ve now got a drink and we are still married. Cheers. I’m feeling a little bit happier. He’s camera shy. Oh my god. See, sometimes it’s good not to be out of sink. Oh, yes. frying tonight. Got to look at the smoke. You can see the smoke coming off of it. Oh, that stinks. So, after the disaster of me losing my ring, the campsite wasn’t great. The actual island is very nice if you want to go and explore, but we’ve decided to go off and find a tobogen. Castleb barn tobogen, but it’s at a place called Todd now. So, we’re going to head there and we’re going to try and find somewhere to stay around there. We left the campsite early. What did you think to the campsite there? Not great. So, it was nice. The lake was nice and further up when we walked yesterday. That was really nice. At the actual campsite itself, it was very basic. It was in parts. It wasn’t the greatest. So, I think the writing was on the wall when we arrived because there were vending machines everywhere that sold condoms, sex gags, and women’s knickers. So, yeah, we probably should have uh should have guessed from that. Yeah, we went to have breakfast this morning in the restaurant cuz there’s a restaurant on site. And when we checked in, they say, “Oh, you can have breakfast from 8:00.” Now, what breakfast means to me is it means definitely hash browns, sausages, bacon, beans, that type of thing. Breakfast items. We got there, they said they do baguettes, they do butter, they do pretzels, and they do jam. So, just bread and butter jam. So, a little bit short. Went back to the van and made could have had that in the van. So, I thought, “No, we’re not going to pay to do that.” Um, so I was I didn’t know whether to mention what campsite it was or not because I don’t really want to give them free advertising because it wasn’t great. But equally, I think I’d rather say it now just in case people book it on the off chance. There’s a place called Sand Seal. The island’s lovely, but don’t be you have to pay a euro for the shower as well. So you pay to stay there, but you also have to have euros for the shower. And it swallowed my coin and didn’t start shower. didn’t work. So you it took you €2. You can stop and start it. So you get the time. So don’t just run out. You can stop it while you put soap on or whatever to wash your hair and then put it back on again. I don’t know. Is that norm in Europe? We don’t know. This is our first time. Yeah. Comment below if we’re just a little bit. Anyway, we’re off to do the tobogen, which I’m really looking forward to. Yeah. Incidentally, if you didn’t see last week’s video, you see us do a tobogen in Switzerland. And at the moment, Switzerland absolutely trumps Germany for me. Oh, yeah. So, we’re on our way up. You all right, Cla? No, I don’t like these. She don’t like these. Uh, because the bar doesn’t lock in place. So, it’s your feet that holds the bar in place and I had to put the bar down myself. So, I think Cla’s worried that I haven’t done it right. Drop your phone. Uh, she just told me not to drop me phone cuz uh, yeah, it’s a bit of a drop, but it’s good. We’ll be good. So that is your toboggan. That looks like great fun. I think I’m going to have to attach my hat quite hard to my head though, just in case that falls off. Okay, so we’re going to queue for the tobogen now. How you feeling? I’m glad that the cable car’s over. Put it that way. Now, you’re not allowed cameras on here, but I’ve got my glasses and we’re a little bit naughty. So, we’re going to see what we can do for you. She’s going to be good. [Music] Enjoy there. She has to be careful. No, I’m going flat out for the bends. We’re all right. There’s a camera around this bend. Speed camera around this bend. This is what happens when your cocaine falls out the cupboard. Could you just clarify it’s not Cla? No, it isn’t. It is Tim Horton’s coffee powder. CLA took it out of the cupboard upside down, didn’t you? The lid come off and when is this? It’s like cornflake gate all over again. I’ve got to wait for my baguette now. Do you mind? It’s like getting sand in the back of the van. I hoovered that before we left. So, that was a nice little interlude, wasn’t it, Cla? Yeah, enjoyed that. Was good. I didn’t like the cable car, but the pogan was really good. Really fun. Anyway, we are off further north. Don’t try this at home. Go to Germany and do it on the auto barns instead. So, we have arrived at the next stell plats that we’re staying at. You can see the uh wilds is there. Now we are in a place called Tingan. We’re not really sure what’s here. We’re just really using it as a stopover, but we’re going to jump on the scooters now. You can see we’ve got our scooters out there. Mark is going to borrow Liam’s scooter cuz he’s got problems with his bike. And D is all set up ready as well. So yeah, let’s go and see what this place has to offer. There must be a tram coming. It’s making a noise. Oh. Oh, we’re going to see a tram. We’re going to see a tram. You just don’t know where to look, do you? So, they say that certain things happen by accident. I’ll be honest, we didn’t know anything about this place other than the fact it was on our route. Got to thank D for finding it for us. Cheers, D. Nice one. Great choice. We just been around on the bike. It’s good, isn’t it? Yeah. But even better than that, look at this. So, we’re out here having drinks with our mates. How good is that? Cheers. So, just about ready to go. So, we thought we would just give you a bit of an update about where we stayed last night. So, we told you in the name of the place. It was an air. It cost us €11.50, so roughly £10 a night. There’s six pitches here. M. So, I just want to say I think the UK should really do something like this because if they got space, that’s £60 a night that