Campervaing Europe Shrempf and Lahm Campervans

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27/8/10: Today was a day of rest. We went out to Walters’s campervan business (Fabian’s Father) so we could look at our new camper van. We pulled into an industrial estate then into the drive of Schrempf and Lahm Campervans. Our van was parked outside, we were both excited to see it. The van turned out to be better than we had hoped; even though it was old it was clean and had been really looked after. We sorted out some of the finer details of the van and before we knew it I was taking it for a test drive around the car park. It was really weird driving on the opposite side to what we drive in Australia, not so much the fact that I was on the wrong side of the road but more I had to change gears with my right hand and indicate with what normally would be the windscreen wipers. It was only a quick spin around the parking lot but it was enough to get the adrenaline pumping.
We parked the van back in the yard leaving it for some minor adjustments. We got back into the BMW and travelled 5min back to Fabians house. Elisabeth had cooked another beautiful meal; we were starting to feel guiltily about eating all their fine food, but I hoped to repay them one day soon with our own hospitality.
If anyone is thinking of traveling Europe than this is the best and most cheapest way to do it. The truth will be in the next 5-6months of blog. If anyone is thinking of doing the same as me then please email me or Walter if you need any questions answered. Walter or myself will be able to help you with any info and what to see. Walters detail for Schrempf and Lahm are:

30/8/10: We picked the campervan up today, we gave it a good clean and sorted out all the unnecessary junk and repacked it into its rightful spot. I took it for another drive and got some money out of the ATM. All up the van cost us 5400EU which at the time worked out to be 1Eu to $1.45 Aus. This is expensive for a van but cheap throughout Europe, if we looked after it we would get most of it back. Walter went over a few minor details with me just so I knew how everything worked and that was that. He was so professional and really looked after us well. We now had a van that we could call home and a home it would be for at least six months or more.
31/8/10: We had a real drama trying to work out if we could stay more than three months in the Shengen area. Australians were only entitled to stay a maximum of 90 days in the Shengen countries which was basically all the countries we wanted to travel in for the six months. It made no sense that every other country in the world could give a three month travel visa for that one particular country and you where only allowed to stay a maximum of three months for all the shengen countries in their entirety; which was more than fifteen at the time of writing.
We spoke to the German embassy on how we could get around this dilemma; they all gave us bad news and said we had to travel in that time frame and after six months we could re enter the shengen area once again. To me this was stupid and with a little digging on the internet we were we found out that we could become temporary citizens of Germany for one year. This seemed too good to be true so we would have to check with the local immigration office located in Rosenheim. It turned out that all we needed was enough money to support ourselves, proof of an address courtesy of Fabian, Walter and Elizabeth, an Itinerary of some sort, travel insurance or health insurance, one passport photo and 50Eu each for the visa. We were more than happy to do fill in the required paperwork and hand it back the next day. It was easier than I even could have imagined and the next day we were temporary residents of Germany and able to travel the Shengen freely for the whole six months instead of just 90days. Today Walther and Elisabeth were going on their own holiday, Jacinta made them a nice lasagne and salad for lunch and we said goodbye to them later that day.

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