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 by Wiebe

Day 101 & 102 | So much to do in Oslo

Day 101 | Thursday June 21

My host Oyvind has a couple of drones which he uses to make video’s for companies. We drove out of Oslo and took great videos of my car. Here is one clip, I will make a compilation later this week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHAHZqsEi7g/?taken-by=plugmeintravel

After this I went to town. In March there was a Norwegian magazine who published an article about Plug Me In, now I arrived here I got in touch with them and they wanted to interview me, I will share the article when it’s online.

In the evening I had a meeting where I had been looking forward to for a while. Bjorn Nyland is a famous youtuber who makes videos about his Tesla, which he calls the Millenium Falcon. He shares facts about this car for instance about the autopilot or the Bioweapon Defense Mode.
I wanted to know from him how he got interested in this and info about driving electric cars in Norway. He was actually very interested in my car so he made a movie about that! I hope he will publish it soon. It was really nice to meet Bjorn, just like on his videos he is a nice and funny guy.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/503692469839820/?type=3&theater

Day 102 | Friday June 24

Finally I had a little bit of time to do some sightseeing. First I wanted to visit Holmenkollen, the national ski arena were many championships and Olympic Games where held. I put the wrong address in the GPS so it took me one hour longer to get there. The jump is very well designed. Of course now it’s not in use because there’s now snow but still a lot of tourists (read: Japanese people) come to visit. They made a zip line from the start until the finish, pretty cool idea.
Then I drove to the centre, an incentive for electric cars is that you can park anywhere for free! I visited the opera house which is also a beautiful location. I’m starting to like architecture in general more and more.

A few days earlier my host Paal told me that Detroit Electric would be presenting their new car on Saturday. Detroit Electric was responsible for converting the car I’m driving to fully electric and the Plug Me In kick-off was at their office in Houten, NL. That’s why I was enthusiastic about this. I send them an mail if it was possible to come too and they even invited me to the VIP launch party today.
When I arrived I was surprised that Willem, the Dutch boss of DE was also their accompanied with some of his colleagues. Very nice to catch up with them. I even met the CEO of the company who was seriously enthusiastic about the project and is going to sponsor me! How I will hear next week.

They unveiled to SP-01, and sport scar build on the Lotus Elise. It has a 288km range and a manual gear, which is very unique for an electric car.

Hollenmolken
The jump, 130m high!
Oslo Opera Hosue
Arty thing in the sea
My car with the DE SP-01
Willem & Co
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 by Wiebe

Day 100 | 100 days

Today I reached a milestone, I am 100 days on the road. It feels like I just started yesterday. The first 100 were pretty amazing, let’s hope the next 100 will be just as great.

Yesterday, on my first day in Oslo many people told me I really had to visit the company Bellona. Apparently they did a lot with sustainability and e-mobility. Paal told me that their office was right at the other side of the hotel. I already send them an email and when I woke up this morning they told me I had to come to the office now to meet Frederic Hauge as he was very busy today. Frederic seemed to be kind of a legend in Norway. He has been an environmentalist since 30 years. He went to Russia to expose that the government was hiding nuclear reactor and did many more of these crazy things.

I was surprised to learn that he was also the reason why electric cars are so populair in Norway. In 1988 he bough an electric Fiat Panda together with some of the members of the popband A-ha. Yes really. They drove it around the country and didn’t want to pay for the toll ways. They collected all their fines and brought it to the government, then the government agrees to make tollways and ferries free for electric cars.
Frederic has been supporting EV’s since the beginning and drove it to Murmansk already in the 90’s, very impressive. He had just 30 minutes for me until but I could come back later in the night, he works 18-20 hours a day.

I went to Paal & Asmund’s Meshcraft’s office, located on the university. They explained me a bit more about how their app works.

Later I would return to Oyvind where I stayed earlier this week. I stayed there short as in the night I went back to Frederic. He was really cool. I explained him more about what I was doing and he tried to help me in as many ways he could. He has many contacts in Russia and said that he could get me a Visa. That’s a great thing as it’s really hard to get one and I have been working on that for the last weeks.

