Winchester - Den Haag
We got up at 7:00 and the Mercedes was gone, so we could plug in and charge at least 40 km or so before leaving.
Summary of our trip:
- Distance traveled: 4641 km
- Energy used: 897,3 kWh
- Average efficiency: 193 Wh/km
Our whole trip has been recorded by TeslaFI, so if you would like to have more detailed stats about the trip (such as energy use per day / stretch) please leave a note in the comments.
The breakfast at the Holiday Inn Winchester was much better than in Cardiff West - the staff was really nice and the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.
We had a long trip today but that was basically 'going home' - no sightseeing or pictures underway.
We did have an unpleasant experience in the Folkestone Eurotunnel terminal: our train was cancelled but without any communication. My attempts to get information was met by a reasonably rude lady who didn't care to explain why the train was cancelled (technical issue with loading doors). That service is really under par: we pay full price for a ticket, we have to book a specific time, so we expect the train to be on time. If a train is cancelled for some reason, the least thing Eurotunnel could to is send us an SMS or an email explaining what's going on. I tried to post this on their Facebook page but that's apparently not open and my comments need to be reviewed first. I also sent them a message but no answer yet. Let's see if that will get published.
We had torrential rain during a good part of our trip on the continent. We arrived around 20:00 which is not bad considering.
All in all, this was an awesome experience - we have seen so many interesting and beautiful things that we will need quite some time to process all of it. Tosha - our newly named red Tesla - behaved exemplary and it was a joy to drive her in all circumstances: highways, winding single-track roads, cities - indeed, it is a perfect road trip car. Not to mention we spent less than £10 for energy!
I will think of making a separate 'summary' article with some lessons learned (please leve a comment if this would interest you - you can also specify what info you would like to see in the summary). Until then, if you are reading this - thank you for following our trip - until new adventures!
Our staircase after unloading the Tesla
Cardiff West - Winchester
We cannot recommend having breakfast at the Copthorne hotel - the scrambled eggs had an afwul smell, everything was slow, the buffet closed at 10:30 sharp and the staff was unfriendly and looked tired. We left a note about this in the hotel survey.
We left latish - I wanted to catch up with blogging. We charged in Bristol-M5 and proceeded to the Cheddar Gorge. The road departs from Cheddar (we didn't join the huge crowd of tourists in the quest for the "real Cheddar cheese"). It starts with a very spectacular stretch where it "cleaves" a mountain in two, forming a real gorge. Later it transforms to a mountain road leading into hills, nice, but been there done that. From the end of the road we changed course to Bath and Waze sent us through a set of very local roads where the car barely fit - also no pockets so we couldn't possibly resolve an encounter with opposing traffic in any reasonable way.
Somehow we managed to reach a normal road and arrived to Bath shortly.
Amazon Echo!
Waze Maze
Bath emanates a wonderful atmosphere. Something between student youth, culture and laid-back. It has a Royal Theatre, Roman Baths, an a spectacular Abbey. We had a delicious lunch in Kingsmead Kitchen. Before leaving we visited Maplin's electronic shop - I couldn't leave cause I wanted to buy everything, we don't have shops like that in NL - and we bought 2 Amazon Echos which are not for sale in NL.
After Bath we had one more stop: Stonehenge. Despite being quite touristic, the site is well organized: the visitor center is 2 miles from the site itself and there are shuttle buses going back and forth all the time. The monument is impressive but the story around it is even more so: it turned out the stones are 4500 years old but even long before that, the site has been used as a burial place. We recommend you get an audio guide and take your time (at least an hour and a half) for visiting.
After Stonehenge it was a direct route to Winchester - Norton Park. That supercharger has only 2 stalls and it is hidden away at the end of a winding road leading to a 4-star hotel called Norton Park.
For the next day we needed 150km, so since charging was slow - we had a neighbour charging at the same time - I thought charging to 200km would be enough. Beginner's mistake - I forgot that we needed 18km to get to the hotel. To our joy we found a Type 2 charger in front of the hotel entrance! A Mercedes C350e was happily connected to the bottom socket. To our disappointment, the top socket turned out not to work :-( I checked Zap-Map and saw that this socket was reported malfunctioning since ages. I complained to the reception and they said that they would pass the information on to the provider of the charging equipment.
