I had hoped to do a daily check in on our roadtrip, but it has been a crazy busy and eventful week, plus it was tricky to get power whilst at Resurrection Fest.
Today marks a week of being on the road. I’ll try give a quick summary so far, and I’ll do some more detailed posts around things that really stood out for us during the first week later / over the next few days. Things like our experiences of driving an EV around Spain, getting ‘married’ etc. You know, just the little things!!!! 😉
Day 1
We left home early on 28th June – just to make sure we didn’t hit any traffic. First stop was Taunton Deane services, southbound on the M5, to give the car a little blast of juice. We needed some brekkie anyway, and a brief comfort break. However, the facilities for EV’s are dreadful. One fast charger, that was being tempramental and was occupied anyway, and one slow charger where you had to dig out your own cable – which we did. However, even after having breakfast, it was taking so long we gave up. Found that just around 2 miles away just ouside Wellington, there was a fantastic MFG charging station with loads of facilities around it for a coffee or a bite to eat while charging. If you have an EV and travelling this route I would completely recommend swerving Taunton services and head to Wellington.
Arrived in Plymouth in plenty of time for check in. After check in we pulled into the waiting area and during a relaxing cuppa promptly decided that this was much less stressful that being in an airport! So straight forward. No rushing between car or coach. Dragging luggage, check in, security – blah blah blah. Drove onto the boat, checked into our cabin and promptly headed for the bar to have a swift drink befor heading out to explore the ship, have a spot to eat and actaually crash out quite early in the cabin to get some rest.
Day 2
Next day was pretty chilled. Headed out to deck for my morning coffee. Perfect view. Nothing but blue sky and sea.
After breakfast we headed to the top deck for a bit of whale and dolphin spotting, but they were being very shy. Headed inside to read my book and chill out before we hit Santander.
Arriving in Santander an disembarking once again reminded us how less stressful this was than flying. We did confuse the border guard a bit by driving a UK car and having a Spanish passport!!! Ha! Helen had to get out to do her biometrics. I could just stay in the car gloating over my enhanced status as a Spanish / EU citizen.
We needed to charge the car ready for our trip over to Oviedo. I had ordered a Bip&Go EV charging card in anticipation of our trip. However we quickly discovered how dreadful its mapping and network coverage is. First it sent us to an Audi dealership where the charger wouldn’t accept the Bip&Go card. We finally found somewhere by choosing somewhere on the map in the app. The card still didn’t work but I was able to use the QR code scan method and pay with contactless. I was starting to think that travelling to Spain in an EV was going to be more stressful than I thought. More about that later!!!
After a coffee and a sudden realisation of how badly out of practice I was with my Spanish, we headed to our first hotel and night in Spain in Oviedo. One more charging stop was needed. Again – charger was dodgy, but managed to get it working, once again by not using the Bip&Go card purchased to do that job! We had an evening meal at the hotel. It was an Ibis, however we think the food was dissappointingly microwaved. Nice hotel though – it was clean and the beds were comfy.
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