being able to be the main sponsor of events though my company, i have the unusual freedom to choose what activity or thing is going to be sponsored. instead of boring roll-ups or other corny give-aways i usually decide on something more interesting or memorable. this year for a conference i decided to take some of my customers on a segway tour around switzerland’s captial, berne. although i had planned to do something with electric cars, i had to abandon that idea pretty quickly, since it seems still very difficult to get more than just 1-2 electric rental cars to […]
proudly presenting: our TDE2012 route, work in progress..
A quick update: I’ve started planning daily stages. If we could follow the theoretical line 1:1 our daily stages would be around 147kms every day. Every red pushpin on the map represents a ‘virtual’ stage. The red line between these pushpins represents the real-world road we’ll be driving on. Interestingly enough, our real daily stages somehow are exactly around what we usually experienced as relaxing (200-300kms). Check out the full screen map by clicking the link below the map! Currently, i really like day 4 and day 6. View TDE 2012 in a larger map I’d like to re-iterate my […]
good news, indeed
i had already wondered how i would ensure the same type of granularity regarding gps positioning updates and blog entries like during wave india whilst travelling through france and spain on TDE2012. my peers in those countries had already been tasked to find me suitable pre-paid data-sim’s so that we could be online anywhere. but then, today, my favourite carrier of all – swisscom – sent me a text message We have some good news for you: on 25 June 2012 your NATEL BeFree subscription becomes NATEL infinity XL. So for the same price of CHF 169.-/month you can now also […]
TDE2012 – planning update
finally, jc and i have found some time to continue planning! jc has bought ridiculously detailed maps of spain and france. we went along the theroretical line and assessed where there might be problems to follow the line closely. there are lots of such instances > see for yourself below! (fully zoomable > try changing to terrain mode…) View
back to vienna with TW560
i think i mentioned before that TW560 likes vienna and travels with me there at least once a quarter. last year’s WAVE india prologue for TW560 was a trip to vienna en route to bremerhafen. myself, i travel to vienna at least every two weeks for some days on business. i usually fly and get around the city being driven by one of my employees or in a taxi. this kind of mobility is not very practical nor cheap when it comes to spending some free minutes exploring the city and the places around it – such as bratislava or […]
more than expected
school children in switzerland get 2 weeks off end of april – my family usually leaves for a spot of vacation in the swiss alps, without me. this year, the second week co-incides with may 1, a work-free day in switzerland. i am planning to spend the week-end in the same chalet, work from there april 30 and leave for vienna from feldkirch (only 25 kms away) late may 1. although the drive there is uneventful, i was rather unprepared for the weather waiting for me @ 1100m altitude… (see featured picture above) i left the office in zurich with […]
TWIKE club general assembly 14apr12
saturday morning about 35 TWIKEs converged towards a nature reserve lodge near flaach in northern switzerland for the twike club yearly general assembly. our agenda was pretty simple visit the “thurauen” nature reserve eat lunch general assembly my presentation on our participation at WAVE india eat fresh asparagus at a nearby asparagus farm (yum!) first we headed out to the nature reserve with some rangers and were shown some interesting plants and animals which have chosen this rather beatiful spot to be their habitat. i really appreciated the opportunity and will certainly be back with my kids for some more […]
planning our next adventure > TDE2012
jc and i have started planning our next adventure. we’ve been travelling with the TWIKE for about 7-8 days once every year for the last 4 years. last year, besides travelling to india for 3 weeks, we took the TWIKE to denmark for a 1900km roundtrip. this year, we’re going to test JC’s TW231 in very hot environments and try to combine this with crossing a major mountain range: we’re taking TW231 from northern switzerland to southern spain. our current plan is to draw a straight line from southern spain to andorra and from there to glattfelden, our starting point, […]
Geneva auto show 2012 – some got it, some not
i’ve been visiting this show for the last 7 years – i expected after all the hype 2011 to see electic cars center stage. i expected cars ready to be ordered or at least to be able to be on a waiting list. only 2 car makers were able to really deliver on this exepectation: renault and tesla all other major brands center staged their even more powerful models (plus maybe a hybrid / one electric model at the far end of the booth or a prototype to be released someday) i was extremely impressed by renault’s enormous booth – […]
Home, at last!
after 3 months, TW560 returns home! everyone is happy to see the TWIKE again – neighbours who followed the blog gather around and want to see if it still looks the same 🙂 we settle back into the normal usage pattern, my wife loves the TWIKE and how easy it is to drive and park – every day i’m off to austria or on weekends when she goes to school the TWIKE is her companion. myself, i enjoy every meter driving – as usual. not everything is 100% ok, though. currently, the TWIKE consumes about 15-20% more energy with me […]