they could be earning from a space like this. Facilities wise, you got water. If you’ve got a long electric cable, you can have electric as well. And there’s a waste dump as well. We went out this morning, didn’t we, to the shops. What did we find? We found a a swimming pool. Yeah, we found a swimming pool. Big open air swimming pool. And it’s got tubes and slides and all sorts. My German’s not great, but looking at the sign looks to me like it’s €750 for an adult swimmer. It’s all like a self serve. So, you literally there’s a machine, you get a ticket, and then you go through and leave after 4 hours. We also spoke to a lovely German speakaking lady who said if you want to go for a cycle along the bottom of the mountains, you said you ran out that way. Yeah. So, I took a run. I went into town and I came back and then up just past the car park there’s like a a trail. So, I think you could have a really good walk. This place wasn’t really on our agenda. It wasn’t somewhere we thought about, but we can actually thoroughly recommend it. It’s a lovely little town. I dropped the what three words in in case it’s on your way from somewhere to somewhere. We’re now off to our last stop of the German leg of this tour. We are going to a place that you picked, aren’t we, Cla? Yes. I hope it was nice. Cologne. We are off to Cologne. We’re off to Cologne. So, we pulled over on the way to Cologne because I decided I wanted to have a German McDonald’s. I got a chili cheese cheeseburger. That’s good. And what you got? I got chicken samurai. So, it’s basically chicken with teriyaki sauce. Let’s give it a go. Great. Really nice. Great. They do a different menu. And I got lattis potatoes, which I love latish potatoes. So, yeah, we’re going to finish this and then we’ll crack on up to Cologne. So, we’ve arrived at the campsite in Cologne. Uh, we’ve got a really good setup actually because they said we could have the top corner of the field. So, I’ll show you what we’ve done. We have parked our vans. So, we got a little square in the middle where we can sort of congregate and sit and eat and drink. And that there is the river Rine. So, you can see the Rine through the trees and the bushes. And that bridge there, me and CLA have just been over that on the scooters. Very nice. Lovely view down the Rine and into Cologne. And that’s how we get to the tram station which is crossing the river. The only thing is it did say on the website that the tram station is is either 500 m or 500 yd away which is probably true actually if you’re a good swimmer. So if you can swim across the Rine, yes, the tram station’s not far away. If not, it’s probably about a 20 minute walk. But Cla has found us some amazing things to do in Cologne tomorrow. So, we are on our way to Cologne. We’re walking across the bridge. We’re going to get the tram. Last night was an interesting night. We went to the pub, didn’t we? Yes. Yeah. Uh, we all got banging heads this morning. Yeah, we all got sore heads. I don’t know what was in that beer, although it was served in one and a half points. So, I thought I had three points and I didn’t. So, and I had a Fisher House Spritz, which is a local pub’s own drink. It’s their cocktail. Apparently, we can only get it here in Germany. I might be able to go to find a bottle of it to take home. Yeah. But we’re heading across this gorgeous bridge now. Um, I’ll just show you some footage as we go across it cuz it’s lovely and you can see down into Cologne from here. [Music] When you get into Cologne, you’ll find that architecturally the cathedral is the highlight of the city. How come the stars come to shine when it’s dark from so far away? Show us where we are. What makes the sun go to sleep every night? Whenever we visit a new cathedral or church, I always try and light a candle in front of a statue of Mary for my mom as we donated a statue of Mary to my childhood church in her memory. How come the sky hides behind the clouds? Maybe it’s just like me, a little bit scared of heights. [Music] Why does the rain always keep on pouring down when it’s gray outside? [Music] It really makes me wonder. Downstairs underneath the cathedral is the sele where all the archbishops of Cologne have been buried. I wonder. Okay, so we are in the Lego store and Deb has talked us into doing something really childish. We’re going to make our own characters. I’m going to make me. Claire’s going to make her. And I’ve also bought something really special that I’ll share with you outside. On the computer, you need to give your character a name. And then you need to design their t-shirt. You can choose various different colors. So you can create logos, you can draw, or you can put text on the jumper. Next, the design for the top half of your model gets printed off on a 3D printer. Whilst it is printing, you go and collect yourself a pair of legs, a face, and also an accessory. Accessories picked and printing complete. You then put your model together for the finished article. So, you just got out the Lego shop. Now, my idea going somewhere to play was going to be across there. And I’ve got a feeling that the German name for Anne Summers is Hunker Mhler. Uh cuz it looks just like an An Summer Summers. Yeah. We’ll show you what we’ve got in a bit. It’s a fast train. So, we’ve now left the Lego store. We are heading over to an observatory, but I thought I’d let you know what we bought in the Lego store. So, Cla has always wanted what you always wanted, Cla. I’m at home with a fixed bed. a motor home with a fixed bed. Now, I bought her a motor home with not only one fixed bed, but two fixed beds. She’s just got to build it out of Lego first. We also got our models. Cla, can you show the models? I don’t know how easy it is for her to open them, so I’ll do a bit