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A whole day in Venice
Exploring the laneways. Watching staff sweep the water from the hotel porch. Navigating the crowds near the cathedral and square. Chilling with fruit salad and a quartet paying Ed Sheeren, the Titanic theme, and classical music. Love the violin and cello.
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Arriving in Venice
We arrived in Venice! I’ll let the photos speak to the beauty and hustle bustle of the place. Best to view them in landscape, full screen, and zoom in. It’s gorgeous. The chaos and fumes of narrow roads is gone – replaced with similar in canals. The walks through town are delightful. So many shops and things going on. It was supposed to be an easy transition for us today, with a one hour drive from our previous night’s stay near Verona. But it ended up being a big day. Here’s a list of our challenges and goofs today: 1. The police escort through Verona. That deserves its own post. Stay tuned. 2. We searched Booking.com for accommodation in Venice that included parking. We were aware that you can drive to Venice but not into Venice. We hoped to find accommodation that provided some parking so we wouldn’t have to arrange a shuttle, repack and lug bags too far. It was a long shot, but we found a match. It wasn’t until after we booked it that communication with the coordinator revealed…
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Parking, parking, where for art thou parking?
We planned to visit the historical part of Verona again, as we passed through this morning. We drove towards Juliet’s Balcony, hoping to get a park nearby. The usual chaotic traffic and tiny lanes reached a new level, as we emerged in small streets covered with pedestrians. Nowhere to go. One person looked at us and said good morning in Dutch “goedemorgen”, recognising our Netherland licence plates. Another person politely asked if we were okay and told us we couldn’t drive through there. We sat at the intersection for a few minutes, with another clueless motorist behind us, so we couldn’t reverse out. In front of us, as luck would have it, was a police car. One officer eventually came over, and kindly offered to have us follow them out of the bedlam. Francis probably would have followed him and his accent anywhere. Police escort through Verona! We looked for a parking option along the way, but in the end just laughed and headed towards Venice.
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The tiniest lift, near Verona
One night stay, by the river, in a suburb of Verona. Our host, Ariana, helped us reset our booking, since we’d somehow picked the wrong date in Booking.com. We squeezed into possibly the smallest lift we’ve ever seen. Fortunately, we had grabbed only our next day’s clothes from our large suitcases, in the back of the Tesla. Breakfast included, which was delightful, along with interaction with friendly staff and a three generation Italian family of guests. On our drive here from Lake Como, we stopped at a shopping center along the highway. It’s amazingly just like the ones at home in Australia, except, of course, everything is in Italian. The Tesla Autopilot driver monitoring is over cautious. Even with my hands on the wheel and eyes ahead, it often complains that I’m not paying attention, until I wiggle the steering. On this trip, it counted three strikes and disabled Autopilot until I parked 🖕.
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Hunting for Asian food in Verona
After checking into our accommodation near Verona, Italy, we discovered that there aren’t many dinner options, other than pizza, open before 7pm. So, we ventured into a Verona to find some Asian cuisine. The roads are still pretty crazy. After doing a few laps of busy roads and one way alleyways, dodging pedestrians and motorists, we found a park (I think it was a park). Takeaway noodles on the river overlooking the castle bridge turned out to be a romantic location.
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Settling into Dervio, on Lake Como
Late yesterday, we arrived in the small town of Dervio, Italy, after crossing the border, uneventfully, from Switzerland. Our host, Eleen, was delightful, and walked us through our small flat at Residence Antico Torchio. Road space and parking are tight. We had to move the car to a tiny roadside parking spot between poles, which took some careful seven point turn reversing. The best way to walk through town is via the many alleyways between buildings. At the train crossing that bisects the town, a sign asks motorists to turn off their engines while waiting. Like most rules in Italy, the locals seem to ignore them, so the street often fills with car fumes, punctuated by cigarette smoke. But away from the traffic, the walks are beautiful. We grabbed some local pizza for dinner, after translating the menu. We bought a couple of things in the local store, via communication with the staff that was mostly laughs, but not many understood words in either direction. Whenever we tell someone…
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A Lake Como walk, and Urban Fish lunch
A beautiful walk around Lake Como (well, a fraction of it, near Dervio, Italy). Fancy lunch at the Urban Fish restaurant, as recommended by our host, Ariana. Not so fancy heated supermarket dinner, served by Tom. Resorted to using pots and a stove, since there’s no microwave over here, or in many places we’ve stayed so far.
