Blog - Plug Me In

4 June 20165 June 2016 by Wiebe

Day 81 | The embassy in the Green State

For breakfast I had this tasty but a bit strange meal. It’s normally eaten as a dessert but for breakfast it’s fine too. It’s called Koldskål, a mix between buttermilk and cream and they put tiny cake’s in it. After you finished that you get some kind of strawberry sauce and I thought it would be nice to mix it but they told me I have to leave Denmark now as it’s an insult to mix it, weird people here.

I went to Copenhagen. I had been looking forward to this as I saw many great pictures and heard good stories about this city. Today was not a sightseeing day though, my first stop was at the Dutch Embassy. I send them an mail a few weeks ago to let them no I was traveling through Denmark. They invited me for lunch and to recharge the car. They were very nice and thought of ways to help me. They send mails to other embassies in countries were I’m going to, to ask them if they could be at help. They let me do a pitch on video which they uploaded on their Facebook page and I already got some new invitations.

Then I visited to State of Green, right in the middle of the center. It is an organization which is 50% government and 50% private owned, mainly focussing on marketing campaigns to promote sustainability in Denmark. Iver told me a lot about what the country has been doing since the oil crisis in the 70’s to make it more sustainable. The city of Copenhagen has the goal to be carbon neutral by 2025 and the county has to same plan to do so by 2050. That seems like a long time but to ban fossil fuels and come with alternatives takes time and effort. You will find and extended review about this meeting later on this website.

My next stop was at Martin Messers place. He is a member of the FDEL, the organization that had this meeting last Sunday where I spoke. Martin took me into town to meet Willet Kempton, he calls himself the “father of V2G”. V2G stands for ‘Vehicle To Grid’ which is a system where electric cars can provide energy to the grid. Willet has invented this system in 1997, pretty crazy considering I heart about EV’s just 2 years ago. According to him this is the way to go to a fully sustainable energy system.

A problem for today was that I didn’t had a place to sleep yet, also not for tomorrow night. Martin posted a message on his Facebook asking people if they could host me and quickly received a reply from Mads that I could stay at his place on Saturday. Just before the meeting with Willet someone contacted me though Facebook that I could stay at his place. His name was Poul and he lived in Uvelse, 30km outside of Copenhagen.

Poul is IT specialist and Tesla driver, the youngest one I ever met, just 28. He lives with his girlfriend Laila in this house which they recently bought. Very friendly, welcoming and interested people. They just went for a road trip to Spain with their Tesla. While charging at a supercharger they met a Dutch / Spanish guy with a YouTube channel called El Holandés Errante (The Flying Dutchman). He wants to buy a Tesla with a caravan to live completely off-grid and doesn’t need to pay any subscriptions. Because you can charge for free with a Tesla it would be possible but kind of an adventure.

Dutch bike at the embassy

Dutch car at the embassy

Our King & Queen and some things that remind me of home

The nice Dutchies at the Embassy who helped me

Martin's place

in Updates 0 comments

3 June 20163 June 2016 by Wiebe

Day 80 | A bridge too far

When I woke up in my private guest room in Strib Soren already had breakfast waiting for me. We said goodbye and the destination for today was Herstedøster, just 7km outside of Copenhagen. It was a 201km drive and to be sure that I will make it I did a pitstop in Ringsted. Lasse, the CEO of Greenow offered me a place to plug at his office. In the morning he send me an email that his daughter was born last night so he was not in the office but I could just go there to charge.

I charged for an hour and a half and did the remaining 45km to Herstedøster.

I was welcomed by Ida and Erik. Erik is Dutch and moved to Denmark a while ago and doesn’t want to return to Holland because he likes it to much. He has a technical background and works for an international company who is realizing a new signaling system for railroads in Denmark which is the new standard for Europe.

Ida is Danish and speaks Dutch too. She has a degree as zookeeper with a specialization in exotic animals. Because there is a huge oversupply in qualified people in this sector she couldn’t find a job. Ida started a two year Environment Technology study and works on a children’s book about sustainability, eco-systems, plants & animals in her spare time. She wants to make it special with a augmented reality app for more experience.