of filler here. And got some nice trains going past behind us. There’s mine. So, that’s Cla’s little runner. A little running person. I don’t want Claire to get it out in case she drops it. But it serves as dual purpose. So it’s Luton Town. The head goes both ways round. So if they lose, yeah, the face goes two ways round. So if they lose, there’s a sad face. And if they win, there’s a happy face. And I’m also carrying my radio as well, listening to the football. So we’re in the foyer uh waiting for the lift. So we just paid to get in. It was €5 each, which I don’t think is too bad. And they’ve let D come in for free. So, I don’t think you can say fairer than that, can you? Not really. No, it’s not. Let’s go and see what’s going on. D first. Claire, this was your idea to come up here, wasn’t it? Yes. So, it’s an observatory deck, and you can literally see all of Cologne from up here. You can see the cathedral. Luckily, we’ve got a lovely clear day, so we’ve got blue skies and we got a lovely view. What’s your favorite thing that you’ve seen up here up here? Yeah. Um I think it’s got with the bridge with the cathedral in the background. It’s nice. One got trumpet on trains. Trains. It’s like a real life train set. Yeah, it’s got everything. You got your water, you got your bridge, you got cathedral, your trains. Gorgeous views and only, like I say, 5 so they’re not fleecing you. The only thing is there’s nowhere to eat or drink up here. No, it’s open for a cafe. Yeah. You go to places like America and they have cafes at the top. So, yes. But it is good. I admit I admire your spirit and all the best of the Lord. Thank you. That’s a win. Wow. So, I’m sitting here with a hard earned drink. Uh, we’ve walked all over Cologne and I have got myself a banana beer. I’m getting a bit of grief for it cuz I say it looks like urine. Um, I think it looks more like tea actually. But it is gorgeous. If you’ve ever tried banana beer, they used to do one, I think, in Tesco or Sainsbury. You could do one night. It’s really good. Then we’re heading back to the campsite, possibly by another hostel room. We don’t know yet. Okay, so that brings us to the end of our Germany leg of the tour. So, first of all, Cla Cologne, what did you think to Cologne? It was really nice. So, we got a tram into Cologne itself and saw the cathedral which was really impressive. Had a wander around, didn’t we? Yeah. Luckily, the weather was a little bit overcast, but it was okay for us. So, it was nice to explore. Yeah, it was interesting. I think we got a bit of city culture to be fair, which is what I wanted to see. I think it was interesting because I think there was a lot of poverty. There looked like a few homeless people. There were a lot of people that was maybe alcoholics. could smelled the alcohol on them when they were getting on the tram. It was interesting in that sense. Now, after that, we went this morning, we went to an Audi because we wanted to see whether Audi was any different to the UK. It’s quite similar. They’ve got all the bits down the middle aisle that you would expect. You can buy generators and all types of things like that. And then on the end, when you go to pay, that’s completely different. So you think they’re quick in the UK. In Germany, they serve two people at once. So they’ve got two channels and they stuff your stuff down one channel and you pay at one chip and pin machine and then they start serving someone else down another channel. They’ve already started on the next person and it’s just like chaos and it Yeah, chaos is probably the best word to describe it. The other thing that happened this morning as well is because we we didn’t realize it was Town Center Audi, so there was no car park like the UK. So we had to find somewhere to park on the street. Now I thought I was good where we parked on the street. We had we had trouble finding somewhere but we found somewhere paid at the pandate display machine. Then just as we were loading the shopping back into the van, my worst nightmare happened. Police motorbike pulled up behind us and started speaking to me in German. Long and short of it is he pointed to a sign which was only really accessible from the side road, not the road that we came down and it said disabled. Now, none of the other cars were disabled, so I’m not sure whether it was just the end space that was disabled, but there was nothing in the road. There was no painting of a wheelchair, so it wasn’t very clear. So, yeah, that was a bit challenging. So, we got in trouble by the German police. Germany as a whole. What did you think to it as a whole, Cla? Cuz we’re finishing this vlog. Yeah, it was all right. It was all right. We came from Switzerland, so it’s difficult to compare, but we enjoyed our time, didn’t we, in Germany? Yeah. I mean, I love the auto barn, so I’ll be honest. It gave me a chance to see how fast the van would do. We managed, well, I say we, I managed to get up to 112. There was a few hairy moments. Yeah, it’s on the whole I think it’s a good road. I think the problem is a lot of the time when it’s an unlimited speed limit, everyone wants to go unlimited speed. So, everyone comes out into the outside lane and what you find is the whole of the outside lane just does 70 mph cuz everyone’s out here. I think culturally, like I say, we got to see the city. I would love to have seen some uh lady hos and uh big like pint jugs. Not pint jugs, the big liter jugs that they have at the beer. I mean, we did go into a pub, but we didn’t really see all of that. No, I think that must be in the woods somewhere in a different part of Germany. Anyway, we are now going to the last country on the whole of our trip, but you’re going to have to watch our next vlog to see that. Yeah. for now. Dittles elish.