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The best eggplant parmigiana, on Lake Lugano
Stopped for lunch just before the border, in a very Italian part of Switzerland, on Lake Lugano. The best eggplant parmigiana I’ve ever had. The textures and flavours were amazing. I tried to thank the chef through the language barrier. Parking in the car park took a few attempts. This average size Australian car feels big here. We eventually found out that these particular spaces, marked in pink, are reserved for women, for safety at night.
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Up to 3000 m by gondola, in the Swiss Alps
As we enjoyed our last breakfast at The Alpina Hotel, we noticed that the weather had fined up again. So, let’s go climb some mountains, to 3000m above see level… with the aid of a series of four gondola rides. On the ride up, we wondered why there were almost no seats in the gondola. On the way back, it was standing room only. Lots of construction going on. Pretty challenging worksite. Half of the existing facility is closed off. The top station, at Schilthorn, featured in a 1968 Bond film. They promote it a lot, with half the place dedicated to a range of multimedia exhibits. On the return trip, we explored a couple of the other stations, including a sky walk and a mostly car free town. Beautiful.
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A full day exploring the Swiss Alps, then a night closer to Italy
October 9-10: Beautiful location, nice food, a chance to chill.
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What to do in the Swiss Alps in the rain
Our luck with sunny weather ran out. Go for a drive around the beautiful lakes. Far across the other side, we spotted a long waterfall near a big building. We found it on Maps as including a restaurant, so we drove over, up a windy mountain road. We missed the turn and soon came head to head with a bus that wasn’t about to yield the too narrow road. After some hurried reversing down the hill, and a seven point U turn, we then found the car park for the waterfall. The road to the restaurant required a pin code, only given to hotel guests. So, off we trekked, through the forest, past the beautiful falls, with the hope of lunch at the end. We looked a bit like a couple of drowned rats, by the time we found the restaurant, but they let us in. The meal and veggie soup were well earned and enjoyed. They charged €8.50 (about AU$14) for a bottle of water. It cost more than the cappuccino or soup! Fresh water is the one thing that they have in abundance here 🙃.
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Walking the Aare Gorge, then donkeys
We spent the afternoon exploring the Aare Gorge, along the elevated board walk. Beautiful. Lunch on site. We couldn’t leave the area without patting a donkey and Shetland pony. So much beauty all around. Delivered spaghetti and pizza for dinner, back at our hotel. We’re in training for Italy in a few days 😉.
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72 waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen
First stop on our day trip out, in Lauterbrunnen. Wow. And again, wow. 72 waterfalls plummeting down into the valley. An overwhelming feast for the eyes. I blame this distraction for my taking five minutes to figure out the parking payment system 😉. We saw evidence (the sign) of what happens if you don’t provide public toilets 😉, although this town does provide them. Beautiful simple church. I chatted with the lady sweeping up the thousands of leaves and asked her if it was a big job. She said, looking at the scenery “no, this is meditation. My big job has been looking after my children and husband”. Fair call. We popped over to Grindelwald, but there was some annual market going on which blocked through traffic and filled the town with people. So, we opted for a more quiet view from the edge of town.
