June 2023
June was quite eventful. It started with a family trip to the Belgian coast near Bruges. Us and my mum met my brother Alex and his family at a Center Parc to spent a short holiday together. It was good to finally meet everyone again and to relax together for a few days.
Zoe and Izzy in the garden.
We went to that huge beach one day.
Where are my feet?
It’s been windy.
Playing Möllki once more.
Bro the breakfast man.
Izzy being funny.
Toy collection.
Bunny.
Ducks.
iPads.
Crazy light in our little house.
The crew. (Yeah sure, make everyone look into the low morning sun for a good photo.)
On the last day we visited Bruges.
Walking in a city is not exactly Zoe’s strength. But of course, it’s been us who wanted to walk around in the city. So, fair enough. ;)
That’s going to be one hell of a puzzle.
Ready for the way back.
“Einmal gepoppt…”
At Vohwinkel train station, waiting to be picked up for band rehearsal.
My bike in a train.
Having beers with Dennis to celebrate his birthday.
Another puzzle.
Went to Auermühle in Ratingen.
The plants near the Rhine sprawling.
Good old Charlie.
New building in the neighboorhood.
Old car in the neighboorhood.
In the park.
On the water playground.
Learning new riffs one morning.
At Turbinenhalle Oberhausen.
Meshuggah!
View on Düsseldorf.
Bunch of hippies.
…at Folkerdey festival in Ratingen.
The smaller tent-stage.
I couldn’t help but feel like I knew that guitarist. I should find out almost a year later…
Folkerdey party people.
Best band of the night: Gankino Circus
We spent the night in our camper on the parking lot. That was our last night in the camper.
At Tina and Stephan’s place, keeping cool with a pool.
The other side.
Best friends.
Horses.
Random beetle.
Düsseldorf view.
On skates at the Rhine. The excessive plants had been cut.
Saw Cancer Bats at the Pitcher.
Great warm summer night out with Bernd, having too much beer and staying up way too late for a weekday.
Zoe got thrown out of Kindergarten.
Another Düsseldorf view.
Some last minute repairs on the camper before leaving for our summer holiday.
On the Autobahn. This must have been not long before the crash, judging by the length of shadow.
Then it happend: we were driving on the right-most lane of a three-lane motorway at full speed (between 100 km/h and 110 km/h) when we got hit by another car in the rear left. The other driver lost control of his vehicle as one of his tires burst (we were told afterwards). Our camper immediately started spinning. I can remember seeing that other car through the windshield, and also thinking “shit, we’re going to hit something very soon”. But (very) luckily, we didn’t. We did land on the camper’s side in the end, though. Nicole hit her head, but Zoe and I escaped unharmed (apart from that shock we all had). I wrote a little more about the crash in a blog post a year ago. And here are the film photos I took following the event. Still very thankful we came out of this so unscathed.
I’m also thankful for all the first responders that immediately helped us! Thank you!
The other car started burning and so we moved to the other side of the camper to be more safe.
The ambulance escorted us to the nearest hospital as they wanted to check Nicole.
Fire brigade extinguishing the burned down car.
The roof window is how we got out.
In the hotel room. I was on the phone a lot that morning.
Some distraction and entertainment while we waited to get picked up to see our camper at the towing company.
Assessing the damage. There was lots to do: throwing away damaged stuff, getting out the intact things, organising things, filling out paper work, loading our rental etc. We pretty much spent the whole day in and around this garage.
This photo from the inside looks better than it actually was. Further in the back where the fridge and bathroom is, things looked a lot more messy.
Our rental camper replacement for the time of our holiday. Only possible, because the towing company organised everything and helped us in many more ways. They were the best: Autoservice Haberle.
We stayed the night near a playground.
Forwards! Refusing to let this spoil our summer holiday.
Arriving a Lake D’Annecy.
The insides. This thing was big!
Cuddly toys snapshot.
On a first bike trip with one of the bikes we also could hire via the towing company (Our bikes - apart from Zoe’s - were destroyed in the crash).
Football on the campground’s sport field.
First time at the beach.
Legs.
Last one!