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 by Wiebe

Day 99 | The longest day of the year

Day 99 | Tuesday June 21

I said goodbye to Øyvin but knew that I would see him again in a few days. Today was the longest day of the year and I had 3 appointments.
First at the Dutch Embassy in Oslo. I was welcomed by Taco who took about 100 pictures of the car and took me for lunch. He explained what the Embassy in Oslo doing. They help Dutch people sorting out papers to get into the country, facilitate Dutch companies who want to do business here, share knowledge with to Norwegian government and they also have a military department here. The Dutch army takes part in training camps and if the Russians attack Norway Holland has also a role in defending the country.
Just last week a delegation of Dutch EV companies visited Norway. Taco send a mail to all the Norwegian companies if they could help me with the documentary. I always liked Taco’s.

While driving to Oslo I saw so many electric cars, unbelievable. It was like there was an EV parade organized. At the moment 1 out of every 3 cars sold is an electric one and there are around 100.000 in the country, on a population of 5 million. That’s huge/

Second stop was at Nolbil, the Norwegian E-Mobility association. They provided me with a key so I can open all the 220v charging stations and an RFID tag for the newer charging station. Great that they can help me with this!

Last stop was at Meshcrafts, a company that created the app ‘SmartCharge’ owned by Paal and Asmund. It’s an EV App where you can find private charging stations. For an driver this is ideal because you have more stations available and for the owner it’s good because he can earn some money with selling out electricity.

Paal found me a few months ago and plugged me in. With the 3 of us we went for dinner and as EV professionals of course they wanted to know all the detailer about the trip. Later Paal would take me to a concert, Over Oslo. It was on top of a hill with a beautiful overview on the city. Paal introduced me to his wife, her sister and brother-in-law. I had my camera with me and it was not allowed to take it in, the guard allowed it but said that if they would see me taking pictures they would take my camera. As I really wanted to document this I tried to get a press pass and with some heavy smiling and lots of talks they eventually gave me one. So now you can watch some nice pictures of the show.
Highlight of the evening was the performance of Tom Jones! This guy is 76 years and still the bomb!

Paal’s house was not ready to receive me so he booked me a hotel room in downtown Oslo. This hotel was actually sustainable as well. The people who work there are homelessness or have some social problems. In the hotel they are trained and once they are fit for the job they have to leave as they are ready for a normal job.

Parking between 5 other electric cars
The Dutch Embassy
Charging station
Over Oslo Concert
Paal & Cecilie
Tom!!
Still the bomb
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 by Wiebe

Day 96 & 97

Day 96 | Saturday June 18

So last night I arrived in the darkness and had no idea where I was. When I went outside this morning I was amazed by the beauty of this place. I stayed in a house right in the middle of a forrest with a view over valley with huge windmills on the other side.

Madde lived there with her husband Lennart, her parents stayed in a small house outside and Lennart’s parents stay here all summer in a caravan. Madde works as a paramedic and already has big plans when she will retire. She hopes to have the house completely renovated by then so they can enjoy it to the fullest.

Being in this place made me feel very relaxed, I went for a short walk in their garden/ forest and the family was very nice. One of the grandparents kept speaking Swedish to me which was very sweet and funny. In the garden we also found a snake, the most venomous of Sweden. It was about 30cm and a bite will sting you and could kill you when in bad health. 

After lunch I departed for the next destination. Now I could see the roads I’ve driven through last night and it was gorgeous. What I didn’t notice on my way there is that I drove very close to a cliff and could have just fallen into that.

My next stop was Guesthouse Eleven in Arvika. Again a guesthouse run by Dutchies, home sweet home. Brenda and Michel bought on old school 11 years ago and renovated it all by themselves, it took them 2 years. The heating is provided by the warmth from the mountains. There are 2 pipes going 180 meters deep into the ground which pump up the warmth.

Brenda is the niece of an former football mate from me in Holland so through him they heard about Plug Me In.

When I arrived there they had some Dutch friends over and we sat there for a while and had some house brewed beers. Strong ones though, they had me in a few minutes. 

Michel and Brenda are world explorers too, they have a Land Rover and drove it around Africa and Europe. They had some crazy stories about their adventures.

