Right, I have all my phones back. The night was quiet and all there was to this day was this: Autobahn until we are at our flat – that would leave us within one day’s travel to the Netherlands, where we sorely wanted to meet dear traveling friends again after two full years. So it was good-bye to our otherwise really neat German campground. 27 € seemed like a real fair price for the convenience anyway. 

There are three routes, with 320, 340 and 360 km respectively – but depending on the time of day and traffic situation, any of them can be the fastest route. I still was pretty set on taking the shortest one past Heidelberg. Short of a 20 minute bypass of some roadworks suggested by google, it worked out pretty much that way. 

This is the kind of distance that all the BMW propagandised stinker drivers get all nervous about: “but how about long distances?”. Range anxiety it’s called, I think. Utter propaganda, I would say now. 200 km in, and ready for lunch we pulled in an IONITY fast charger and that was that. Plug in, tap the charge card and go. 

There was an unplanned deviation of plans though – since there was no conveniently shaded lunch spot in sight, we allowed ourselves to be lured by the devil and change plans for lunch. The bread rolls would last until dinner, but a plant-based whopper was here, now! (try it, btw – if you like fast food – and tell me why you would ever choose a normal whopper instead).

We got lucky and were able to have the unhealthy treat in the shade outside (restaurants are still closed due to COVID restrictions). Once again, by the time we made it back to the car before it got to 98% charge (the last 10% take 10x longer than 50% to 60%, so it is technically full by that point). 

There was one more stop very near to home, intended as a coffee break. Fast charging was easier than using the charge point close to our flat. We cut the break short though, when the sun came out from behind a cloud. Home was experiencing a heat wave, with up to 37°C. And providing conveniently shaded rest for EV chargers is very low on the list of priorities for the vulture capitalist monopolist Tank&Rast running our Autobahn rest stops. 

As soon as we had opened the door to our flat, we both realised how burned out from Covid we had been: What a nice place – so big, so bright. Spending that bit of extra energy before leaving to clean up added a lot. When we left, all I could see were the flaws – all looked cluttered, dirty and contraining. Now, with three weeks of travel behind us, it was a very different feeling. But, of course, the Agent of Entropy aided by Number 3 had the proper chaos restored to the living room in no time. 

Getting to bed had some extra challenges this time. Number 3 was quite sad and anxious about the fact that he would sleep alone in his bed once more, with no one to cuddle up to. Having the Agent there helped him a little. To top everything off – the heatwave and a lack of venting in the last few days had left our old brickwork apartment building heated up enough that the baby monitor showed 31°C even at 10pm at night. 

Just that one night – tomorrow would be the farthest drive yet …

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