Porthmadog - Cardiff West
The breakfast at the Royal Sportsman was actually reasonable. The whole hotel experience scores a 6.5 out of 10 - except the Tesla charger, this hotel does not really offer anything special for the price.
Today we had lots of scenic drives planned. By the way, the rainbow in the itinerary table means 'scenic route' - apparently, most people think of other things when seeing a rainbow. I just couldn't find a more appropriate emoji - but I am open to suggestions in comments.
First, the remainder of Snowdonia. Although beautiful, it was a little too crowded for our taste. Also, driving for a long time along a road surrounded by trees - with no horizon - tends to be tiring for the driver and induce nausea in the passenger (at least that was our situation after an hour or two).
After Snowdonia we continued along mountain roads passing Tregaron (B), the beginning of the Abergwesyn pass (C) and Llandovery (D on the map, nice little village). From there a long climb to the Brecon Beacons National Park mountains, but that drive is 200% worth it: the views you get on the top are unforgettable. Lot of 1-track-driving again, but by this time we were used to it.
The Bridgend Supercharger - actually called SuC Sarn - has 8 stalls and all of them were free when we arrived - despite Tesla's information showing 2 stalls in use. We had our dinner there at Starbucks - we were pleasantly surprised by the freshness of their salads and hot meals. Recommended if fast food is all you have time for.
The last stretch to the hotel was just 25 minutes. This was the second hotel on our itinerary - Copthorne in Cardiff West (Cardiff is spelt Caerdydd in Welsh). We found this hotel via Hotwire (thanks to Jasper for recommendation!) - this site offers 4-star hotels for competitive prices, check it out. Unfortunately, the pool closed at 20:00 because of the Bank Holiday today, otherwise there is a gym and the rooms are big.
A conclusion: too many 1-track and winding routes makes a day trip long and tiring. For the future, we should not plan as many 'scenic' kilometres without a good rest.
Ireby - Porthmadog
We didn't want to leave our beautiful house in Ireby - we finally left at 13:30. The first part of the route went through the beautiful Lake District (part of the Cumbria county whose name descends from Briton Cymru which, incidentally, is the Welsh name of Wales). It is gorgeous, but a word of warning: in high season it is very crowded. We even didn't have an opportunity to stop for pictures. We did stop at an organic farm shop / café Low Sizergh Barn - highly recommended for the quality of goods / food / gifts!
We continued our trip and had to chose whether to charge at Charnock Richard or Warrington. Charnock Richard is officially only accessible northbound (although the UK Supercharger Guide lists a work-around) and Warrington is even not open yet according to the Tesla's own site at the time of writing. We decided to do the first one because it had 12 stalls (6 free) and the latter one had only 2.
We arrived at Charnock Richard and found the SuC without issues by carefully following the guidelines. To our surprise, we found all stalls empty.
We charged enough to reach our destination - the Royal Sportsman Hotel in Porthmadog, which is listed as a Destination Charging location. When booking, I specifically asked to reserve a charging spot.
After some Motorway driving we reached Wales, and later Snowdonia National Park. Note: I always use Autopilot when driving on the Motorways, and my standard hand position is on the left "spoke" of the steering wheel. Most of the time that works fine, but sometimes (like 3 times until now) AP asks to hold the steering wheel and flashes the outline of the instrument panel with blue. Then I have to apply more force to the steering wheel and the message disappears. This is new behaviour to me. (Another note is that when I mention Snowdonia I always remember Suske & Wiske, but that's an inside joke for Dutch language speakers I guess).
Snowdonia is absolutely stunning - and also crowded, just like Lake District. Here we managed to stop and make some pictures. I even did a really touristy thing, paid £1.50 (actually £2, no change) to take a picture of the Swallow Falls - a nice waterfall, but not really worth the time for a detour and finding a parking spot. We arrived at our hotel around 20:00 and it was really good we had a parking spot reserved for us, since the hotel parking was full. I plugged the car in and it started charging with a disappointing 19km/h - since I have only a 'single charger' on board I can only charge with 16A instead of 32A, so effectively this is only half the speed a Tesla Wall Connector can deliver.