Day 97 | Sunday June 19

This morning I enjoyed an excellent breakfast. I’m a sucker for buffets and at Guesthouse Eleven they had the perfect one: croissants, Swedish bread, jams, yoghurt and pie to finish. Around 11 I said goodbye to Brenda & Michel and left to Oslo, a 160km drive. When I passed to Norwegian border I already saw 3 Tesla’s. I already knew that I would see a lot of electric cars in this country. Because of incentives and tax profits they are cheaper then normal cars. Not only did I see Tesla’s but also Leaf’s, I3’s, Soul’s and even I-Mievs, that was a surprise as it’s a really small car and with the cold weather in the winter you can drive far in this one.

When I stopped in Norway for a short brake I found out I’ve forgotten to give the key from my room at the guesthouse return. Bad luck, I’ve got to send it back now.

I arrived in Oslo around 2 and was supposed to be at my host around 5 so I worked in the car. My host name is Øyvind and he lives close to Oslo’s city center. He is an EV driver and converted an old Citroen 2CV into fully electric, he is going to show me that later. I just spoke to Øyvind shortly as he had to go to the school closing of his son, he has 2. Around 8 he would return with his 2 children and wife. He left a bake-off pizza for me.

When they returned they gave me a lot of sightseeing tips for the country and explained me how it is to drive electric here. It seems like a party.

Madde & Lenny's house in Tosse
Charging the car on 16A
The view from their garden
Little house on the
Dangerous snake
Madde & Lenny
The grandparents
Michel & Brenda at Guesthouse Eleven
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 by Wiebe

Day 94 | The sun always shines in Karlstad

I enjoyed 2 very relaxing days at the B&B. Marnix and Joyce took good care of me and I felt very welcome.

Today I needed to travel 260km and I had the feeling that it would be a long day. I left in the morning and was planning to recharge in Karlstad at the Ikea, again. Here in Sweden I always choose for this place as they have good chargingstations and free WiFi. It was rainy today and Karlstad became out of reach. I did a pitstop in Kristinehamn where they had 2 chargingstations. It was not a regular one where you could just plug in and charge but it had a manual. From this I understood that you had to send an SMS with the text ‘charge’. An hatch would automatically open and I attached the cable with the car, nothing happened. As I didn’t know what to do I asked an passerby if he could help me translate the instructions. Apparently you had to close the hatch first but that also wouldn’t start charging. There was an info number and the nice man would translate it for me. A robot told because it was weekend we had to call an different number. A nice lady on the other side of the line would tell the mechanic to get in touch with me and 2 minutes later I had him on the phone. He was on his way to the office and from there he could look into the system what was wrong. While waiting for his phone calls I tried sending a couple of texts to the number and it started charging. After a while it stopped and was hoping it would be enough to reach Karlstad.

With 6% left on the display I would reach the Ikea in Karlstad but sadly enough this time there was only a Type 2 charging station. For every EV driver this is perfect but I was a but sad as they normally don’t communicate with my car, so was the case this time. I looked around for other plugs but there was none around. I was getting a bit desperate as the next charging station was 10km away and couldn’t reach that. I stopped at the closest house I could find and asked the people if I could use their plug for 20 mins so I could reach the next stop. 

That was no problem at all and they were a bit surprised that I was driving all the way to Australia and doing that without money (duh, who would do such a thing anyway?). So they even invited me to have a bbq with them. So awesome that these nice Swedes shared their energy with me, not just food but also their stories. Oh yeah and also Swedish chewing tobacco, which was also an… interesting experience.

They told me that there is a Swedish saying “the sun always shines in Karlstad” which seemed to be very true, especially in a social way. If you want to know the scientifically explanation: because Karlstad is located next to a lake the wind blows the clouds aways which makes room for the sunlight.

Around 9 it was time to go to the station as I still needed to charge quickly and reach Tossë were Madde was waiting for me. I already let her know that I would arrive fairly late and that was no problem.

Around 1.15 I left the highway and the navigation send me into the forrest. I was not really sure if I was right here, there were no houses at all. After 5km the navigation told me I arrived and I stood next to a house but there were no lights, I texted Madde and she told me I had to continue driving. It was dark and a few miles away I could see a small light coming towards me, spooky stuff. It appeared to be Madde who came in my direction. We drove to here house, still had no idea how it looked like, we had some tea and round 2.30 I went to bed.