Explore Germany by campervan with us — from Lake Constance to Cologne, discovering incredible scenery, peaceful lakesides, and vibrant cities along the way. 🇩🇪🚐

In this travel vlog, we share our full vanlife route through Germany, including campsites, scenic drives, and hidden gems you won’t want to miss.

If you’re planning a road trip through Europe, this is your perfect guide to vanlife in Germany!

✨ In This Video:

Where to stay in Germany with a campervan

Best scenic drives across southern Germany

Tips for driving and parking a van in Europe

Real-life vanlife experiences and surprises

#VanlifeGermany #GermanyRoadTrip #EuropeVanlife

ABOUT OUR CHANNEL
Our channel is about Part Time Van Life with Dogs. We cover lots of cool stuff such as Overnight Park up’s, Travelling with Dogs and places to visit in the U.K. and abroad

Dolittle Campers are Part time UK Van Life couple David and Clare who along with their Cockapoo, like to take their viewers on their adventures with them. Travelling the Country in our VW T6 converted Campervan we show you the top Van life highlights and tourist hotspots in the U.K

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Join us as we continue our **europe travel** in our campervan, this time exploring Germany. This **germany vlog** captures our adventures around the **bodensee** and offers a glimpse into **van life** as a **couple vlog**. We love the **germany landscape** and hope you do too!

00:00 Introduction
00:58 The Best Pizza In Germany
02:00 Worst Swim Ever
03:56 Moving North
06:22 Toboggan
09:04 Ettlingen
12:29 German Mcdonalds
14:46 Cologne