Not pushing any further yesterday and a good night’s sleep really did the trick – I’m really looking forward to both the drive today …and returning home.
Weather-wise is promising to be a very nice day – blue skies all over central Europe.
I wake up early, get some fresh orange juice and some fresh cornetti at the hotel’s bar and pack the TWIKE for the last time.
The overnight charge was a full 8h @ 9A – this morning’s battery pack temperature at 35°C is proof that the batteries had to do some work during the night. Nothing extreme: It’s just 8°C above outside temperatures, after all.
I’m going to take it easy and stay on smaller roads for the most of the day. I’m going to drive to COMO and then back home via the Gotthard .
The road then takes me to Lake Como, one the most beautiful parts of Italy and a place I’ve been many times with the TWIKE during the last 17 years.
It does not fail to impress me, yet again!
Before leaving Italy, I’m ready to have a second breakfast 🙂
Without charging, I just stop off at Bernett’s where I charged on the trip to Terni a week earlier:
A few km later, I’m entering back into Switzerland through a small border post.
Now, it’s back to more postcard-grade Switzerland and much, much better roads 🙂
Even with the much better roads, whilst driving, suddenly the canopy opened on its own and when I tried to close it again, it didn’t stay closed.
After closer inspection, it turned out to not be surprising – the locking pin had just broken off.
Not to worry – I just keep my elbow on the tubing whilst driving and all is good. The overall stability of the vehicle is much worse, though, this is something that needs urgent attention as soon as I’m back!
The drive, however, was pure TWIKE bliss – small roads, climbing up the Leventina valley and not much traffic at all!
Having arrived at the end of the valley the true climb was waiting for me and TW560! The Gotthard pass.
I was pretty happy that I had decided to take smaller roads today as there was a huge amount of traffic and traffic jams on the motorway up to the tunnel.
I, however, was slowly climbing up the pass and took my time as the views down the valley and the surrounding mountains were so nice.
I finally made it to the top and took the time to stop and have a typical Swiss snack – veal sausage, a piece of bread and some beer. Total break from the last week of Italian delicacies … but delicious nevertheless!
The nice weather had brought out many, many motorbike riders and I had a hard time parking anywhere but a few of them were sympathetic and let me park just behind them … as according to them, I was ‘closer’ to a motorbike than to a car!
The theme of not being the only one just went on driving down the pass – it was less driving and more standing after all…
The traffic was awful and it took me over 90 minutes to get from the pass to
I eventually made it to lake Lucerne – where postcard-grade Switzerland was back in full force. The drive was sublime and I decided to take a small detour and visit Brunnen with it’s picturesque boat-stops and lakefront cafés.
From there, I drove to lake Lauerz to check on one of the places on my bucket list: the Schwanau island and it’s renowned restaurant. Not today, but soon! Check it out: just beautiful!
Only 100 km later, I’m back home and park my trusty TWIKE in my totally overgrown garage and am glad to be back home.
TDI2024 was great – again – and I’m really looking forward to a new trans-European TWIKE adventure sometime soon! Let’s see what life has in store for me in the future!