The station in Kristinehamn
BBQ!
Me trying Swedish chewing tobacco
Swedish chewing tobacco
Were I charged the car
The road to Madde's house
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 by Wiebe

Day 93 | To the countryside

Day 93 Thursday June 16

I set the alarm at 7.30, which is still pretty late for the Swedes. Their working hours are different as to other countries. Because in the winter it gets dark around 3pm they start and finish a bit earlier.
Filip, a friend of Mikael invited me to come to a food workshop at the University in Stockholm. Filip told me it was better to park at Misha’s place (where I slept a few days before) because it was free there and then walk 15 minutes to the Uni. Unfortunately I got stuck in traffic and it when I arrived I found out it was a 50 minutes walk and would be at the workshop way to late. I decided to skip it.

Today I would leave Stockholm and go to Färna, about 200km from the city. It was raining a lot and I lost range. When it rains to streets become wet and the car has les friction. With a normal car you would hardly tell the difference but with an electric car you can easily loose 20% of range. On a 200km max range that is a lot. In Västerås I stopped at an Ikea to charge the car.

Around 5pm I arrived in Farna but when the navigation told me I arrived at the right place I was parked in front of an apartment. I knew tonight I would be staying at a Bed & Breakfast and I knew how it looked like because I checked pictures on their website, this was not the place. I called Marnix, one of the owners and he explained me that their I needed to be in a different town which was part of the municipality where they had the same street name. Bad luck for me as I had just 6% battery left. I started driving back and it was a long road with only trees. After a few km’s I came by a crossing with 2 houses, I had just 2% left and was not sure if I could make it. I knocked on a door (they don’t seem to have doorbells in Sweden) and explained I was in desperate need for some electricity. The woman didn’t really understand me and couldn’t offer me a plug. As at the other house no-one opened the door I had to drive further, it was an exciting ride and with 0% on the display I luckily made it to B&B Farna’s Hjarta.

Joyce & Marnix are 2 Dutch people. Compared to Holland Sweden is considerably cheaper, the social services are better organized and because of the comparable culture it is easy to integrate. That’s why many Dutchies migrated here and this probably explains the reason why I stayed with so many fellow country mans here in Sweden. My hosts came at a point in their lives that they where reconsidering what they were doing and felt that it was time for a move. Having a connection with Sweden for a few years they decided that this was the right place. They started this B&B and have been doing very well. They got involved in a program for sustainable tourism and have been developing the accommodation until it reached their level of expectation. They learned sustainability is not only about reducing waste and producing green energy but also in the hospitality towards their guests. With their efforts they received many awards and even the 3rd best ranked B&B in Sweden according to Zoover. A more detailed review about the B&B will follow later on.

Marnix gives lectures about sustainable tourism in Sweden. They have a fulltime job of running the B&B but Joyce still has the time for a side-job. In the summer she runs an ice cream truck. She was the very first to do this in Sweden and the locals needed some time before they understood what it was.

I could spend two nights at this great location. The next day I went for a run around the lakes and through the forests and this was seriously one of the most beautiful runs I ever did. The rest of the day I locked myself in and worked. I find it hard to get the right timing for this project, every day is different and whenever I have the time to work I do so but I still have reports to produce from a few weeks ago. Because today I had no meetings this was the perfect time.

Fjarna's Hjarta B&B
#1 & #6
Ah so cute
The Ice Cream Truck
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 by Wiebe

Touche Streetlight

Touché is a street light designed by architect Bjarne Schläger from Copenhagen, Denmark. This sophisticated light is completely carbon neutral and made from 100 per cent recyclable material. It is fitted with solar cells that completely cover the aluminium column, allowing it to generate its power from sunlight.

Touché has a sleek design, with solar panels discreetly covering the surface from top to bottom. It requires no electrical connection, so it can work both in urban and rural areas. What’s more, it produces about two to three times its consumption so it can actually contribute energy if connected to the grid.