We finished the day with a meal at the hotel - we booked it along with the room. The restaurant was not bad, but Sirloin was overcooked and anyway, we were definitively spoilt after our Portree experience (see Fort William - Portree for details).
The availability info was incorrect - all 12 stalls were free when we arrived.
Charging with the Tesla Wall Connector
Grantown On Spey - Ireby
Today we said good-bye to Scotland at the Gretna Green Supercharger. We already had charged at the previous SuC but I wanted to stop at Gretna Green because of its name. We then continued in the direction of Carlisle and our B&B at Ireby.
Gretna Green SuC - Goodbye Scotland!
The house turned out to be a fabulous 17-18th century mansion, fully renovated and fitted with a modern bathroom. The owner showed us tremendous hospitality - we got tea in the living room (see picture), she reserved a restaurant for our dinner and made us feel really comfortable. Besides, the internet was lightning fast, so I decided to catch up on blogging and a pet programming project (yes I know, I'm on holiday).
B&B @ Ireby
Living room
Were are at the entrance of the Lake District and look forward to traversing it tomorrow!
Portree - Grantown On Spey
Today the journey was without lots of adventures. We left Skye using a huge bridge and had a nice trip alongside Loch Ness - although you can't see a lot of the Loch because there are trees between the road and the lake. We stopped for a charge at Drumnadrochit, where one spot was ICEd - meaning illegally occupied by an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) car. I left a polite note, hopefully this will help raise some awareness. We drove through Inverness without stopping. We continued to Forres before turning south - we have been advised to take this road to appreciate the beauty of Cairngorms National Park - and beautiful it is! Unfortunately, it started raining heavily so we coulndn't really stop for pictures. We arrived at our destination Grantown-On-Spey but we were redirected to a different B&B because our original host got an unexpected visit from relatives from overseas. Our new place was a very old-fashioned house but we had a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast (no working WiFi though - it seems the standard issue BT WiFi offering just doesn't work properly, we had this experience before).
Portree - Skye is the Limit
This morning we got up early and decided to go and try a walk called Quiraing (pronunciation unclear but probably something along the lines of “Querahn”). It is a walk with steep climbs and descends and is officially for advanced hikers, but we were brave and decided to do it. Underway to Quiraing we passed a beautiful vista of the Kilt Rock with a waterfall.
Kilt Rock
We arrived at Quiraing carpark, packed a bagpack with some instant noodles, a bottle of water, a breakfast cake (ontbijtkoek, brought from NL) and 2 apples. First we thought we would walk for half an hour and then return, since this was supposed to be an advanced hike. After we started, it began raining, then after 15 minutes it stopped, then after a while it started again. We were excited with the scenery and decided to continue.
The Prison
About 5 hours later we were back at our car. Almost dead but proud and happy we did it! This is our track (I forgot to turn the tracker on at the start, so in reality Start should be where End is). As you see, we got lost a bit around Meall ... Suiramach where we did a detour instead of following the cliff. We did climb to a summit of 543m though! We were astonished that we were actually able to pull this off.
Some more GPS tracker info here.
On a Tesla-related note: we got the following review from our hosts in Portree on AirB&B:
Katja and her husband arrived from the Netherlands on their tour of Scotland. They were a nice couple. during their stay Katja's husband asked if they could recharge their car from our power supply. Angie said sorry that we didn't offer that facility - in truth we had no idea how it was done or how much it cost, but it got us thinking and so we'll check this out and find out if this is something we could offer as I am sure electric cars will become more numerous.
Fort William - Portree
We got up at 8:00 sharp. Sleeping in the pod was good which was a bit unexpected. We used the sleeping bags, one as the sheet and the other one as blanket. Showering in the shared building was very much OK too. We made a mental note to repeat the camping experience in the future.