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A balcony view of the Swiss mountains
We checked in last night to our accommodation. It is just stunning here. Our balcony and the breakfast dining room both overlook the lake and towering mountains. You don’t fully appreciate the scale of them until you notice how small the cars are on the other side. Our hosts, Richard and his wife, have been lovely. When we realised that, like their own currency, Switzerland has its own power point socket, different to the rest of Europe, Richard loaned us an adapter. So, now we can plug the iPhone Lightning cable into the USB-C into the power brick, into the Australian socket, into the Europe adapter, into the Swiss adapter, into the wall 🤪. Our UFODRIVE Tesla car rental doesn’t give us access to the Tesla app, which we’re really missing. We had a drama this morning when Tom left the car to go back to our room, leaving Francis in the car. A few minutes later, the Tesla’s car alarm went off, half deafening Francis with the noise from the horn and some loud heavy metal music playing…
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A coffee pedaler in the home of Omega watches
We began our quest for coffee, walking a kilometre towards the lake, finding a coffee “pedaler”. Sofia, at the reception of our hotel, told us that this town is the birthplace of Omega watches, which also adorn the foyer. We opted for a quick and cheap breakfast from our road trip kit, using our cereal, bowls, milk and… I forgot to buy spoons. We shared a takeaway spoon we had collected along the way. Next, on to Interlaken, a Swiss town that, as the name suggests, sits between two lakes. We will stay a few nights at a small family run hotel that looks over one of the lakes. The scenery from the highway looks increasingly spectacular, as we approach the Swiss Alps.
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Spinach soup at Schnäggli, Ringgenberg
Late lunch at Schnäggli GmbH Bistro-Konditorei, up the road, before we check into our accommodation, in Ringgenberg, Switzerland, near Interlaken. Today’s hot meal was spinach soup which was delicious. And, of course, coffee. Friendly lady running the bistro. Beautiful town. Narrow streets again, so you take your life in your hands as a pedestrian. But there is a public toilet, with no cost! Civilisation!
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Buying a Vignette to drive Swiss roads
Two days ago we were in Belgium. Last night we were in France. Today we crossed the border into Switzerland. We bought the “Vignette” sticker at the border, for about CHF 40 (Swiss Franks, about AU$65), which allows us to drive on all the roads here. It’s kind of a pay once road toll. There are so many tunnels, with more being built. I can see where the toll money goes. We have only seen about two potholes so far in all of Europe. Like most days, we just book our accommodation in the late afternoon, when we know roughly where we’re going to be at about 4pm. We pick a town on Booking.com, entry a few filters like private bathroom, switch to map view, and look for good value places nearby. We usually choose out of the cities. This time we choose in the town of Biel/Bienne, which goes by its French and German name. Nice hotel, very friendly and helpful Sofia at reception, who speaks multiple languages. We ordered a poke bowl for dinner, via Uber Eats delivery. Chilled evening stay.
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A breakfast disappointment in Amnéville
A brief journey through the north east of France. We stayed last night in Hotel Marso, in Amnéville. We paid to have brekky buffet there, but it was disappointing. We made some cuppas from our thermos at the Tesla before leaving. Along the way, for lunch we popped into the small French town of Lure. The cappuccino came with cream, which turned out to be “heaven” (quoting Francis). The staff’s English was only slightly better than my French (which is about six words). So, we relied on Google Translate to pick from the menu. But even then, when I thought I was ordering the five veg pizza, I ended up with something with meat. Still delicious. Lovely staff.
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Castle, moat and pay-per-pee toilets in Belgium
Today, we crossed Belgium. First stop needed for a toilet, and some lunch (long before needing to charge the car). A castle, a moat, and some pumpkin sculptures – that’s what we need 😉. Using the toilet costs €0.50 per person, per pee. Gone are the days of “spending a penny”. This one seemed to use some honour system, where we left coins on a table. You can guess what was offer for lunch: pumpkin soup, pumpkin fries – everything pumpkin.