Erik is involved in a student exchange program called YFU and the last two weeks 15 students from the US and Singapore had been in Denmark to visit several sustainable energy projects. Erik invited them to come over when I was there so they could learn about electric cars and e-mobility. They where very interested in what I was doing and it was cool to meet these people. Now I also got some contacts in Singapore from when I’m there!

I reached Wim who is the mechanic of the car. I explained him the problems I had yesterday and told me that the button of the heater probably was turned on, which was right. So there was nog problem with the car, the noise was there because the heater was on, stupid me.

The group invited Erik and me to go out for dinner in Copenhagen. We went to the street food market. It’s and indoor market with food from all around the world. Indian, Mexican, Danish, American, Italian, they had everything. I choose for a “fatburger” which was a good choice.

The market was located next to the water, there was a bridge of which I thought it was closed but when I inspected it I saw there was a part in the middle missing. Apparently they ran out of money and now there are two ramps on both sides, they don’t know when it’s going to be finished. It’s a bridge to far for the Danish.

Erik drives an electric car too and has a wallbox installed at home. It was with a cable attached so I couldn’t charge my car with type 2 and used the regular plug on 16A. This would fully charge my car by the next morning.

The company where I did a pitstop

Street food in Copenhagen

The YFU people

The street market

This was bridge to far for Danish.

in Updates 0 comments

2 June 20162 June 2016 by Wiebe

Day 79 | Over the bridge

When I started the car this morning I noticed that it wasn’t completely charged even though it charged all night and the LCD display was off. When the display is off it usually means the car charger completely. I checked the setting of my car and in the cell details I could see that one cell had an error. This could mean that the cell is damaged and there’s nothing to do to repair it, well then I would have to drive back to Holland and buy an expensive new one, which is not an option.
It was not the only thing I noticed, there was coming a weird low noise from under the hood. When I opened the hood the noise was very strong and it came from a object of which I didn’t know what it was.

I didn’t have much time to worry about and because on the display there where no alerts I started driving to Horsens where I had a meeting with Darius, one of the founders of Building Tomorrow.

Building Tomorrow

Building Tomorrow is an off-grid house or eco-house. The house is able to produce its own electricity, drinking water, heating / cooling, sewage treatment and partial food production meanwhile using recycled and easily accessible materials. It was originally founded by 9 students of the VIA University in Horsens, they had this plan and the Uni allowed them to build it on their grounds. The building is now finished and with the lessons they learned in the process they are going to make a second one. Later this week you will find a full article about this here on the website.

E-mobility on the campus

Darius showed me around the campus and he told me that there where other companies here also working on e-mobility. I was surprised to see that there was a electric Formula 1 car standing somewhere in the basement. The company who builded it was unfortunately not present today so can’t tell anything about it.
Another company who do was present was TADAA! Anker told explained my the concept. It’s an innovative car sharing targeting housing associations and their residents. Many renters do not necessarily have (a need for) a car – and often only drive shorter distances in and around the city. Shared electric cars can be a cheap, easy and sustainable way to offer flexible transport to the residents of the housing associations.

Trying to solve problems

Anker who told me about Tadaa was very interested in my car and luckily had some knowledge about the inside. He told me that the noise coming out of the car was probable something with the fluid of the power steering. He knew a guy working at VW in Horsens and he called me if I could come by, that was no problem.
I drove there and they inspected the car quickly. They said there was something with the waterpump of the heater. Because they where not trained in electric cars they where not allowed to touch the car and couldn’t help me. They tried to call another VW which was trained in EV’s but because my car is not standard they also couldn’t help me. Their advice was that I could keep driving the car as there where no errors on the dashboard. I’m trying to get in touch with the mechanic in Holland who converted the car but can’t reach him.

Shotgun

My pluggers that night where living in Strib, a tiny place on the island Fyn. The way to there was interesting, I had to cross this huge hanging bride to the island and when I got there the environment was different then on the mainland. I ringed their bell and one of their kids opened the door. I asked her if Kristine was home but she nodded no. I decided to go do some sightseeing as I was attracted to the nature around here. I drove to the beach where you have a nice view over the harbor on the other side. I spend here some time and then drove back to the house. When I got there Søren welcomed me, he told me he was already home when I was there but the kids didn’t understand. No problemo.

