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