2 German couples at checkout were interested in the Tesla - I answered some questions (mainly about charging and practicality of it), they were extremely impressed. Nice detail: husband 1 asked if this car can tow a trailer to which I answered "no, but it's bigger brother model X can" to which wife 1 sighed loudly which I understood as "OMG, this will cost us money!"
We were on time for the ferry in Mallaig having passed some exceptional views underway.
Unbelievable sceneries underway to Mallaig
From Armadale - the other side - it was about an hour driving to Portree. We had some difficulty finding our B&B - actually, this time it was a ‘self-catering apartment’ - with a living room + kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom. It also featured an excellent view over the hills of Skye.
We went for a walk to Portree (Gaelic: Port Rìgh), quickly browsed some craft shops and took some pictures. We took a very touristic snapshot of the picturesque Portree harbour - which is in reality just 1 short stretch of pastel coloured houses. We were getting hungry and most restaurants were already fully booked but we were lucky: we could get a table from 17:30 to 19:00 at Scorrybreac https://www.scorrybreac.com - that turned out to be Michelin Recommended place and definitely worth your reservation! I had a Basil Crème Brulée, Balsamic Sorbet and Tomatoes as starter (amazing, the Basil is really made into something resembling the cream fondant which is the core of a crème brulée, and the balsamic sorbet is an explosion of taste on your palate), followed by the Smoked Roasted Cauliflower, Coriander and Pistachio Pesto and Feta as main dish and Scorrybreac Tiramisu Mousse, Skye Roasted Coffee Granita + Mascarpone Sorbet as dessert (all Tiramisu ingredients re-imagined and without alcohol). Katja had Drumfearn Mussels (so fresh they didn't smell!), Scottish Thistly Cross Cider, Fennel, Shallots, Thyme as a starter, followed by Skye Venison (=deer), Parsnip Purée, Potato Fondant, Kale and Smoked Leeks as main dish and Carrot & White Chocolate Fondant, Stem Ginger Ice Cream as dessert. We can't recommend the place enough - if you go to Skye make sure to book this place in advance, you won't regret it! As a matter of fact, we couldn't resist and booked directly for tomorrow!
Iona - Fort William
We left Iona on the 10:10 ferry. To our joy, Tesla waited for us, charged to 355km (a little less than 90%), I didn't want it to be fully charged for more than 24 hours. Katja was worried that she (Tesla is a she for Katja) would be angry with us and wouldn't let us in, but in fact she welcomed us by presenting the door handles. Katja wanted to drive the one-track road back to Craignure. And she did perfectly well!
We arrived in Craignure on time for the earlier ferry and we were again lucky to get boarded. We even were directed to Lane 1 which was reserved for people with a booking for that time, so apparently this trip was not sold out. Around 13:30 we arrived in Oban. After a quick lunch we continued our journey to Fort William.
When we were in Peebles we got an advice to visit Glen Etive - that would be 2 extra hours of driving. We arrived at South Ballachulish and the weather was beautiful, so we decided to do the extra adventure.
After a while we had to turn to a 1-track road, just like on Mull. Soon the road became even narrower, with passing pockets less and less frequent. The scenery was absolutely spectacular but the driving became harder, sometimes we needed to park in a ditch full of dirt to let a car pass. Since our Tesla can’t change its height, it was not really a suitable road for it, but we decided to continue and see where we arrive.
Glen Etive - Skyfall?
After ca. 45 minutes we arrived at “Glen Etive Estate Parking” which was the end of the road. Apparently, a scene from James Bond Skyfall was filmed here. We were at the origin of Loch Etive and had a beautiful view of the Glen (glen means something like ‘a narrow valley’) and the Loch (lake).
Our journey back along the 1-track road had an extra adventure: after 5 minutes we met a group of 2 cars and a motorcycle with a trailer who could reveres. We had to back up a couple of hundred meters and it all was very complicated but finally we managed to pass each other. The rest of the journey was quick since we let a truck pass us which was obviously used to driving on this road - from there it went twice as fast.