Kristine and Søren live in a old farm with four main buildings and some side houses. They drive a Tesla and a Zoe and I could park & charge my car in the stable. They charged their Tesla here too and I was surprised that they didn’t have a wallbox for that, they charge it just on a regular plug with max 10A. A full charge for a tesla would take more then two days! But as they didn’t drive long distances (like to Australia, I mean who would drive to Australia in an electric car) so the car was always charged around 90%.

Kristine who works in the IT originally comes from Norway where she and Søren lived with their two kids in Oslo. They thought it was a bit to crowded and not the perfect environment for their kids so they moved here and they think that was a good move. And if you see there house you can’t disagree. I did some work in my private guesthouse and after that, when I did a short walk on their premises, I saw Søren sitting next to the henhouse with a shotgun in is hands. Apparently rats attacked some chickens last night and they wanted to prevent that they would attack again.
Søren himself is an entrepeneur, he started an company that makes labels for clothing. These labels look like stickers but you can was then a couple of 100 times. Ideal for schoolkids etc.

Climate change

I had an interesting conversation with them about climate change. Søren used to be a professor and specialized in this subject. He told that in Norway they aren’t doing much to prevent climate change. The country has lots of oil and most Norwegians work in the oil sector. When the icecaps in the north melt they are actually happy about that because that brings new opportunities to start drilling. In Denmark they are dealing ok with this. They invest in green energy and the country wants to ban fossil fuel by 2025.

At Building Tomorrow

Bridge over the river Baring Vig

Lighthouse

Sea this selfie?!

This is a house, in a field.

This is the badboy that's causing trouble

Kristine and Sorens's house

The stable where I charged

Their 2nd electric car

My guesthouse

Soren waiting for the rats.

in Updates 0 comments

1 June 20161 June 2016 by Wiebe

Day 78 | Resilient city Vejle

When I woke up Line & Keld already left to work.I needed to be early in Vejle today so I made breakfast and started driving.

I was invited by Charlotte & Jette in Vejle. Vejle is a resilient city. Resilient cities are founded by the Rockefeller Foundation and is dedicated to helping cities around the world to become more resilient to the physical, social and economical challenges that are growing part of the 21st century. The city of Velje is the only resilient city in Scandinavia and the first in Europe to come with a strategy. Other resilient cities around the world include Washington, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam and Singapore. I was welcomed with a giftbox which are given to all new citizens of Vejle.

Charlotte & Jette showed me around the exhibition which explained all of the aspects of resilient Vejle. The main problem of this city is water. The city is surrounded by mountains and is build around a lake. When it rains a lot the water rises and this can lead to floods. They don’t see this as a problem but as an opportunity. The exhibition is very well designed and interactive. A 3D map shows the history of the city, by sliding through the different years on an iPad the model changes form and shows the growth of the city throughout the years. Also the level of water is indicated and shows how it affects the city.

This day has been very informative, I had never heard before of the resilient cities and I believe the way they handle sustainability is something to learn from. They don’t just inform or try to keep everyone to strict rules. They involve the whole community and let everyone have their say in all the projects they are working on. All the gathered input is used in the endproduct.

One of these projects is the Green Tech Center. I was welcome by an very enthusiastic woman named Jeanette. Wat really strikes me is that everyone in the community is very proud of the resilient city and all the projects. The Green Tech Center is a startup accelerator in the green energy industry. Jeanette introduced me to some to the companies who are working here on innovative ideas. For example she showed Orogenic ApS who makes batteries for electric cars and there was a company who made the solar panels for the award winning new headquarter of the United Nations in Copenhagen. I had a short talk with the CEO of the Green Tech Center who is also an inspiring guy, later more about this.

This is just a short review of my day in Vejle, an extended review and interview can be seen later on this website.

After Vejle I drove back to Thomas & Annette in Åbyhøj, where I slept last Saturday. I left my toilet bag there and there was to many important stuff inside so I had to pick that up. Luckily I didn’t need to drive the same route back and loose a few days but as I made a circle through Denmark it was on the route.

I spend the night working and went to bed early as I got a call in the night from Radio 1, listen to that conversation here.

