Day 26 - 04.01.2025 - Copenhagen to Dülmen (Germany)

Well this morning started bright and early at 05:30.

It had been snowing on and off all night and was -7°C. Up showered, dressed, breakfast, packed and out by 07:30. We had had about 6in of snow and as I'm packing BB and clearing the snow off her lights, the AirBnB owner turns up with a mini tractor with a snow plough attachment! Before we left he had cleared the street and pavement!

The main road was clear-ish, so we were able to be on our way to the first charger (as we had used more than expected due to draining into Copenhagen).

First stop was at 08:11 for 22mins and was a big hub all under a solar roof...

While BB was charging I went inside the service area and partook - there was bird song playing and odd musical notes every so often and they were very posh!

On the way out I picked us both up a croissant for 2nd breakfast!

Onwards...

Stop 2 was just after all the bridges and one we had been to before, arrived at 09:34 and took 25mins.

Stop 3 was the last one in Denmark, so strictly speaking the last one in Scandinavia, also one we had been to before, so whilst filling we went to McDonald's and had lunch. 11:25 for 31mins (because we were eating)...

We had an early stop for lunch because as we were driving South and the roads were wet and it was foggy, the glare was horrendous, so I needed a break anyway. But because of the longer stop it threw us out with the charging stops as we had too much in the battery. Basically we didn't have the right amount to arrive with about 5-10% left at our next stop (to get the fastest charge) but we also didn't have enough to extend to a stop further away. BB sorts this out, but in would take a stop or two to do so.

We set off again, but to throw a spanner in the works we hit several miles of 'stau' (stationary traffic) due to accidents, probably caused by the glare and slush.

This also threw out BBs calculations as we used much less fuel crawling than at 80mph+!!

As we were on an unrestricted motorway - even if a bit busy and slushy in places - we had to give BB a free run. There weren't many opportunities, but at one point we touched 185kph - more than 115mph and was sitting at 125kph (80mph+) most of the time we weren't stationary!

Stop 4 was at 13:55 for 7mins but mainly a comfort break...

Several roadworks (4 or 5) later...

Stop 5 was at 15:11 for 17mins, again at a place we had stopped at on the way up - but it looked a lot different in the snow...

Then the sixth and final (it had been a long day today) stop, was at 17:27 for 14mins. It only took that long because we had tried to find the loos and the only one on site, you had to pay for - in cash. Now this whole trip we had not used ANY cash! None at all! So we didn't have any. Would the big Shell station staff help in anyway...  NO. There was also a Burger King and Thai restaurant in the same services building, but all directed you to use the pay for toilet as they didn't have their own... To say I thought this was a bit cheeky was an understatement - they all will sell you food and drink, but if you wanted to use the facilities you had to pay.... Suffice to say we didn't buy anything and as Astrid would say 'I had a Wild Wee!'.

Arrived at the AirBnB just before 19:00. Very strange place as it was a Boutique Hotel and was on an industrial estate - it was a former army barracks. Anyway, big electric gates slid open, drove past open barns full of motorhomes and to the back.

We plugged in BB and let ourselves in.... WOW!!! This place is beautiful!!

The views from the apartment are across fields..

There was a pizza restaurant across the road, so we walked over and order a 30cm Parma ham, rocket, cheese and fresh tomato - which was delicious, eaten back in the apartment watching the new series of Stranger Things.