Finally in Fort William we connected to a CHAdeMO charger with the ChargeYourCar card (the charger was a little off the marked location) and used the time for buying some cutlery for picnic and having a quick bite at a nearby MacDonald’s. Before you dismiss us as superficial junk food consumers, please note that clan (Mac)Donald is a large and important Scottish clan originating from the Hebrides, which allegedly descends from Somerled, Lord of the Isles, so our visit should be appreciated in this historical context.
Glen Nevis camp site lies next to Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain. We booked a “pod” here - a wooden contraption with seats which fold out into 2 beds (or 1 double bed), a sink, an electric kettle and a tap. The toilets and showers are in a shared building nearby, in about 70 meters. There is a blue 16A connector which either feeds the pod, or, optionally your Tesla. I have tested the charging - got a stable 12 km/h, so when we went to sleep I connected the car and we will wake up 100% charged. The only downside was that we couldn't turn on the ventilation on the pod so it was a little warm.
Iona
Iona, or Í in Gaelic, is a place to return to. It was already inhabited 6000 years ago. In the 6th century, St Columba founded a Christian church here - on that spot there is now an ancient abbey built at the start of the 13th century.
We started the day by visiting the Abbey where we had a very informative guided tour. We spent the day walking around the northern part of the island, saw lots of beautiful views, hills and beaches and had a delicious dinner at the Argyll Hotel.
Tomorrow we need to take the ferry to Fionnphort at 10:00 to cross Mull again in time to get to Craignure on time.
Peebles - Iona
Last night Katja discovered that the last ferry from Mull to Iona departs at 18:15. I booked the 17:00 ferry Oban - Mull which turned out to be too late! We would never make it across Mull in time to get to the last - 18:15 - ferry to Iona. We decided to depart at 9:00 to have a chance to the Oban ferry of 14:00. We also changed our route to the quickest one, foregoing some of the Loch Lomond treats.
Additoinally, I got an email from Glen Nevis camp site reminding me that we should bring our own linen if we want to spend the night in a pod. Since we didn't think of that, we had to buy two sleeping bags!
Had to buy sleeping bags!
The trip went without adventures, we did traverse some of the beautiful Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park and arrived in Oban around 12:45. One observation is that Waze is not perfect: it sometimes has weird routing decisions (like making a detour while just driving straight was possible) and Tesla nav is better in those cases. Another huge advantage of the Tesla nav is that it works without Internet coverage as we noticed frequently during this trip. We keep using both navigation systems and use our judgement when their opinions differ.
In Oban, we immediately drove to the ferry and asked permission to board the 14:00 ferry instead of the booked 17:00 one. We were told to park in lane 4 (unbooked) and visit the ticket office - which you need to visit anyway if you don’t have printed tickets. I didn’t have, since I booked through Internet I only had a printed confirmation. Incidentally, there is a ChargeYourCar charging spot near the ferry terminal providing a Type 2 and a CHAdeMO charger. We couldn't use the waiting time to charge because we needed to keep our spot in the lane.
The ferry trip took about 50 minutes and we arrived in Craignure. From there it's about 60km of 1 track road to Fionnphort. The scenery is simply stunning, but you need to be very careful: drive not too fast and when you see a car coming, immediately look for a pocket on the side of the road where you can let the other car pass. Fortunately, we are in the UK, so politeness is abundant: everyone tries to be the one to let the other pass. Lights are signalled, hands waived.
Forgot to disable the alarm
Gorgeous 1-track road on Mull
We left Tesla here for more than a day - connected to a Type 2 connector.
My advance research revealed that there is a charging spot in Fionnphort. We found it in the middle of a free parking space 5 minutes walk from the jetty. We connected the Tesla to the 44KW Type 2 connector (although we can only use 11) and left the car there. Since there is no mobile Internet coverage around the car we hope everything is all right with it!
Tip: get the app Zap-Map which shows all charging places and providers in the UK. You can also see ratings and comments and decide for yourself whether you trust that specific charger.
