It finally happened. We ran out of power. No electricity available… in our accommodation.

Oh, did you think I meant we couldn’t charge our car? No, it’s fine. Our accommodation – a cabin park in the town of Knokke, Belgium – provided an EV destination charger. 100m up the road was an Esso fuel station that includes fast chargers and on the big price sign out the front lists the electricity cost per kWh along side the petrol and diesel costs per litre. And slightly up from that, the BMW dealer has an EV charger out the front. So many options. I spotted an electric van in one of the suburban streets.

What I meant was, our cabin had no power. We couldn’t boil a kettle, but we managed to use the last drops from our thermos to make a cuppa. We couldn’t heat food. We survived, and mostly laughed it off. The manager arrived some time later and was very helpful and apologetic. She gave us a free breakfast hamper to compensate.

We had a bunch of other minor hurdles that added to the comedic series of events. We picked this place in part because we needed to do some laundry. The machines require Euro coins but reception didn’t have enough to give. I tried walking to the nearest bank ATM on Maps, but the Deutsche Bank turned out to be just an office building with no service desk or ATM. We tried to order Thai from a local restaurant on line, but couldn’t work out the translations. I walked there at 6pm, opening time, only to be told (politely) that they only take orders on line, prior to 6pm. We resorted to making dinner from the bits we had with us: rolls and salad. The mixed nuts container was empty – big sad. Oh, and it took us ages to figure out how to lock the door – a piece of experience that we later passed onto our new neighbours (from Germany, I think) who we also saw fumbling.

We tried to buy milk at the nearby supermarket. I wandered around for ten minutes, attempting to read non English signs, including up and down the “melk” aisle. I settled for purchasing a long life milk (not refrigerated). That also gave me the chance to ask for some coins in the checkout change, through the language barrier, to use for the laundry. On our second attempt, the next day, a supermarket assistant showed us a small row of fresh milk, not in the milk aisle, but with the orange juice. He agreed that wasn’t the most obvious place. Maybe they just like messing with the tourists 😉.

Charging:

As I mentioned, we had plenty of charging options. We opted for my preferred, which is just to plug in while parked, at the accommodation. Simple.