After thirty hours in planes and airports, we spent the next two hours trying to sort out…

…our hire car. But it was mostly my own fault.

We used the UFODRIVE app to try to locate the car. We headed towards the pin shown on the app’s map, which is difficult because it doesn’t show your relative location. After a long walk to the other end of the car park, I couldn’t find any signs for UFODrive, or anyone who’d heard of them. It turns out that the pin just gives a general intended location.

It was also hampered by no internet connection on my phone. I had bought a roaming pack from my Australian carrier, Belong, but it didn’t fully activate for a couple of hours after landing.

I eventually found some public wifi and used the UFODrive app to contact their support. They pointed out that I had booked the car for 12 noon, not 8am as I had thought 🤦. They explained that they don’t deliver the car to the airport carpark until just before pick up time. They gave me the option to come collect it from their Amsterdam city location.

So, our first EV trip in the Netherlands was in a “green” Uber. Fortunately payment worked through Apple Pay, after I the Uber app had rejected my entering of my credit card directly. Our driver Daniel arrived in a Kia e-Niro car – very nice.

So many EVs! I recognised about 80% of the taxis as being EVs, including many Tesla Model X and Model S, which we can’t buy in Australia. The “green” (EV) option in the Uber app was actually cheaper than the standard car price.

Twenty minutes later, Daniel dropped us off in another huge carpark, in Amsterdam, after we drove around looking for our hire car’s licence plate. As he unloaded our bags next to the car, he wished us good luck and mentioned that there’s no Internet/phone reception down here. 😫.

I (Tom) ventured up two levels to the street, but still no active data on my phone from Belong. Back down again, borrowed Fran’s phone, back up the stairs, used it as a mobile hotspot, then my phone activated the Belong connection. It seems you need wifi to activate the roaming in your phone, which if had before at the airport, but mine didn’t activate until now 🤦.

Back into support chat with UFODrive. They activated the rental and gave me the password for the UFODrive wifi in the car park. That would have been handy half an hour ago.

We followed the instructions in the UFODrive app to take photos of the car, using the provided templates. It’s not possible to take a photo of the rear of the car next to the wall, however.

We finally gained access, packed our bags into the car, and looked for the parking ticket mentioned in the app. Back into support chat, they told us there isn’t a parking ticket, and that the parking gate would just recognise our car’s plate.

With almost no sleep for forty hours, we drove out of the car park, into a country that drives on the opposite side of the road, to find our cousin’s house boat, half an hour away. What’s the worst that could happen? 🫣