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Autumn beach at De Haan, Belgium
While our washing dried on our front porch, we headed out in the Tesla to the coastal town of De Hann, Belgium. It’s autumn here. The sun is warm but the wind is cold. Some people are still on deck chairs on the beach, but huddled up against wind breaks. They seem to have a temporary cafe on the beach too. There were plenty of more permanent restaurants along the promenade. We chose Brasserie Paname, which served probably the best lasagna I (Tom) have ever had, served by the most unengaging waiter I’ve ever had. Single word answers with barely eye contact. The tomato soup was also delicious and hearty. I had better luck this time finding an ATM. Withdrawing €400 was about $600, including about $40 in fees. We spotted another tiny electric car. The cars throughout Europe so far are generally much smaller than ours in Australia. Our Tesla Model Y is one of the bigger cars on the road. There are hardly any giant utes, or utes in general, except where they’re actually needed. It’s crazy…
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Through an underwater tunnel into Belgium
We crossed the border from The Netherlands into Belgium, I think under water, in a tunnel. This was our first toll road in Europe. We just picked the toll gate that takes card payments, tapped my phone, the gate opened, and we drove into Belgium. We drove into Brugge, navigating the tiny inner town streets, and found a paid parking spot in a street of cafes and specialty shops. Very pretty. Again, no public toilets to be found. So, we walked into a cafe. Tom sat down to check the menu while Francis made a bee-line for the toilet. Then we discovered on the menu that they only take cash, not card payments. We hadn’t come across this previously in Europe. It mentioned the alternative of a particular app, but when I tried to download it, it said it wasn’t available for use with an account from my country (Australia). We checked with the manager who confirmed cash only. So, we apologised and went to leave, since we hadn’t brought cash with us. Then he said loudly “One Euro for the toilet”.…
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Hopping the Zeelandic Islands
We ventured further south through the Netherlands, towards Belgium, hopping across the Zeelandic Islands. First stops at Strand Brouwersdam (which seemed to be a currently mostly deserted popular beach/RV spot) and Neetle Jans, with more towering wind turbines to harness the North Sea wind, and equally huge sea gates to keep the sea out.
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Out of power… in our accommodation
It finally happened. We ran out of power. No electricity available… in our accommodation. Oh, did you think I meant we couldn’t charge our car? No, it’s fine. Our accommodation – a cabin park in the town of Knokke, Belgium – provided an EV destination charger. 100m up the road was an Esso fuel station that includes fast chargers and on the big price sign out the front lists the electricity cost per kWh along side the petrol and diesel costs per litre. And slightly up from that, the BMW dealer has an EV charger out the front. So many options. I spotted an electric van in one of the suburban streets. What I meant was, our cabin had no power. We couldn’t boil a kettle, but we managed to use the last drops from our thermos to make a cuppa. We couldn’t heat food. We survived, and mostly laughed it off. The manager arrived some time later and was very helpful and apologetic. She gave us a free breakfast hamper to compensate. We had a bunch of other minor hurdles that added to the comedic…
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Welcome to the adventures of Tesla Dripping
Welcome back to the adventures of Tesla Dripping. After finding no toilet at the Stellendam Marina or adjacent bird sanctuary, we checked Maps for the nearest toilets. We took a drive to Ouddorp, eleven minutes away. What is it with the lack of public toilets in The Netherlands? We found the “WC” in town. Is more of a port-a-loo, but must be a permanent fixture. We used the opportunity to buy some road tripping supplies from the grocer and Hema: forks, knives, cutting board, a coffee mug with “F” for Francis, and some fridge meals. Oh, and a new thermos! It was an adventure getting out of town, since the only way known to maps was blocked by road works. We did a few laps of the narrow streets. Pretty town and fun day, despite the crossed legs. Our B&B had a microwave. For lunch we nuked the leftover croissant, ham and cheese from breakfast. For dinner we had the fridge meals, while watching the Cluney/Pitt movie “Wolfs”.
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Bird-watching at Stellendam
A short trip out from our B&B accommodation to the bird watching “egg” near the Stellendam Marina. I briefly spotted what I think was a giant eagle, but missed the photo. Plenty of other birds, including swans. I was saddened to see that blackberry bushes seem to have taken over the bush here, like it’s trying to do in our home region in the Dandenong Ranges of Victoria, and our garden. The Tesla’s navigation (driven by Google Maps) gave us some unnecessarily complex directions at one point. Public toilets were again nowhere to be found, in the reserve or at the marina. Our bladders are having range anxiety.
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A dyke-side B&B in Hellevoetsluis
We arrived late yesterday at this gorgeous B&B Logement Hellevoetsluis. We’re near the southern edge of The Netherlands. Unsurprisingly, it sits on a dyke. The road into town, to grab some takeaway dinner, was just wide enough for one car, with a canal either side. We were welcomed by our host, Carla, and sidekick Ted (the dog). Delicious breakfast included, in the dining room with artistic mural walls.
