A European EV Family Adventure

We’ve looked longingly across the English Channel and North Sea longing for adventures on continental Europe for 3 years. However, driving on the wrong side of the road and wrong side of the car sounded too daunting. We’ve never had the time and budget or courage to do it. Our first two cars were too small to carry any sort of luggage for a longer trip. When we finally thought we’ve got a good touring car, the BMW starting consuming a lot of oil last winter. Choosing the electric vehicle was born out of frustration. We just needed space, reliability and something cheap to run. When we finally got a 10 year old EV, the reality of range anxiety dawned upon us. We can no longer drive 330 miles from the Midlands to Scotland through the night without stopping. The furthest we’ve dared to venture is York.

We all knew we needed a break after a really tiring 6 months trying to get Hiro & Jack Co. going. At first, we looked around the UK for a budget friendly option and then it became looking a flights. But at this point, the great summer holiday rip-off has descended. We tried looking at ferries to Northern Ireland to see the Giant’s Causeway but it cost £800-900 just to get across. As with any of our trips, a crazy idea ends up being the idea that gets the most votes. It was continental Europe! We even managed to score a really cheap ferry ticket from Dover to Calais. The only catch was it sailed from Dover at 7 in the morning and we live almost 200 miles away (4-5 hours) from that.

​It was a “living on a wing and a prayer” situation as we set off to Dover in the late afternoon. We had nothing planned. We didn’t know where we’d be visiting or where we were going to lay our heads the next day. It was quite a crazy trip down south and wasn’t without problems. Instead of arriving at a hotel near the port by 11pm for a sleep, we only managed to arrive at 230am. The darkness and tiredness meant I made a couple wrong turns that added at least 1.5 hours to the journey. The fast chargers were also shockingly slow and hindered our progress. As we put the kids down for a few hours of sleep, Debra and I decided the 2 hour sleep wasn’t worth feeling all groggy and stayed up instead to properly plan for the day.

The next morning at 5 in the morning, we loaded our car in the pouring rain and splashed our way to Dover ferry port. After passing the French Passport control, we queued for our ferry tickets and waited 20 minutes before loading began. It is an absolutely mind blowing sight to behold. The ferry swallowed HGVs with 40 foot trailers, camper vans and countless cars. Once we were safely parked, we headed to the upper deck but couldn’t head to the open air decks due to rain and wind. We just relaxed on the sofas and shut our eyes for the slightly rocky 90 min crossing. As the announcements came for us to return to our cars, we headed back down the belly of the ship. While waiting in the car, I configured the speedometer to show KM/H instead of Miles. It felt really strange seeing KM/H despite growing up using the metric system
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​As we drove down the ramp in Calais, all I could think of was “DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE”. It was a little nerve wrecking when we arrived at the first roundabout and had to head right and go counter clockwise. A 5 minute crash course later, we arrived at a massive Carrefour in Calais and plugged the car while we had our breakfast at McDonald’s. I don’t know if this is the case for the entire France, but it was such an amazing experience when your food is served in proper reusable containers instead of paper boxes. Food was served to every customer eating in. The food tasted WAY better than what’s in the UK. It more than made up for the terrible journey down and the lack of sleep. It did give us some tummy aches after because it wasn’t gluten free but I think nobody complained. After stocking up on gluten free snacks and 6x 1L Evian water that cost €0.60 each, we headed 200km east towards the city of Brussels in Belgium. We made very good progress with the smooth and flat roads across France and into Belgium. The fast chargers were really fast too!
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​As we parked up at the hotel parking lot, we congratulated ourselves. It felt like we broke our own boundaries of what we thought was possible travelling with children in an old EV. We plugged the car in for the evening and headed off to recharge ourselves. We settled on the idea of leaving our car at the hotel and taking the public transport to spend the whole day in Brussels the next day. We had a rough idea of visiting the Windmills near Rotterdam (Netherlands) the day after.

​“Bonjour! Time for Hotel Breakfast!” That did the trick of getting the kids out of bed really quickly.
It feels amazing having a full breakfast and couple cups of coffee without having to make them and wash up after. Fuelled by the amazing eggs, hash browns and bacon, we caught a tram to the city centre. Matt said it reminded him of the Piccadilly line and I can see why. It was a lot less crowded and cramped compared to London though.

