A new multiple-day TWIKE-adventure – A new TWIKE team – A new goal to reach! After visiting the three northern-most points of the Mediterranean and crossing Europe’s fourth-highest pass by TWIKE last year, I wondered: where is the highest point in Europe i could drive to without needing a 4×4 or special permits? Thanks to Wikipedia, getting the answer is not very difficult 🙂 June this year I added a new TWIKE adventure to my “upcoming activities” widget: Drive to the highest point in Europe reachable by an official, tarmacked road without special permits. Theoretically, reaching this point and getting […]
One-Day-Trip: Swiss Jura
One-day trips are one of the nicest forms of TWIKE travel. After our last trip together, visiting the Italian part of Switzerland – Nico and i had always been wanting to take TW560 on another spin somewhere nice, together. As always, life goes by really quickly and Nico’s high-powered career with lots of international travel and myself being also quite busy didn’t help either. Finally, In January 2015 we fixed a date for our second adventure after a 3 year break… in July 2015! Already with some ev-travel experience himself, I asked Nico in which general direction he wanted to […]
TWIKEing in Spain
This is a quick re-cap of my two weeks in Spain this year. Since I’m on vacation I’ll be brief. As you might know, part of my extended family is from Spain. Owning and not renting means we get treated to local stuff as apartment owner’s meetings and energy bills 🙂 I’ve already written about Spain’s exemplary power bills and wished for us in Switzerland to have the same level of detail. This year, I’m treated to the newest numbers and they’ve just gotten better! Over 40% of all energy in Spain is from renewable sources! It’s always interesting to […]
i3: one day with BMW’s ev-offering … & four swiss passes
not long ago, a petrol-head friend of mine converted from driving a 550hp bmw alpina to an i3. his first ever ev-drive was one i organized for him to participate at the world record attempt in zurich in 2013 where he was provided with a renault fluence z.e., an ev with one claim to fame: it was the first commercially available ev with a swappable battery that could be exchanged within a minute at designated drop stations. (…which never took off because the company behind this design feature went bankrupt. i wanted to visit their danish headquarters during my TDD2011 […]
TDB2015 – Day10: snow! & an executive decision
time flies when you’re having fun! today is the last day of our epic trans-european tdb2015-trip! weather hasn’t changed since yesterday. torrential rain continues and low-hanging clouds shroud all surrounding mountains. After a hearty breakfast we load our stuff into TW560 and set out to cross the arlberg pass. our optional route via lech / zürs is not an option, since weather radar images show heavy rainfall all the way to the swiss border…and beyond. TW560s interior is still very damp from yesterday’s drive – windscreen fogging is inevitable. we start the defrosters and happily munch additional 500+W just for […]
TDB2015 – Day9: entering the alps
our day starts early again. after a hearty breakfast, we check-out and are personally seen off by the owner of the guest house. as a first, today, heavy rain instead of sunshine awaits us as we get into TW560. one design drawback of a twike is the canopy which opens to the front. during rain, this exposes most of the interior, allowing it to get wet. when it rains, twike pilots are able to get into their vehicles very quickly, thus keeping the rain entering to a minimum. less ideal is our case where we have to pack the twike […]
TDB2015 – Day8: austrian backwaters to a chinese majority
it’s difficult to leave a place like this. after our well-deserved R&R we start early again – today, we go back to our usual very small roads, driving from village to village, from farm to farm, taking in the sights as they come. we say goodbye to my family and with this TDB2015‘s last leg back to switzerland has begun. but first we have to get back to a road with tarmac! our route then takes us direction rohrbach and eventually ried im innkreis. the setting remains very rural and we are happy to report that in austria, even the […]
TDB2015 – Day7: r&r in bad leonfelden, austria
aaah. a day dedicated to relaxation and recreation. after catching-up on family affairs until 2am (and drinking lots of very good austrian wine), i get up about 8.30am and venture outside to take in the landscape. just a mere 2km off the czech border, this place is in midst of a plateau called mühlviertel in austria. as mentioned in earlier posts, part of my family comes from austria. as a child, i spent many summers in austria – most of which were either in close-by linz or, my favourite, here, in bad leonfelden. i have very fond memories of me […]
TDB2015 – Day6: a dash across cz
another day welcomes us with brilliant sunlight. still stunningly large, our rooms seem even bigger when bathed in sunlight. check out the third room of my already large suite: everything in this hotel is large – even the smaller windows in the lobby seem like they were sourced from a church. on checking out, i was asked if i had seen the minibar policy… no, was my answer, until it was pointed out to me. 🙂 we leave legnica and follow small roads towards the czech border. slowly hills move into view and we’re really looking forward to some less […]
TDB2015 – Day5: rural poland
we start out early again – the weather promises to be as perfect as yesterday. TW560 is fully charged and ready – even with a very complicated infrastructure. getting out of bydgoszcz is quite challenging – as the bridge leading over the river brda seems to suggest 🙂 our day is magical. after a few kms on busy roads, we leave everything behind us and cross super-rural poland on single lane roads. we slowly climb towards a plateau and from there onwards we drive from sleepy village to sleepy village. everyone seems happy and content here. unlike russians, polish people […]