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A quick stretch in Rotterdam
Second stop on our trip south, at Rotterdam. Just long enough to stretch our legs with a short walk around town, and grab a coffee.
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Leaving the boat house, off to Italy
Time to leave our boat house in the canal, and start our road trip towards Switzerland and Italy. Packed the car, with charging cable and laundry in the frunk. Gave it a “service”, which for an EV just means topping up the washer fluid 😉. While packing the car, I happened to see the local rubbish truck, which is fully electric! Much quieter. First stop for lunch with Helen in Zaandam, under the green municipal building.
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A mobile Tesla office in Vianen
A trip out to Vianen, in The Netherlands. Francis and Helen met up with their aunt and cousin. Tom found a quiet place to do some work in the mobile Tesla office. Several canals, opening bridges and lochs around town. The UFODRIVE car rental included a parking dial, which we have to place on the dashboard when parking in a spot marked with a blue line.
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A Holland beach dinner that felt like home
Dinner on the beach, in Holland, but it feels a lot like home in Australia. Our last meal all together, before we head off south tomorrow. Nico explained that they set up temporary dwellings along the beach here each year, then collapse and pack them away during the storm surge season. With climate change, the average sea level hasn’t risen much yet, but the storm surges have grown significantly. The giant sand dunes behind the dwellings require ongoing increased building. And there are smaller sand dunes in rows behind, using a similar principle to the dykes. The country invests a lot to manage its relationship with water. Hundreds of wind turbines, off shore.
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Family reunion at Hansel & Gretel pancake house
Everything you want in a restaurant, including: a shower in the middle of the foyer, hidden tunnels through bookcases, slide down to the toilets, jumping pillows, giant animatronic puppets, general craziness. Pancakes came with a wide range of savoury and sweet fillings, including: ham, pineapple, egg, apple. This was the first time Francis has met her uncles (her dad’s brothers) and their families (except for Jordy and family a few days ago). It was wonderful and a bit overwhelming to meet them all. Earlier that day, we visited Sandra’s mum, for a delicious morning tea of cakes, followed by soup and croquettes. Life’s too short, so eat dessert first!
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Rainy Amsterdam, with home-made desserts in the boat house
Maybe a canal cruise today in Amsterdam? The rain started. Ah, no. How about the Van Gogh museum? The rain started hammering down, with accompanying wind. Ah, no. How about staying in the boat house and house boat and enjoying home made dessert by Sandra and dinner by Nico? Ah, yes! Our boat house started creaking during the night as it rubbed against the wharf buffers. A slow drip started from the sun roof, expertly caught by a glass with tissues in it. We started singing “Six nights in a leaky boat” 🎶
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A canal-side work session, and the Artis zoo
We drove into Amsterdam. Tom caught up on some work in the mobile Tesla office, next to the canal, while Fran and sister Helen visited the “Artis” zoo.
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Cherry beer in Stein with cousin Jordy
Late afternoon drinks at a cute pub in Stein. It was a total pleasure to meet up with Fran and Helen’s cousin Jordy, wife Linda and son Toby. Tom tried out the local cherry beer. The road in front of the pub is only really suitable for bikes. We found out the hard way when I tried to turn around after dropping off passengers. Then back to our newly met cousin’s house nearby. Toby came with us in the Tesla. He drove… the buggy driving game after we arrived. Then we met the fourth member of the family, Billy 🐶, who was super excited to see us. Helen requested reading of some Dutch childhood books, such as “The very hungry caterpillar”. Beautiful family, home and delicious Greek dinner. Time to say goodbye, after the Tesla light and sound show, including writing “Tesla” on the neighbour’s garage door.
