wow, time is moving fast! hurrah – our russian visas have come through! we’re really happy that this part of our trip is happening. we’re both looking forward to visiting kaliningrad! in the meanwhile i’ve found a way to offer up-to-the-minute gps tracking that looks and works like the map latitude generated for me two years ago. i really liked the feature in the past where people would keep refreshing our site just to see where we were and send us poi’s whilst en-route. hope you will like it again. emissionless’ homepage will be getting a location badge in the […]
TDB2015…lots of news! (t-53d)
planning all aspects of TDB2015 is a very interesting task. we’re happy to announce that one of the most important parts of these preparations has been completed: how to get TW560 to tallin, the starting point of our adventure this year. you might remember us lamenting the complexities of this task in one of our last blog entries. even after having had the chance to negotiate with a car importer from estonia, we were still at an amount of money we were unwilling to invest in just getting TW560 to its starting point. so, after thinking somewhat out of the […]
fondue in malans – a two-day TWIKE trip
as you might know, the swiss TWIKE driver’s association organizes various events every year. since we’re in switzerland, fondues and related events are “de rigeur” during the cold season. this year, we’ve been treated to a total of 4(!) such events for the club alone – one of the better ones is away from the usual swiss gravitational centres: far off in the grison alps. i’ve already blogged about one of theses events here. this year, the grison event is going to be held in the wine-producing foothills of malans at a winery. both myself and my trusted co-pilot and […]
TDB2015: planning and preparations are progressing
time is a wonderfully fluid thing – just a moment ago, we were looking at a counter for TDB2015 at 130 days…and today we’re already at 80 to go! we’re currently applying for our russian visas – nothing has changed here from 20 years ago: you answer a TON of questions, need a “sponsor” from within, every step within the territory has to be accounted for and you need to prove your medical insurance covers russia by providing a written confirmation by your insurer. they were asking for all countries i visited during the last 10 years: an interesting challenge […]
TDB2015: update on our preparations
quick update on our preparations for this year’s TWIKE adventure. as a few readers of this blog have correctly guessed, TDB2015 stands for “Tour du Baltique” 2015. we’ve decided to take TW560 to the baltic states and cross russian territory when visiting kalinigrad. as usual, i started out by drawing our direct line and then started by defining the start and end point of our trip on a map. later on, whilst driving, this map will be synched to our phone which then shows us the way. one evening i invite jc over to go over the rough plan. as […]
a new TWIKE adventure: TDB2015
ha! better start planning early! as nearly every year for the last 8 years, jc and myself will be taking a TWIKE further afield for around 8-9 days. we’ve decided on a general direction and now we’re dealing with visa regulations, vehicle insurance issues and other practical questions. TDB2015 will take us further afield than any other trip except the one across india. detailed planning of our route will start in february. i’ll be posting updates on our planning when appropriate – at least we’ve got our good old countdown going again and, and looking at it now, it’s only […]
TDM2014 – Day9, Easy going…after our last pass at 2106m alt.
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 […]
TDM2014 – Day8, Drive back to Switzerland: -1km!
after a very relaxing night at the casa mortarino, we’re seen off in person by the friendly owner wishing us all the best – this was by far the best stay we’ve had on our trip – should we be back to this part of italy anytime in the future, we’re certainly going to be calling there again! today, we cross the flatlands around the river po and more specifically the rice fields that give us the raw material for our beloved risotto. View TDM2014 (TW560) TWIKE in a larger map unsurprisingly, today, again, the pianura welcomes us with a […]
TDM2014 – Day 7, Nature’s forces & “la voglio!”
we had a night with awful weather – constant thunderstorms, heavy rain and extreme winds. meeting the owner of the hotel for check-out early next morning, he informs us that there will be some issues with leaving the region, since many roads are blocked due to landslides. there are 4 roads leading to the coast from santo stefano d’aveto – 3 of them are blocked. lucky us, that the small road we had planned on taking was the only one still open! furthermore, genova seems to have been hit worst – most of the city and surrounding communities are currently […]
TDM2014 – Day 6, Fog and a welcome change
toady, my entry is much shorter than usual… leaving our hotel today, we start out on the same flat roads we left yesterday… with one major difference: we see less than yesterday. this is our route for today: ostiglia to santo stefano d’aveto, in midst of the d’aveto nature reserve. View to the sea, sea and back (TW560) TWIKE in a larger map at about 0900 the fog gets denser by the minute until we have to slow down for saftey reasons. we drive from small town / village and only have one little highlight during the whole morning: we […]