At 18:15 we took the (last) ferry to Iona - a 10 minute trip. Our B&B called Iona Cottage was in 30 seconds walk from the jetty! Since it was a gorgeous sunny day (where is all that promised Scottish rain?) we went for a walk. To celebrate Katja’s birthday we had a tasty dinner at the St. Columba hotel. After some walk in the dark - the island becomes really dark and quiet - back home and to bed, to get a good night’s rest.
Peebles & Edinburgh
Day 1
CyC 22kW Charger at Peebles Golf Club
We have charged to 90% at the Peebles Golf Club - a Type 2 22kW charger which can be used with the ChargeYourCar RFID card for free. That's a pleasant surprise! The charger is 10 minutes walk from our B&B but walking is healthy and we are on holiday!
We drove to Edinburgh which took about an hour. We parked near the Edinburgh Castle and walked up to it, only to find it crowded, as expected. Decided not to go in and instead walked down High Street. These days Edinburgh was immersed in the huge Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe festival - apparently, the largest of its kind in the world. We enjoyed a comic circus show and walked along, visiting some churches and admiring street artists. In the Cockburn (here, please don't read the second C nor K, in case you wondered) we passed another Harry Potter shop (Edinburgh claims to have provided inspiration for some streets from the famous septology) and had a tea accompanied by a delicious scone with clotted cream and jam (well I did, Katja limited herself to a cup of flat white).
Having briefly savoured this magnificent city we slowly walked back to the car, reviewing some shops underway. We drove back to Peebles and again had dinner in Franco's, a pizzeria which serves a surprisingly tasty meal. Tip: if you like a certain Italian dish, just ask for it, even if it's not on the menu - the chef will likely make it for you.
Day 2
Today was again a lazy day. We started with a long breakfast and left for some Peebles shopping (charity shops rule!) and scenery driving. Since the car is equipped with a dashcam, we often press REC which should result in a 10 seconds video recording which will be saved for later perusal. We hope there is some nice footage to splice together when we will have time! After driving around we suddenly found ourselves near the Dancing Light Gallery - an art gallery in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by an organic shop, a café and an antiques store. We had a very nice chat with the gallery owner and the artist Becksy working there. After refilling our thermos mugs with coffee in the café we drove to Rosslyn Chapel - a exquisite church with fine carvings and a rich history, now a famous attraction thanks to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
After the chapel we drove to West Linton where we had an appointment to visit an good friend. We had dinner at Gordon's where Katja tasted and liked Haggis for the first time in her life!
Back to Peebles through small but ever so gorgeous roads. Driving in Scotland never gets old. Plugged the car back in at the Golf Club - this time we are doing a range charge since we have a long trip tomorrow.
York - Peebles
Alnwick Castle
Today we decided to leave as early as possible which turned out to be 10:30. We also decided to stop at least every 2 hours to relax, even if we don't have to charge.
The first stop was the Ecotricity CHAdeMO charger at Rheged Centre near Penrith. We figured if we charge full, we can avoid the detour for the Washington SuC. Rheged Centre is a paradise for kids: a wooden fortress with turrets, a frightengly alive T-Rex model, a Lego shop and more. We had a nice lunch there and the car was charged when we were ready. I immediately got e-mailed the bill: £8.37 including £3 start-up costs and a maximum of 45 minutes. Not cheap, but the energy is guaranteed to be green.
We then continued our trip through the North Pennines (the famous A686) which was beautiful, but we think we liked the Peak District better. We had enough energy to bypass the Washington SuC and we went directly to Alnwick (note: the L nor the W are pronounced here, who said French pronunciation was difficult?) Apparently, the castle was cast as Hogwarts in Harry Potter. Unfortunately I didn't do my planning job properly - the Castle and the Gardens are a Disneyland of sorts so you have to buy day tickets and the entry to the castle closed at 16:15 and we were just 15 minutes late. We walked around the beautiful hills and took some pictures though. If you have children, Alnwick makes a great day trip.