Overview of different resilient cities

Map of all 100 cities

The exhibition

Rats, they are the keystone of every city

in Updates 0 comments

31 May 20161 June 2016 by Wiebe

E-mobility in Austria

Mountains, lakes, snow and sun. In Austria you can have it all in a single day. It’s a joy to drive around the country, especially with an electric car. In Austria an EV really is in it’s natural environment. The country’s infrastructure is well organized.

I entered Austria from Italy and arrived in Corinthia, a southern province with thousands of lakes. The local government invested a lot in charging locations. They have this funny looking spots with chairs attached so you can read a book while you charge the car. Funny thing is that besides two Type 2 connectors the station has two CEE blue plugs which you normally find at campings. Probably for E-bikes.

Austria’s biggest provider of charging stations is Smatrix, they provide many stations throughout the country and also fast chargers. They made a deal with McDonalds and for costumers it’s free to charge your car. The stations are placed on handy locations which makes a road trip through the country pretty easy. Maybe a few fast chargers near highways would take away the final bit of range-anxiety.
The Austrian government has made a new law which says that when a new parking lot is being build, 25% of the parking spaces need the have a charger. This makes the Marinadl shopping center in Krems an der Donau with 55 chargers the biggest charge location in the country.

There are many EV-enthusiasts who started their own clubs to promote and share knowledge about e-mobility. I met Thomas Feck-Meltzer who is the founder of the Zoe Club Austria and doesn’t even own a Zoe. He believes electric cars are the future and want to promote it this way.
There is even a guy who drives around the country every weekend to check if the charging stations are working and reports this on apps like Chargemap.

Many big EV events take place throughout the country. The E-tour Europe had his finish in Salzburg. This is a big event where many teams compete against each other, of course many Tesla’s are in the race but also Leafs, Zoe’s and even the electric tuc tuc from the Pillgreens joined the rally.
The finish was held at the Kaiserhof Hotel. This hotel is completely adjusted to electric cars and thus called the ‘chargehotel’. They have around 5 type 2 sockets, 5 32A sockets, a fast charger and 4 Tesla SuperChargers. In the coming years they want to apply a charger to every station.

Another big event taking place is the Wave Trophy, organized by Louis Palmer who drove around the world in an solar car. It’s an event with a good story, they collect the wished of children about a better future and at the finish they deliver this to the United Nations HQ in Bern.

Austria is a good example of how EV infrastructure can be applied. Not many people drive electric so the balance between EV’s and stations is good. In Holland you can get the problem that you have to wait in line to charge, that might happen in Austria when there more people will drive electric but if they continue to build more stations it will stay perfect.

in E-mobility 0 comments

31 May 20161 June 2016 by Wiebe

Day 77 | The crazy car museum

For today I had this big plan to drive from Valdum to Velling over the western coast. It was a 200km drive and on the way I should see beaches and the nice countryside of Denmark. I already knew that it would be a test to reach Velling as the roads would go up and down and I would lose range.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/495783430630724/?type=3&theater

In the morning Jeppe tested my car and we drove to a supermarket where he bought me lunch. Then I started driving to Thisted, there was a huge testcenter for windmills and I was interested to see that. The weather was pretty bad today, from when I started it rained and it didn’t stop. Unfortunately it was closed for visitors. By that time I already lost 60% on a 80km drive and had to do another 150 to Velling over the coast. I decided that I had to change my plan. Yesterday I made a list of charging locations on the route. In Denmark there are almost no free charging stations and the ones who are free are mostly regular 220V plugs.
On Plugshare there was one location where they listed a free Mennekes plug. It was in Hanstholm, 20km north from Thisted and I decided to go there. At the hotel they told me that there was free charging station at a gasstation in Thisted so I drove 20km back to there, unfortunately it wasn’t free. I had two options: charge at a regular plug in Thisted or drive back to the hotel and charge on 16A. I choose for the last option, I would loose 40KM but still charge pretty “fast”. Around 1PM I plugged in there.

Because it was already late and I needed to charge for about 5-6 hours I decided that I could’t make it to Velling as with the weather it was not certain I could make it and would arrive fairly late. I let Anna (my plugger for that night) know that I had to change my plans and as an EV driver she understood my problems.
At the hotel I could pick of free WiFi and looked on my map for another possibility. The next day I needed to be in Vejle and luckily I had one offer just in the middle from where I was an Vejle. I send him an sms an he quickly answered that it was ok to come this night.

