after arriving late the day before – we are greeted with beautiful weather today. every year we rent the same house for my extended austrian family. this ensures that we meet at least once a year in southern styria which is about the same distance for everyone except us coming from switzerland. i feel very at home here. my kids and wife have come to share my love for this beautiful part of our planet – in this post i will try to convey some impressions, but, alas, there will be no substitute for you, dear reader, other than come […]
vienna > styria via hungary and slovenia
i get up pretty early to avoid any undue delays because of vienna commuter-traffic and make some distance early, since today’s trip will be at least 357kms. already very early on i see long lines of cars on their way into vienna – hardly any vehicle is heading towards the leithagebirge and the neusiedler lake. then i was treated to a very, very nice sunrise! this romantic setting, however, does not last for long. getting closer to the neusiedler lake means that humidity rises, too. soon i hit a bank of thick fog and the already meager number of °C […]
switzerland > vienna … nice to be back again
finally, again, tw560 and i are on our way back to vienna. my family will be in austria for a week riding horses somewhere outside schladming – this gives me some time to stay with my relatives in vienna for the weekend, work out of my vienna office and then head onwards to southern styria. saturday morning oct, 13, i load the TW560 with all the stuff i need to survive until oct21, when i’m going to be back home. did i mention i really like the appenzell region? picture perfect and postcard-like landscapes – incredible! after arriving in feldkirch, […]
looking forward to hungary, slovenia … and styria!
View vienna > southern styria in a larger map this saturday, TW560 and i are heading back to vienna again. i’ll be staying with the austrian part of my family in vienna on sunday, and working out of my vienna office monday and make a quick dash out to zurich and back to vienna on tuesday. then, i shall be back in my proverbial mobile office on my way to southern styria. on thursday evening, friday and saturday i’ll be buying wines, eating good food and spending some quality time with my wife and kids in a very, very nice […]
TWIKE alps challenge 2012
TWIKE swiss alps challenge 2012 – announced here on this site’s sidebar for some time, was a brainwave i had during my last longer TWIKE trip to southern spain this year. initially, i was planning to test if it was possible to cross the swiss alps with 6.5kWh worth of energy and then see how far i could make it on one charge. my estimate was that if i could make it to the entrance of the gotthard tunnel with about 850Wh left, i could make it to the italian part of switzerland and coast down to ambri or even […]
2nd leg of TDE2012 is over!
TW231 has made it safely back to switzerland. after 5052kms and 231 (sic!) kWh, TDE2012 is over. happy to have been part of this great trip! some impressions of the last leg in the gallery below. a presentation on this trip will be held at one of the TWIKEklub gatherings – most probably 16nov12, in dättlikon, switzerland not been part of the whole trip yet? why not read from the start here!
TDE2012 – slight change of plan
room availability at the french coast is very bad due to french vacation season kicking in at full force. jc will no longer drive to la rochelle, france, but instead will drive from bordeaux direction north west until he meets the red line again.
TDE2012 continues! > jc has arrived at the atlantic ocean
after another 1300kms, jc has arrived in gijon, northern spain. below some of the pictures jc uploaded from the trip. from here he will continue towards la rochelle, france > see the map below for details on his route. View TDE2012, 2nd leg in a larger map
TDE2012 – first technical problem
jc texted me > “have technical problem, am in albacete, call me pls” just a few seconds into our 3g-videocall it was clear what had went wrong… the pedal de-coupling mechanism has failed. in this state, the TWIKE can only go forwards, not backwards, since the backwards movement with the pedals engaged will mimic braking and eventually completely block the TWIKE > jc was at exactly this point – the TWIKE was completely blocked and he was unable to get it going without help. there is a temporary fix for this: manually de-couple the pedals using a large screwdriver and drive […]
TDE2012 – 2nd leg has started!
thursday, jc has departed on the next leg of TDE 2012 this is his next stage: TDE2012, 2nd leg auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen you may click on the link to enter a fully zoomable map version. GPS tracking is active and you may see jc’s current location at the right at any time!