today, we’re driving home. we know that the weather in southern switzerland will be rain all day long. on the other side of the alps however, things are looking up. this is why we decide to climb the gotthard pass and see if we get some 50/50 view of sun and rain somewhere at the top.
View TDM2014 (TW560) TWIKE in a larger map
but first we want to eat some breakfast – sounds easier that it is: a busload full of pensioners was raiding the buffet like termites feed off some wood. they leave but empty platters and stuff their faces with more food than i would eat all day long. we manage to get a croissant from a staff member and leave in a hurry.
the second dissapointment of the day is our first stop in faido at a bar – one looking like the ones in italy: small, you walk to the counter, order, drink and you’re on your way again. hoping to get the last proper coffee of the trip (before we cross into german speaking switzerland), we order our cortos and get something completely different: a long tasteless cup of something faintly flavoured like coffee. yuk! we’re definitely back to switzerland!
we climb the gotthard pass – the weather is apalling. see for yourself:
at the top, we just barely cut through the fog and see the weather on the other side is grey, but dry.
as soon as we get to göschenen, we take the motorway all the way to zug, where we recharge at an official park&charge charging point.
on our way, we quickly stop at brunnen to take in one of the nicer views of lake vierwaldstätter. last time we were here, views were definitely better than today.
during our charge i send a ampera-driving plug seeker away, since i’m using all available plugs at the same time. he wasn’t happy, but at least he still has an ICE when his juice is gone…
within 60 minutes, we’re back home. everyone is happy and jc leaves with TW231 shortly after.
jc and i quickly check our bookkeeping and calculate who owes whom some money.
for me and my wife however, there will be some rakija tasting tonight – we’re really looking forward to this!
(click the link – this is why “no escape” 🙂 )
this is the end of TDM2014 – yet another trip we thoroughly enjoyed. we hope this travellog has inspired you to take your TWIKE further afield – you will not be disappointed!
planning a trip with your TWIKE/EV and want some hints? – let us know, we’re more than happy to give some input.
thank you for reading this blog! (ah. btw: a good way to be updated on our various activities is to subscribe on the right hand side – you will get a short email telling you about our next trips as they happen)
Hi Andrew and JC,
Great Tour again, enjoyed the pictures, maps and comments.
Thanks for reporting,
Max,TW 460
Hi!
Thank you very much for this highly interesting report! I’m inspired a lot for a bigger trip with my Twike 617, which I’ve since last year. Until now I’ve done only some small trips around my hometown in Germany.
As it looks like to me you haven’t much more battery capacity than me. I’ve got 16 Ah Li-Mn from Fine and I’m astonished that you were capable to drive over all that hills with it!!! How fast did you drive uphill? But you can load with 3 phases, that’s great! I’m thinking about to get a second recharger for my Twike, maybe in summer, when enough money is back on my account ;).
Gregor, TW617
hi there, gregor.
it’s always nice to get feedback from fellow twike pilots! especially if i’m able to inspire you to take your twike further afield.
indeed, you have even more capacity than i have in TW560 – currently i’m down from 15Ah to about 13.5 (this after 87’000 kms and 13’000Ah total discharge – which is more than ok!)
taking a twike up and down hills is no problem at all – especially if you take care to get as much energy back as possible when going downhill. our speed going uphill depends on our calculations and may vary between 20 to 50km/h.
travelling with a 16Ah battery will only start being fun when you can recharge 150kms within an hour or so – i hope you get your second charger and let us know where you’re going next year!
(p.s.: we’re already planning our next trip TDB2015 – you may take a guess where we might be going 🙂