From Alnwick it was shortest route to Peebles. It was funny to see how Tesla nav and Waze permanently and totally disagreed about the best route. After crossing the Scottish border, the roads became more and more spectacular and after half an hour Katja stated that she was officially in love with Scotland. Indeed, the unpredictable beauty of the winding roads and changing landscapes is unforgettable.
To compensate for the shabby Bs over the past days our current stay is the most gorgeous house in Peebles. This is the view from our window - we kid you not.
View from our B&B in Peebles
Tomorrow and after tomorrow we stay here and make trips to Edinburgh and surroundings.
A note on charging
Supercharger coverage in the UK has some white spots: in most of Scotland and Wales we will need alternative charging. Before leaving on this road trip, I did some research and found that ChargeYourCar was the best charging provider for Scotland so I ordered their RFID card for £20 (cost of card, no charging credit). I also downloaded the Ecotricity app called Electric Highway (don't make the mistake I made by downloading an app called Ecotricity) and registered. You can register even if you are not a current Ecotricity customer. If you are from The Netherlands, make sure to type the postal code including a space, otherwise you will get rejected after you finish entering all the details including your credit card).
Ecotricity bill
York
Today we had a day of rest in York. We slept in and went for a walk. The town centre was overcrowded so we tried to find roads off the beaten path. We stopped in an excellent lunchroom Lucky Day, highly recommended!
We made our way to Minster, the famous cathedral in York. Next to it is a statue of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great - history tells us that it was here, next to the current Minster, that he converted to Christianity and chose it as the official religion for the Empire. The building itself is enormous and contains amazing stained glass windows. In the basement there is a large and very interesting exposition about the history of Minster, primarily geared towards teenagers but highly recommended for everyone. Entrance price for Minster is £10 but extremely worth it.
We also tried to find some York Snickelways (half-hidden passageways usually not visited by tourists) and that's fun: please find a map of Snickelways (you can find one here) and spend some time discovering the unknown York. You can also do a 'cat tour' - finding pictures or statues of cats around York - you can find a map in a shop halfway The Shambles.
We walked back on town walls - which go almost around the entire city. Before ending our day at an Indian restaurant near our B&B (the second B had to be provided by us again) we decided to investigate the ChargeYourCar charge point nearby. It turned out to be available and working so we topped our car - £3 for 20KWh is not bad if you ask me.
CyC CHAdeMO charging spot at Nunnery Parking
Oxford - York
In the morning we decided to drive to a parking close to city center and walk around before leaving for York. Long story short: parking in Oxford is not a pleasant experience - busy, expensive and lot of unclear rules. Anyway, we walked to the center and had a nice guided tour in the Bodleian Library and the New College (don't be fooled by the name, the New College is one of the oldest and was founded in 1379). The guide was himself an Oxford alumnus and entertained us with various trivia: did you know that the only two studies you cannot do in Oxford are dentistry and veterinary science? And since New College was used for filming some Harry Potter movies, he also quizzed the group on knowledge of the characters and scenes. After the tour we had a super-delicious lunch at Turl Street Kitchen: the place comes highly recommended. Last but not least, we couldn't resist the temptation and dove into the Blackwell's Book Shop on Broad Street, especially its basement department - the Norrington room.
At about 15:30 (40 minutes late for parking, fortunately we got away with it) we left Oxford. We had 73% (about 325 km) charge and stopped for 10 minutes at Warwick SuC to answer nature's call and top up. A tesla employee was repairing a stall - someone had backed up into it.
Continuing our route we got into some traffic around Birmingham which cost us about 45 minutes. After Birmingham we took the M6 Toll North which was clear of traffic.
Tip: use the UK Supercharger Guide if you are preparing your Tesla trip through the UK. Some of the chargers are officially accessible in one direction only, the site lists some 'work-arounds' which may be unsupported by Tesla but still work.
The Stoke-on-Trent SuC is officially only available in the southbound direction. We decided to skip it because we figured we would have enough to reach Barnsley - the route through the scenic Peak District would not use much energy as the winding roads wouldn't permit us to drive more than 60 km/h on average. So we couldn't test the work-around: hopefully we will do so on the way back from Scotland.
