i get up pretty early to avoid any undue delays because of vienna commuter-traffic and make some distance early, since today’s trip will be at least 357kms.
already very early on i see long lines of cars on their way into vienna – hardly any vehicle is heading towards the leithagebirge and the neusiedler lake.
then i was treated to a very, very nice sunrise!
this romantic setting, however, does not last for long. getting closer to the neusiedler lake means that humidity rises, too. soon i hit a bank of thick fog and the already meager number of °C dropped immediately.
but my hopes are held high, since the sun never really is lost and makes for very interesting scenes.
I cross the leitha hill-range (150mtr above the lake) which seem very high given the relative flatness of the landscapes around the neusiedler-lake. no pictures of the lake, however, … too dense fog to make sense.
as a connoisseur of austrian wines, driving along the neusiedler lake i spy many a winery i have already drunk a bottle of very good wine from! umathum, pasler and hillinger just to mention a few. (you must try the pasler wine sometime!) after the glycol scandal in the 1980’s, austrian winemakers were forced to be as transparent as possible and win customers with wines which are up to global standards. i strongly recommend everyone to try austrian whites and – with some caution – reds, too.
after a good 90kms i arrive at the vila vita resort i had been some weeks ago and contacted for a recharge, since the place has its own “energiezentrum” and sports e-bikes and e-buggies to get around the vast area of the resort.
i really felt like taking the offroad-ev to the fields around the resort – they seem to have an offroad course set up specifically for this vehicle!
whilst charging i was treated to free coffee and croissants and some interesting discussions about sustainable energy usage.
after just 45mins TW560 is back to 100% and ready for a relaxing drive through hungary.
similar to TDE2012 i’ve prepared a route through hungary which will take me from small village to small village. as a bonus, later this day, i will cross though a large nature reserve.
the purple area in the map below is the assumed (and in reality quite accurate) area of reception for the austrian A1 carrier. google navigation and above all my mobile office is dependent on a flat rate data link, which i have in austria and switzerland. in hungary, i could in therory use my swisscom sim’s europe 200mb allowance, but want to avoid doing this at all cost. calls however are routed to my swiss phone, since a) most data connections will be based on gsm and a1 does not have DTM implemented on their network and b) i have 200 mins allowance in hungary which i will hopefully not use completely.
you might now get an idea how and why i chose this exact route. 🙂 (you may click and zoom in the map)
View vienna > southern styria in a larger map
and this is what i get – no traffic, easy going, paved single lane roads from village to village!
for me, coming from switzerland, it is quite an uncanny feeling to drive along and never ever see any elevation at all!
approaching szombathely, i see from afar a vertical rotor and getting closer a building covered in panels and other gizmos. out of a spur-of-the-moment decision, i drive to the entrance and enquire about the company and if it would be possible to charge 100% wind / solar energy whilst having a relaxing chat…
well, yes … and no. the owner of www.wind-nrg.eu himself was not in and his staff, whilst very friendly and helpful with my charging request were not really proficient at any other language than hungarian. (which, sharing a close link to finnish, can count itself to one of most challenging languages to learn worldwide – and, no, i, although i speak about 6 languages, don’t speak hungarian …yet!)
after just 20 minutes the owner shows up and we have a nice chat about very high demand for domestic solar installations and the need for more sustainable mobility. thanks again!
huge and long names for villages (how about: Hódmezővásárhely) are the norm here and i do not want to attempt to pronounce them, since any attempt is futile!
on an other note…i really liked travelling in finland years ago, not only because the word 99 is written (yhdeksänkymmentähydeksän) and pronounced! (99 in hungarian is kilencvenkilenc) but how pronouncing these words had mostly nothing to do with the letters employed.
crossing the nature reserve was a treat! partially no reception (not even from hungarian carriers) but small hills and lots of forest. coupled with beautiful sunshine, i was in no hurry at all.
on the last 10 kms in hungary the landscape changed abruptly and gave way to hills and vast vineyards.
this does look very similar to the kind of place i’m heading to. northern slovenia is geographically very similar to southern styria.
finally i arrive in murska slobota. i try to find jozef with his charging point but it seems that the place i defined as the placemark is not at the right place. the bewildered woman (living at the exact address jozef sent me is not correct) i call him and after some discussion it turns out that there are two identically named roads within 15 kms and google interprets any search for this address first for the one 15 kms out of town. lucky me that i had charged at the solar/wind place… without that additional juice, i’d had to ask the woman for some electricity after all!
i finally get to the correct place and find the plug. after 3 years of being marked in lemnet.orgi’m the first “car” to charge here. hurray!
the clock is ticking and i want to get back on the road as quickly as possible. jozef is a retired electritian and quickly adds a tri-phase plug to the current one. since i pre-announced my arrival, many people are coming around to have a look at the TWIKE parking in jozef’s driveway.
i am treated to coffee, local beer and lot’s of good vibes. they invited me to stay for dinner, but i needed to press onwards, since i was keen on meeting my family in oberfahrenbach that evening. (and…i must confess, i was looking forward to eating proper buschenschank food combined with some wonderful styrian wine!)
out of good manners, i stayed until the TWIKE stopped charging at 100% and made sure everyone had the pictures they had come for (it had sometimes a slight vibe of india)
anyways, i then drove into the night and started my ascent to oberfahrenbach, a place i and my family have been visiting the last 6 years and have always had a very good time (besides usually spending much to much money on wine for our cellar at home!)
View vienna > southern styria in a larger map
heading into the night streaming music from DI.fm via the internet and then bluetooth to my onboards speakers, no matter how loud i set the volume, full strokes on the suspension coming from very bad road maintenance can, unfortunately, not be surpressed…
i arrived just in time for a very nice glass of wine and my family waiting for me.