Danish traffic

Ar around 6pm I started driving, the car was 85% charged by that time. The traffic in Denmark is very well organized. On a highway the max speed is 130km/h, in residential areas 50km/h and on normal roads 80 or 90km/h. What strikes me is that all the drivers really stick to the rules. When you have to lower your speed everyone does that and also on the highways people blink their lights when they swap lanes, keep to the max speed and give other drivers the space to enter when they want.
What I found interesting is that in Denmark you are mandatory to drive with your lights on at all times. I still have to get used to this and even when the sun is shining and the visibility is perfect, other drivers warn you that you have to turn your lights on, I still have to find out the reason why.

Ellert Alert!

Around 8.30 I arrived at Keld’s place in Mammen. The last km’s I drove to expansive fields and the views where mesmerizing. Keld lives in a big single house and he instantly showed me his Ellert, the crazy Danish electric vehicle which I had just been introduced to by Jeppe. Keld told me he had a few more and asked if I was interested to see them, of course.

A short drive took us to a big building at a farm side. When he opened the sliding door I couldn’t believe my eyes. The whole area, which was about the size of a swimming pool, was filled with Ellerts. With my mouth wide open I asked Keld how many he had and he invited me to count them, he was not sure but he guessed there where about 60 of them.

Keld had been collecting them for about 25 years. He has the fourth ever who came of the production line and from every type he as at least one. He recognizes the cars by the serial numbers that are written in the dust on the front windows. In another room he had spare parts of the vehicles. Wheels, tires, red cables, blue cables, white cables, I don’t know what it all was but he had it all. Keld wishes that once he can build a museum to show his impressive collection. He really knows all the details about this vehicle and could talk for days about this so I’m sure he can fill a museum with his collection and stories.

Later we drove back to his house. Kjeld told me that Mammen (where only 300 people life) is famous for it’s cheese and history. Apparently it was a town where Vikings lived and during excavations they found an axe covered with diamonds. A replica of this axe is hanging at the entrance of the town.
His wife Line and a bunch of her friends just arrived home from a long cycling trip. They wanted to know everything about what I was doing and had to take about 50 pictures of me and the car which where instantly spread on their whatsapp groups.

At the windmill test center

Keld's Ellert collection

The hot chicks of Mammen

Keld & Line's place

Mammens axe

in Updates 0 comments

30 May 201630 May 2016 by Wiebe

Day 76 | Vejle, Åbyhøj, Valdum

Around 7.30 I woke up in the car. When I sleep in there I put the seat horizontal and lift the sitting part a bit up so it’s almost straight with the back part. It’s not completely straight and that’s why I always wake up a few times during the night because there is something itching in my side.

Thomas and Annette where surprised that I slept in the car, they had no idea that I’ve been ringing the door bell, climbed on their house and yelled their names in the garden.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/495403187335415/?type=3&theater

After a shower and breakfast Thomas and I drove to Vejle for a meeting of the FDEL. On the way to Vejle we drove over the highest mountain in Denmark which was a staggering 172 meters!

The FDEL is an association originally founded to handle the problems when Better Place went bankrupt, now they are actively promoting electric cars. Thomas is a member of this club and on their Facebook group some other members had already posted about Plug Me In and offered me energy. Yesterday Thomas called one of the board members and because he was enthusiastic about the project he asked me if I could give a short presentation about my plans.

The meeting was a bit hard to follow as it was completely in Danish and I took the opportunity to do some work. It was interesting to meet the members of this club and surprisingly there where three people where i’m going to stay later this week. I gave a short presentation about how I came up with the idea, what my plans are and how I experienced the first two months. I received lots of questions from the audience mainly about how I experienced electric driving and the problems I encountered.

At the end of the meeting there was a presentation from a Danish couple who drove around the world in an electric car, way before it was popular. They also drove through countries where I’m planning to go to so it was very interesting to see how they experienced that and afterwards I could ask them some questions about which problems they encountered.