​As we walked through the streets of cobbled stones and stunning architecture, we couldn’t help but marvel at the attention to detail and handiwork of those made them. Really helps us see how far we’ve come with the glass buildings and new builds we have today 🤣 As we walked through The Grand Place, we spotted medallions of Roman emperors and it presented a great opportunity to talk about how Julius Caesar fought against the peoples of Gaul and conquered what we call Belgium today. It brought back fond memories of the time when we were Road-schooling for 7 months. With all the walking involved, it was also inevitable that we had to name all the famous Belgian footballers 😅 After we saw the Manneken Pis, it was unavoidable that his name was mentioned far too many times throughout the trip. It is hard to avoid unsanitary jokes when you are going to see a weeing boy everywhere 🤪
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You can’t go to Brussels and not have Belgian waffles and chocolates but sometimes food intolerances can get in the way of enjoying local delicacies. This time however, we are so grateful to find a shop that only serves gluten-free Belgian Waffles. As for the chocolates, we had an educational time at The Chocolate Museum learning about its origins, the painstaking process of making chocolate and tasting the different types of chocolate. If you want to be intrigued at the extremes of human endeavour just to get certain foods, read up on the story of tea and chocolates. Oh! Do look out for the containers they make just to serve these foods too.
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​The rest of the day was spent wandering around the famous sights of Brussels. We saw the Mont Des Arts, Parc de Bruxelles, Royal Gallery of Saint Hubert and chocolate shops. Highly recommend Elisabeth for chocolates and Pierre Marcolini for macarons. We were served by a lovely lady in Elisabeth who explained patiently about the difference between the 3 popular chocolatiers in Brussels. The other shops probably sold good chocolates but they are either very expensive or too crowded. 
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​Dinner was at a vegan restaurant that only served Gluten free food. We love our meat and would usually avoid vegan restaurants. Liu Lin in Brussels changed our mind about Vegan restaurants. The food was tasty and filling. It's a little reminder of why we travel. Travelling changes you as a person. It opens your mind to new things and shapes your perspective in new ways. Gwyn who usually avoids vegetables like a plague asked for a second helping. It made us question what sort of sorcery was happening in the kitchen!
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​That evening, our plans took a drastic change. The initial plan to visit Windmills was suddenly thrown out. Having clocked more than 11k steps in an afternoon, we decided not to put in another 11k steps the next day. We would have to pack up, look for another hotel in the Netherlands and risk missing the ferry with a super long drive back to Calais. Google reviews highlighted a challenging parking situation at the Windmills too.

The alternative plan was to stay another night in the same hotel but drive through Belgium, Netherlands and visit Aachen in Germany. It sounded like a very long drive but turned out to be the same distance driving to the windmills. As I poured over the details of charging along the way, I hit a road block with getting an emissions sticker to enter the low emissions zone in Aachen, Germany. We couldn't get it online in time and had to travel to the office to get it instead. There was a risk we couldn't get it. 

We took off anyway in the morning after another awesome breakfast and much coffee. The journey was surprisingly pleasant. Despite having to navigate dozens of apps to charge at different chargers, we seemed to have found our rhythm of driving an hour and charging for 10-15 minutes. Toilet, snack and playground breaks until we reach our destination is great for the mind and backs!
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​Our lunch stop break did however pull up a little drama in Netherlands when the charger didn’t charge the car and refused to release our cable. A phone call did help solve the issue. But we quickly forgot that drama when we found lots of amazing cheese and gluten free Stroopwafels 😍 at a local supermarket.

​It wasn’t long before we crossed into Germany and it was time to get the emissions sticker. I was served immediately at the office and the lady took my V5C and checked its details before issuing the sticker. It was absolutely seamless. In and out in less than 5 minutes. It was supposed to cost €15 in cash but I only had my card with me. She smiled, waved it off and wished me a good trip. What a pleasant surprise!

​We parked up at the local multi-storey carpark with a slower AC charger so it could charge while we enjoyed the city. Aachen Cathedral was completed more than 1225 years ago, is a UNESCO world heritage site and rightly so. It is one of the most stunning cathedrals I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to quite a few. Despite the status it holds, entry was free of charge. The chandelier, mosaic, stain glass and amount of gold is rather mind-blowing. The pictures speak for themselves.
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We found a moment to sit down quietly in the church and researched on the history of the church and answered the question “what do monks do?” when we saw a few of them visiting the cathedral. It is lovely to have these learning moments. After we’d wandered around the church, we explored the the old town centre and a 4 story book store. If the books weren’t all in German, we would have bought quite a few.

​One of the biggest highlights of this trip was the German food. Debra and I are big fans! We had the best wursts and our favourite radler. 

​The kids had some ice-cream to cool off in the heat before we headed to the Lindt factory outlet for more chocolates. When you see people hauling large boxes to their cars outside the outlet, you know the price is good. I found the experience a highly conflicting one because on one hand, you are glad you are getting cheaper chocolate. On the other hand, you realise how much you’ve been ripped off in Singapore and in the UK.
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​More playgrounds, charging and toilet breaks later, we got back to Brussels to sleep for the night. At this point we were quite reluctant to leave. We wanted more of the amazing sights, breakfasts, foosball competitions at the hotel lobby and chocolate treats.

The following morning, we said goodbye to Brussels and headed back towards the ferry terminal in Calais. Having carefully planned the return journey back to the Midlands in the UK, we had time for a lunch stop at Dunkirk’s Carrefour to stock up on yummy gluten free food and some beer. A lot of cheese and saucisson later, we got through the French and UK border control and parked up on the berth.
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Our minds wandered and thought about the countless possibilities we have now unlocked. It was as if there was some kind of divine appointment going on, the ferry was late and we happen to meet a lovely couple from Wales. We had a long chat with them about their adventures in classic cars and rallies throughout Europe. They are aged 50 ish and 80. Despite their physical ailments, they keep going! One key takeaway is that we don’t need the best equipment or the biggest budgets to have an adventure.

​The ferry did eventually arrive and this time the ride was a lot faster and smoother. Sunny and clear skies meant we stood on the open deck and watched the White Cliffs of Dover as we entered port. Nothing more British than seeing these iconic cliffs and getting some gusts of cold wind to welcome you home. The last 200 miles home was surprisingly smooth and uneventful. As we pulled up to our driveway safely, hearts full from the trip,  it was a “we did it!” moment and then it was where next?