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A boat-house lawn, against the joke
A quiet day on the canal, back in our boat house and house boat. As a child I used to retell the joke “how did the houseboat owner die? They drowned, mowing the lawn”. But it turns out that our boat house does have some lawn! It’s a small strip on the dyke between our boat’s small wharf and the narrow brick paved road. You might notice some dirt mounts on the lawn – that’s from moles, which burrow in the dyke. The lawn has an embedded small noisemaker, which sounds like a rattlesnake, to deter the moles. It doesn’t seem to be working. It did make us take notice, however, the first time we heard it. We make sure to look both ways when stepping through our gate into the shared road in the dyke. There are plenty of bikes, e-bikes, mopeds, pedestrians. The occasional car leaves room for nothing else. Helen and Francis try to befriend every passing cat and dog. Tom marvels at the engineering of keeping the small canals functioning and clear. We spotted a few robot lawnmowers that dwarf…
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The 'outback' of Holland
We made it to the outback… of Holland, according to the sign. We drove across a land bridge, past countless wind turbines, on and off shore. Holland is reliant on energy to keep pumping the water uphill, to the ocean, over a series of dykes. Without power, the land would drown. In some places, the land is eight meters below sea level 😳.
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Deventer's slowly sinking church
Coffee and then lunch in Deventer (in The Netherlands). An old church in the center of town is slowly sinking on one side. Beautiful old shops, streets and a large canal. Distracting toilet wall art. We checked out of our accommodation in Nunspeet this morning. We packed a breakfast to go for Tom, since he was in a work meeting in the Tesla (with colleagues in Australia). We were immediately reminded of the narrow town streets when we realised that the reversing semi trailer in front of us blocked the only way out of this section of town. Nico and Tom parked the cars and spent the next twenty minutes directing traffic while the truck driver reversed a few hundred meters around tight bends.
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Coffee in Oude Haven, before home
Final stop, in Oude Haven, District 00, for coffee and an explore, before returning to our boat house in Krommenie.
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Walking the alleyways of Elburg
Explored the streets, alleyways and canals of the fishing village of Elburg. Semi public urinal next to the car park. But I want that desperate.
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A short hike in Veluwezoom National Park
a short hike through the Veluwezoom National Park. Long haired cows, but we didn’t see the expected deer. We had just missed peak heather bloom, but some purple remained. The lookout is barely elevated, so I climbed onto the brickwork to photograph the family. I viewed the Dutch sign through Google Translate, but it was pretty standard instructions. Topped off with lunch at the onsite cafe. Lots of bikes and cycle paths.
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Ice cream in Nunspeet, and double-decker bike racks
A wander through the town of Nunspeet to get an ice cream. Sandra showed me how the double storey bike racks work at the commuter station. I marvelled at the housing styles, with tall roofs, embedded with extra rooms and probably skinny stairs. Some thatched roofs using dried reeds (I think), which I’m told increase insurance costs due to fire risk. Lots of houses with solar panels. There’s a deer park in the middle of town, which seems to be for the use of the neighbourhood. Cute. And, of course, cycle paths everywhere.
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Popping over to Aachen for lunch
Let’s pop over the border to Germany 🇩🇪, for lunch, as you do. And we’ll check out the Aachen Cathedral while we’re there. Wow. Huge. Old. Shiny. Car park: Small. Grey. Just enough room for the Tesla Model Y.
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A-frame cabins back in the Netherlands
After lunch in Germany 🇩🇪, we crossed back into The Netherlands 🇳🇱, driving north to Nunspeet. We’re staying at a kind of cabin park, in one of the neat A frame buildings. Steep stairs and tall buildings seem common. Most have solar panels. Our resident cook and cousin Nico keeps dishing up delicious meals, like this bolognese. I still can’t get over the morning option of various sugar on bread.