On the way back to Thomas’ place in Åbyhøj we stopped at a former Better Place station. See yesterdays blog for a short explanation about this company. I was surprised that the station was still there and also about the size of this unit. It was about the same size as a carwash and it looks and works a bit the same too. You would drive the car on two rails, the under-neat of the car would be cleaned (which was not necessary in Denmark), the battery would be taken out, replaced by a new one and then the car would roll out on the other side of the building.

From Åbyhøj I drove 133km to Valdum in the northern part of the country close to Aalborg. I should meet Jeppe & Gitte there. Their street address didn’t show up in my navigation so when I arrived in town I texted Jeppe how I could get to his place. He answered: “just keep driving, im almost there, you can’t miss me”. A few minutes later I saw this funny and odd looking car driving towards me, I suspected that this was the guy I was looking for and while he was heavily waving at me I was right. I followed him to his house and of course I wanted to know everything about this “thing” he was driving in. It appeared to be fully electric too. He didn’t call it a car but an electric vehicle, which covers it. It was 25 years old and he replaced the lead acid batteries with lithium ones. It has 40km range and a topspeed of 75km/h.

I could testdrive it too and it’s really fun to ride! Because you’re low to the ground and the material is light it feels like you drive a really fast car. The noises it makes from the wind also add to that.

Jeppe and Gitte are two active persons in their late 30’s. Gitte manages seven library’s in Aalborg and Jeppe is a biology, science and mathematics teacher at a high school. He is very interested in everything that is electric. In his basement / mancave he made a 3D printer which he hardly ever used once it was finished, he enjoys to the process of the making more. I also spotted an old Commodore computer in his house.

The roof of Jeppe and Gitte’s house is filled with solar panels and during the summer they produce more energy then needed. Jeppe told me that the Danish government aren’t really promoting PV’s or green energy. A few years ago you could get back the same amount of energy as you would put in to the grid, for free. It encouraged many people to buy solar panels and now they changed the rule. When you put energy into the grid you can get back energy only in the same hour as you’ve put it in. If you want more energy you pay the high price for that.

The FDEL meeting

The infamous Better Place reload station

And the exit

Jeppe's crazy electric vehicle

The inside

And the battery pack

in Updates 0 comments

29 May 201629 May 2016 by Wiebe

Day 75 | Aarhus

Henrik returned home from his work in the prison at around 7 in the morning. I didn’t want him to stay up after a long night so I set the alarm early. I drove 160km to Aarhus (Århus). It’s Denmark’s third biggest city and I saw many pictures of it and somehow I already liked this place before I got there. Recently it was nominated Europe’s 2nd hottest travel destination by Lonely Planet.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/494962487379485/?type=3&theater
I got there pretty early and was looking for a parking space, it took me a while to find a free one and it was 4km outside of the city so I had to walk 40 minutes to get into town. I never use any maps to find my way around but try to find the nicest places myself. I started in the old town where they have all these nice buildings, every house has different color and the patterns in the buildings somehow attract me.

Why I really wanted to visit Aarhus was because of the ARoS museum. It’s a huge building and on top of it they have this donut panorama lookout. The glass has different colors so you don’t need an Instagram filter when you take picture.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF9gFRVki6N/
The museum has many different exhibitions varying from Chinese art installations to middel age paintings. My favorite part was “school of disobedience” by Jani Leinonen. His art was about the big brands in the worlds who influence the costumers in a negative way. A huge installation had the sentence “The most terrible things, war, genocide and slavery had resulted not from disobedience but from obedience”. Every word was written in the logo of a well known brand like Heineken, Ikea, McDonalds and also Volkswagen.
The fast-food sector also played a big roll in this exhibition. Ronald McDonald was shown on a cross and even beheaded by a guillotine. On a screen they showed an interesting and funny story, some guys from Finland stole a Ronald McDonald statue at a restaurant. They made an ISIS like video where they demanded money in exchange for the release of the statue, when they didn’t pay they would behead him. McDonald’s didn’t reply and so they decapitated. This story even made it to CNN.

From Aarhus I drove 7km to Thomas and his family in Åbyhøj, who was my next plugger. Their house was under total renovation and on all sides there was placed scaffolding. I was surprised to see that they had a Better Place wallbox. Better Place was an innovative startup from Israel, they installed charging stations which could swap battery’s. You could park your car on it, then a robot would take the empty battery out and will put a new full one in. Great idea but unfortunately they want bankrupt four years ago.