Not only would the Touché streetlight reduce CO2 emission significantly, but it would also save municipalities a lot of money spent on the cost of maintenance and replacement of streetlights. It’s already being used in 15 countries, including Russia, Netherlands, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Bjarne Schlager & Touche StreetlightBjarne Schlager & Touche Streetlight
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 by Wiebe

UN City (United Nations)

UN City

The United Nations doesn’t need much introduction. The organization is maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights since 1945.

In Copenhagen many different branches of the UN such as UNHCR, Unicef and WHO where spread over the city. After the Millennium Summit it was decided that all ten in Copenhagen based UN agencies where moved into one compound. This will not only obtain savings on economic scale but also facilitate the co-operation between the different agencies. The plans where formed in 2002, in 2005 the location Marmormolen was decided and in 2013 UN City was put into operation. The location houses around 1.300 employees from 100 different nationalities.
A bit further, in the container port, a second building (Campus 2) was constructed. This is UNICEF’s new state of the art high bay warehouse and is currently the largest humanitarian warehouse in the world.

Sustainable building

What got my interest in this building is that it received many awards for their sustainable efforts. Amongst the awards are the European Commission’s Green Building Award for New Buildings and the platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification which is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide. UN City is one the most sustainable buildings of it’s kind in Scandinavia. Because of their involvement with LEED they have looked at sustainability since the drawings were being made and they looked at 5 environmental categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources & Indoor Environmental Quality plus an additional category: Innovation in Design. From this categories I will highlight some of the most interesting ones.

 

From solar panels to sea water cooling and external metal blinds to regulate light and heat. UN City shows wat can be achieved.
– UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

 

Water

UN City captures around 3 million liters of rain water each year. This is enough to flush the toilets 5300 times a day. Low-flow taps and toilets reduce the water usage. Combined, the use of innovative taps, toilets and rainwater reduce the consumption of water in the building’s kitchens, toilets and showers by 61%.

Use of natural resources

Sophisticated solar shade’s on the building’s facade can be openend and closed to either trap or reflect heat from the sun. UN City is entirely ventilated with filtered, outside air. Cold sea water is used to cool the building down.
To produce electricity 1.400 solar panels are installed on the roof. The panels produce 297,000 kWh/year, this significantly reduces the electricity needed from the grid.
The roof of the UN City has been coated with a white, recyclable membrane, made from plant-based materials. The environmentally-friendly coating reflects much more sunlight than the usual dark layer.

UN City Solar Panels

Cycling & accessibility  

To reduce pollution from transportation, UN City encourages cycling to work. There are 680 bicycle racks across the site, including 225 which are covered, and a further 115 in the basement. Fifteen showers and changing rooms are also available to freshen up after your ride. To ensure access for everyone, parking spaces for people with disabilities can be found in front of the lobby.

Recycling 

UN City recycles its waste wherever possible. Organic waste from the canteen is pumped through a vacuum system to a container in the basement. This food-based waste is then removed by a company that recycles it for use as fertilizer or to create biogas. Other materials, such as paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metal, are separated in different bins to be collected and recycled by the City of Copenhagen.

The tour through the building was most interesting. I haven’t been in a building of this size and being it the United Nations was special. It was interesting to learn that a a location of this size can reduce their carbon footprint enormously.

Source: interview with Flemming Johannesen and UN City website

 

The staircase has something special
Bikepark
On of the building's many corners
The UN's warehouse where food drops for the NATO are made.
The Pressroom
UN City from the top with 1400 solar panels!

 

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 by Wiebe

Day 92 | I heart Stockholm

Day 92 Tuesday June 14

Today I had two meetings, the first one at Plantagon. They are building a vertical greenhouse and it’s quite impressive. In 2050 about 80% of the world population is expected to live in the city, that’s why food production needs to be integrated into city infrastructure. They are planning to start building in Linkoping and the structure will be about 25 meters high. One side (which is facing south) will be the greenhouse, the other side an office. An extended review of this meeting will follow.

Later I had a meeting with Martin from Grona Bilister, an association founded already in 1994 which aims to make Swedish transport more friendly to the environment.