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A day trip into Maastricht
Day trip into nearby Maastricht to pick up Sandra (who caught the train from Amsterdam) and to explore the town. I (Tom) temporarily lost Francis and Helen, and was wandering up and down the street looking. A waiter noticed me and asked “what have you lost”, looked down and said “your shoes?”. After a couple of quizzical or disapproving looks from cafe patrons, I went back to the Tesla to grab my shoes. But, when again squeezing through the eating strip, an older lady moved aside and quipped in Dutch something like “after you, shorts”. For the record, many people were wearing shorts. I can’t win. Croquettes (again) for lunch, with a salad, at one of the many cafes. Yum. With the scarcity of public toilets, we’re learning to make use of the cafe facilities. The first big language error wasn’t mine, surprisingly. Francis, who knows a fair bit of Dutch from her childhood household, somehow managed to end up in the men’s toilet. She emerged to ask me what I was doing in there. I just…
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Country roads east of Maastricht, in a Jaguar i-Pace
The four of us continued our day trip out in Nico’s Jaguar i-Pace, through the country roads east of Maastricht. Even way out here, there are bikes and bike lanes everywhere. The roads have clear markings for the bike lanes each way, leaving the middle to be shared by cars. It’s a very tight squeeze in places. And then, they throw in the tractors! Second stop for “vlaai”. A traditional sweet pie from this province (Limburg). Cherry was delicious.
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Mornings on a houseboat
September 13 - 18: A short 50m walk along the canal each morning to breakfast, on the houseboat of our generous hosts/cousins Nico and Sandra. There are canals, creeks, bridges and dykes everywhere. This dyke has a path with a constant stream of pedestrians, bikes, e-bikes, electric motorbikes, and some petrol powered (which seem so antiquated, noisy and smelly when they go by). Breakfast is usually home baked bread, cheese, thin sliced cold meats, various “cultural” sugar toppings for bread. Nico built the houseboat on to of a rectangle U shaped concrete shell. It floats just from the water displacement (Archimedes principle), not foam. They have two electric cars: A Jaguar i-Pace, and a Fiat 500 (pictured). They charge from the outlet next to their houseboat, right on the canal.
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The American war memorial near Maastricht
So many fallen soldiers at the American war memorial. It's hard to imagine how terrible it would have been to live in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries during Nazi occupation, or to spend years fighting to kill fellow humans. The show “Masters of the Air” depicts the bombing runs of US soldiers from the UK over Europe. I expect that some of the people who died in that show are buried here. One of the final scenes shows the US Air Force dropping food packages to war torn and starving residents in the Netherlands, a story which Francis’s mum experienced first hand.
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Lunch in three countries in a day
Final destination today: the intersection of The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We had lunch in Belgium and patted a dog (of course), found a toilet in The Netherlands and checked out the forest in Germany.
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A failed-charging cautionary tale
A failed charging story. We’re heading off on a road trip through the Netherlands for a few days. We’ve been parking near our boat home, but hadn’t yet made use of the nearby charger. When I finally got my act together to plug in our Tesla, I couldn’t find any tap option on the machine for the payment card that UFODRIVE provided. I tried the QR code on the charger to get the app, but it isn’t available for an Australian AppStore account. I checked the UFODrive app for another nearby charging station. I tried to share the location with the Tesla (like I can do from the Tesla app), but it doesn’t offer that option. I shared to Apple Maps and watched my iPhone as I drove around looking for it, but couldn’t find it. Some hours later, when we were about to depart, Nico (a local) pointed out that there was a tap to pay panel on the back of the machine 🤦.
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Borrowing Nico's Jaguar i-Pace
On our way from Krommenie to Maastricht. We picked up Nico’s Jaguar i-Pace. Very swish. 0 to 100km/h in about 3.5s. Luxury interior trim. Neat console. It has fast DC charging but only does 3.6kW AC charging (compared to our Tesla’s 11kW). It’s about twice the cost of our base Tesla Model 3 at home. Jaguar had it for a few days to replace the battery. This is the first real example I’ve seen of someone actually needing to replace their EV battery, despite all the hype about it from naysayers. Fortunately, it was all covered under warranty. Our first stop was in Breukelen at a service center. Well, we actually stopped at two of these, because of mixed up convoy instructions. Next to the Shell petrol station here is a FastNed charging bay, with solar panels on the roof. Most service centres seem to have these, which is terrific. It kills me to stop for fuel like this. Stopping specifically for fuel (charging) is something I try to avoid. I prefer to just charge when I’m parked for some…
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
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