Thomas, his wife Annette and daughter Cecilie where nice people, Thomas is a union worker and does gardening. Annette is a consultant for unemployed people who are looking for a new job. They made a nice dish with fish and afterwards we drove to Aarhus to get ice cream. We did a little detour and they showed me the harbor of the city where many new apartments are being build.

Back home I went to my room and watched the Champions League final on a livestream. When it finished I went outside to get some stuff from my car, stupid mistake. When I left the house I closed the door, during the day it was opened but they had locked it now. It was around 12 and Thomas went to bed an half hour earlier, I rang the doorbell a couple of times but they didn’t hear it. I could see that the window from the bathroom on the third floor was open so I climbed the scaffolding to get there but there was plastic in front to protect it from the rain, bad luck. In a final try to get their attention I tried to call their names in the garden as their room was on that side but they where already dreaming deeply.

Luckily I had the car key with me so the only (but not uncomfortable) option was to sleep in the car.

The Aarhus Museum (ROrA)

close up of the panorama deck

and another one.

Tiger carpet made out of 500.000 cigarettes.

Ronald decapitated

Holy MdDonald

Cute houses in Aarhus

The museum again but from another side

Aarhus city

Thomas his Better Place charger

in Updates 0 comments

Day 66 | No Hamburgers today

27 May 2016 by Wiebe

Day 66 | No Hamburgers today

After a few great and spectaculair days in Berlin I set off to Hamburg where I should meet my mother. Unfortunately it didn’t go as planned.

in Updates / Videos 0 comments

27 May 201628 May 2016 by Wiebe

74 | To Denmark!

For the first time this trip I arrived in a country where I haven’t been before: Denmark! (Oke I went to San Marino for 20 minutes but that doesn’t really count) I always wanted to visit Scandinavia but never had the chance, now I’m doing all four countries!

But first a short note about day 72 and 73. Tuesday evening I got a bit sick and Wednesday I stayed in bed most of the day. It was probably because of the hectic weeks I had before and my body gave a signal that I had to slow down. Thursday I felt better and worked all day at the Fairhaus, I managed to do 90% of the work I still had to do and now I feel a bit more calm as I can look forward instead of keeping up with unfinished business everyday.

This morning I said goodbye to Stephan & Uta. I stayed for 5 nights at their place and so far I have never stayed at the same location more then 3 days. Uta & Stephan took really good care of me, everyday they made delicious food, showed me around and they would let me do my work when I felt like. I’m very thankful of their kindness!

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.466370933571974.1073741835.211949022347501/494541770754890/?type=3&theater

Before I drove to Denmark I did a quick stop in Ringsberg where Hanno had his garage, he is the guy from the old Barkas V901. A few days earlier I did a stop there with Stephan in his Zoe and of course Hanno was really interested in my ca so I drove there to show it to him. I told him everything what I knew about the Golf and he was impressed by what was on the inside.

Then to Denmark, it was just a 70KM drive to Rødekro where Henrik plugged me in. On a Danish Facebook page about electric cars someone posted about my project and that’s how he found me. He lives in a quite town surrounded by huge fields and lives in a big house with a wallbox installed for the Zoe he drives. Because my car has a reversed Type 2 plug I can’t use wallboxes with cables attached so the car is now charging on the schuko cable, which is no problem as I’m staying here for the night and it will be fully charged by tomorrow morning.

Henrik is a cool guy, a real man. He likes to play football and last night he went to a match of his favorite team and still had a hangover. He works as a guard in a prison, drinks beer and made me a barbecue with big piles of meat. His work in the prison changed him though, sometimes he has a hard time to trust people because of the experiences he had. He teached me how to ride to airboard, it’s this mini segway without a wheel thing which you have probably seen somewhere lately. In the beginning it feels very unstable and I pushed my toes hard to go forward. The trick is to not force the board but think about where you want to go and you get the drill quick.

At around 8.30PM Henrik had to leave to work, he has a nightshift and I’m finishing off some work. Tomorrow morning when he will return home and I’m leaving we will probably cross each other.