My hosts for today lived a bit outside of the city, in Boo. Again it where Dutchies, Tanja, Roy and their three children Noor, Auke and Mette. The kids are born here and they speak Swedish with each other, with their parents Dutch. It’s funny that their Dutch has a Swedish tongue. 
Their house was located on a hill with a view over the sea, probably one of the nicest houses I stayed so far. The house was just completed, the area here is rocky so to lay the foundation they exploded it with dynamite.

Roy works for Ericcson so that’s why they moved here in 2001. Tanja works here as a teacher. I went for a walk with Roy, at the shore he pointed at a huge mansion in the hills. From the size and looks I thought it would be from the owner of Ikea but apparently this is a home to refugees.

Day 93 Wednesday June 15

Exactly 3 months ago today I started this journey. So far I traveled 12.000km with my car, saw 9 countries and met I don’t know how many people. I enjoy every day, wherever I come people are nice and welcoming and luckily I still not encountered big problems. A couple of nights in the car doesn’t make you feel like driving home. At the moment I’m going towards the Northcape and from there to Russia. That’s where the adventure really starts.

Back to today. Whenever I’m in a capital or big city I try to do at least one day of sightseeing. Tanja gave me a card for public transport so I could get there easily. Stockholm is a beautiful city. It consists of many islands who all have their own style. In Kungsholmen I visited the City Hall, each year the award ceremony for the Nobel prize takes place here and many VIP’s from over the world fly in to see this. My favorite part is is Ostermalm, an area with Paris like buildings. Gamlastan is the island in the middle and the oldest part of the town. I stopped in almost every street to take a picture.

 

Stockholm
"Skyline"
City Hall
This is actually a refugee
My host's their house
What a view
Roy & Tanja

 

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 by Wiebe

Day 90 & 91 | Around Stockholm

Day 90 Sunday March 12

My host Aryan is a huge car fanatic. He has many cars, most of them Citroen’s and he converts them so they run on ethanol. He has plans to make his old Citroen electric and already has a line of batteries ready. He knows everything about cars and with his knowledge he could even tell me details about my own car, which was useful.

Around noon I drove to another part of Stockholm where I met Mikael. He invited me because he wanted to teach me about the human part of sustainability. Mikael is a yoga instructor, I thought he was my age but actually was 10 years older, because his state of mind he looks younger too (at least that’s what he told me). Being around Mikael makes you feel really relaxed and he is a very open, intelligent and friendly guy.

As the Euro has started we decided to watch a match but first we did a 30 minute yoga workout. We did some exercises with breathing techniques and after completion I felt completely zen.

Day 91 Monday March 13

The Dutch embassy in Stockholm invited me over, they are based in a very hip area in the city and I could park my car behind the gates. I was in touch with Frank already a few weeks, he works at the Embassy and made a list of interesting initiatives to visit in Sweden. He and some colleagues welcomed me and later the ambassador came by for a talk to. She was very interested and had some tips to travel through the country. As it was lunchtime we went to a local bar and they plugged me in with food their, great people!

I really want to see more of Stockholm but as I had work to do I decided to drive the car outside of the city and work from there.

In the evening I would meet Misha, Mikael hooked me up with him and I only knew his address and name. Apparently he lived in an student apartment and as I didn’t know his lastname I couldn’t find his room. I checked every door on every floor of the apartment (about 8) but his name was not on any. I contacted Mikael and after a few minutes Misha’s roommate showed up, Misha was late from work. It was around 6 and knew that Sweden was playing against Ireland. The football atmosphere in Sweden is very different to The Netherlands. Back home two weeks before the tournament all the streets and houses would turn orange but here it’s not like that. Not even many people watch the game. I watched the first half alone and later Misha would join me.

Misha was just like Mikael and spiritual guy. He traveled around the world and while Couchsurfing in Holland he met a guy who inspired him to become vegan.

Misha likes to cook but not just for himself, a few years ago he started cooking for people in the neighborhood who where interested and soon it will involve into eating parties where 40 people showed up, giving him the nickname ‘The Lappi’s Chef’, named after the area he is living in. Now he doesn’t cook large scale anymore but still is involved in Stockholm’s food business. He collects vegetables which almost are to be thrown away and cooks for refugees.

Aryan and his beloved car.
Swanlake.
Swanshead
Swanswim
This is yogi Mikael
This is a boat in a lake
Yogi Miki
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