The Peak District was a breathtaking experience: first and foremost, because of its beauty (see photos) but also because Katja - in the passenger seat - had to endure closely passing vehicles on narrow roads. We stopped in Buxton to see if there was a charger available and caught a glimpse of a beautiful opera house but we decided to move on because we wanted to see the whole Peak District before dark.
SuC Barnsley
We reached Barnsley SuC with 6% charge. This is a small 2-stall SuC near a nice-looking hotel. The food they serve is, unfortunately, not on par with the looks.
After another hour of driving we arrived in York around 0:30 which brings our total trip time to 9 hours. We stopped for about 2 hours in total, which gives us a net driving time of 7 hours, or 6:15 without traffic delays. Google maps predicted 5:46 which is still a bit optimistic. Lesson learned: the estimated time should be corrected by about 50% which we should do from now on.
The good news is that tomorrow we have a day in York - we can sleep in!
Canterbury - Oxford
After a walk through a hot and surprisingly crowded Canterbury we left for Oxford with plenty of charge. We skipped Maidstone and stopped at the Oxford SuC (5 stalls, 5 are under construction). The area has a nice peaceful feeling to it, with a Ramada hotel and a WelcomeBreak food court where we had a quick bite.
Oxford SuC
5 stalls under construction
During the trip I finally understood how Tesla reads signs in the UK. First, I reset the units back to kilometres. Apparently, the instrument panel always shows the speed it actually reads, no matter the unit setting. So if the speed limit is 70 mph, the display shows 70, but when I set the TACC to that speed, it becomes 118 kmh! Confusing but there is logic to its madness.
When we arrived in Oxford at our B&B (Actually, this B&B turned out to be just the first B without the second B, so just a B), it started raining. We waited until the rain stopped and then took the bus to the city center. It was a marvellous experience: the sun was setting, the sky was clearing up, the streets were quiet and the ancient buildings were still and mysterious. An impression follows below.
Den Haag - Canterbury
Last night I didn't sleep well - excitement before departure. Despite attempts to pack everything the day before, we still were running around the house at 9:00. Left at 9:40 with 412 km range.
Supercharger Ghent has 4 temporary stalls - funny big red cable bundles proceed to a greenish building which probably contains an electricity power station enough to power a medium sized village.
Today we confirmed that using Waze in addition to Tesla nav is a good idea: it's up to date and frighteningly smart about route optimising - once it sent us to a parallel stretch of road to bypass about 1 km of traffic jam. Tesla nav is very useful for SuC data (such as their locations and usage) and the energy estimates. So we generally end up using both.
Arrived to Calais on time but due to traffic at checkin the trains were delayed by about 45 minutes. The shopping center is extremely uninteresting, but there is a 4 stalls SuC here, so time well spent! Lesson learned: if you can help it, don't plan the crossing during high season in the weekend. It's crowded and expensive.
Speaking of Superchargers: the first time I crossed the Chunnel, I planned to charge on the other side in Folkestone, only to find out that that supercharger is 'Calais-bound' only. In Calais there is one supercharger which you can visit without taking the train, and the other one is behind the check-in.
“Tip: when going from the Continent to the UK, be sure to charge before crossing unless you have enough to reach Maidstone (53 km). ”
The crossing itself is very smooth and painless and takes 35 minutes. A word of caution: Model S is very wide and space in the train is tight. Special care if you have 21" rims since they are easily damaged due to raised edges of the metal train floor.
On the other side we quickly turned off the motorway to a beautiful winding road in the direction of Canterbury (footage from dashcam hopefully forthcoming). We changed the units to miles but something weird happened: Tesla started to convert the speed limits on road signs from kilometres to miles. Hopefully after a night rest she will discover she is in the UK and will adjust her behaviour.
Train
Extra stalls in Ghent SuC
Alien cables
Calais UK-bound SuC
Almost boarding
Careful with those rims!
Here are some pictures of Canterbury. It's a lovely medieval city with 40K inhabitants and 40K students. It's rather touristic in high season but the magnificent cathedral is definitely worth a visit.
