Wednesday roadtrip day

content/blog/wk7day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,90 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 7, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 7, Wednesday: North of the Border"
 date: 2024-09-11T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/dbgirl.png" alt="Credit: D&B Girl, YouTube" >}}
+
+I have voluntarily set the alarm clock at 06:00 this morning, because we are making the trek all the
+way North of the Border. The idea is to pack up the last parts of our luggage, yeet them in the
+trunk of the car, which already has most of the stuff and is fully charged by now. It's about 700km
+drive from Br&uuml;ttisellen to Best, the Netherlands. Although we could do it with one charging
+session along the way, we don't do that. Our plan typically is: one person drives for 1.5hrs and
+finds the next Supercharger, we plug in the car and take a small walk or a coffee, and continue the
+drive 20min later. This way, each leg is about 180km or so, nobody gets tired, and we never have to
+relaly think about range anxiety.
+
+I eat some leftover meatloaf on a bun with mustard, and drink some caffeine. Marina completes her
+ritual, notably by grabbing our alien friends (Uhi and Hey) and we're off to the races at 06:45.
+It's easy driving for Marina, the first leg brings us over the Swiss-German border just as the Sun
+comes up, and in Germany I write my journal entry for Tuesday, as we roll to Pforzheim, Germany.
+
+There's a completely new Version 4 supercharger station here and only one car. It's a pretty fun
+spot, with a little unmanned kiosk with toilets, a living room, some vending machines and (and this
+is cool!) a video console with two controllers. I race a Mariokart round as _Peach_ (thinking of
+you, Dermot!) and come in first place, despite being a terrible driver. One might say, not too
+different from my real life driving style.
+
+The second leg is mine to chauffeur, and it takes us further in the direction of Frankfurt am Main
+and it's mostly just cruise control on the A61 en route to Cologne, all the way to Pfalzfeld,
+Germany. Somewhere in the middle there, Marina decided to pacify me, and she stuck a pink candy
+pacifier in my mouth. For good measure she also took one in -- funny: nobody cried after that!
+Here, we arrive at 11:55, perfect timing for a post-candy lunch with 435km of our roadtrip consumed.
+
+We've been here before, but it's certainly not as busy as we've seen. We're the only ones in the
+restaurant, even though it's noon. But, the friendly waiter guy is happy to serve marina a salad
+with strips of chicken, and me my much requested hugarian gulasch soup with bread. It was pretty
+decent, although I think Marina's salad was a little bit higher nutritional quality than my salty
+goodness. It's nice to have a lunch while the car is charging, and when we're done, we pay up and
+the car is ready for another leg!
+
+Marina gets to drive leg #3, which would be roughly to Cologne (180km) but we miss what appears to
+be the last _Rastst&auml;tte_, as there is literally nothing all the way to Venlo. Just over the
+border with the Netherlands, she finds a small truckstop and I take over. From here it's about 40km
+to Eindhoven, where we plug in the car just one more time - we will have 8% or so battery arriving
+at Best, and I do see that there's a Supercharger there now also, but I figured we're well ahead of
+schedule at this point, and if we charge there and Marina throws balls at a few Pok&eacute;mon,
+it'll be 16:15 when we hit $dest for the day.
+
+It is 16:15 when we hit $dest for the day. There is much rejoicing in seeing my parents in 3D. Phone
+and Video calls are nice and all, but nothing beats the real thing. They are also quite happy to see
+us - maybe because we're adorable children, or maybe because we've been really bad children and
+haven't visited in the longest time? Who knows, but it was happy days!
+
+In the afternoon we catch up, and at around 18:30 or so, our tummies are calling for the one thing
+that is a requirement on arrival day: friet with frikandellen and sito sticks and kroketten and
+viandellen. The Dutch and Belgians kind of take this stuff for granted, but in Switzerland we do not
+have this type of fast food; which means it tastes extra good when visiting!
+
+We exchange stories about all sorts of stuff - and along the way I decide to take a picture of the
+sign we had at on our front door ever since we lived in California in the 80s: _The Van Pelts_, of
+course with a _Ja-Nee-Sticker_ on the mailbox. I kind of wonder if that is still an effective
+deterrant to spammers? It's starting to fail us in Switzerland :( One other fond memory for me is
+one of the first servers I've had at [[IPng.ch](https://ipng.ch/)], which is still with us today!
+It's perhaps wasy to state "IPng started in the garage of Pim's parents", but that's really not true at
+all. But if you _did_ want to say that, you could use this picture of `hvn0.nlehv0.ipng.ch`. It
+would be a lie though. But if you _did_ say it, I would not be upset.
+
+We hang out until well after midnight; I drink a few beers, Dad slurps on Gin neat, and Mom drinks
+white wine. Marina keeps to water today. At about 01:45 we say goodbye and put the alarmclock at
+09:00 tomorrow, as there's plenty of stuff to do while we're here!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/20240911_062910.jpg" caption="My luggage which is also a temporary holding place for our alien friends: Uhi (left) and Hey (right)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1189.JPG" caption="At 06:50, the sun is starting to rise as we start our 720km (450mi) drive of the day." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1190.JPG" caption="Just over the German border, I am writing my story for yesterday. It reminds me of the mobile blogging I have done quite often with WEiRD on roadtrips." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1193.JPG" caption="At the first supercharger they have a kiosk with a Nintendo Switch - I play a few rounds of Mario Kart, which is fun!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1194.JPG" caption="These are the v4 Superchargers, and they're quiet, nice and fast. I'm just very happy that a few years ago, WEiRD and I had the CCS charger retrofitted in this old Mennekes car. But: free charging, hellyeahb" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1195.JPG" caption="We completely stopped crying and almost fell asleep when sucking on these two pacifiers." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1196.JPG" caption="Hearty filled salad and Gulasch soup for lunch in Germany. For me at least: this is roadtrip pitstop food, and mandatory on a successful commute from CH to NL." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1200.JPG" caption="At Van der Valk in Eindhoven, this statue is a Pokestop." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/route.png" caption="The route we took from CH, through DE and to NL." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1207.JPG" caption="Friet met Snacks. Posted without further comment." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1209.JPG" caption="The trusty rusty server hvn0.nlehv0.ipng.ch, a Pentium G630 @ 2.70GHz, 16GB DDS3, 3x1TB (new since last Christmas) Samsung EVO SSD.  I've had this server for about 12 years, and still works a treat!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-11/IMG_1211.JPG" caption="The sign at my parent's frontdoor." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}