Waking up early is a blessing and curse of being at a certain age. In my case, today, I was very happy to be wide awake and refreshed whilst having the luck to see the sun rise over the hills and illuminate my room in a warm orange glow. After enjoying a last few words with the owner and my prepared-just-for-me breakfast. I pack the TWIKE and hit the road again – driving eastward. As it’s only 500km to Barcelona from here and I have 2 days to go, I can either drive further today to reduce the remaining distance […]
TDP2021: Day42 – Gredos – Atienza
What a change to the last few weeks this night was: Cold 10°C air was filtering into my room during the night and I slept very well. Felt a little bit like Switzerland. Refreshed, I go to the breakfast room and am greeted by the Refugio’s owner lady with a friendly smile. There isn’t much to chose from and I go with the most Catalan version of breakfast possible: Pan con Tomate! Ah! What a Mediterranean treat this is! The owner and I had discussed Mediterranean and Catalan delights the evening before – she even brought me multiple types of […]
TDP2021: Day41 Castel Branco – Gredos
Today is the day of reckoning: Will I be able drive to Switzerland with my TWIKE or will TW560 travel on its own whilst I have to find another way? Before beginning anything today, I want to savour my last Portuguese breakfast – and a blast of carbs! Our strategy today is to be at the motorbike repair show as soon as the mechanics get there and insist on getting the problem solved before anything else catches their interest. Whilst waiting: A TWIKE parked anywhere is always of interest. We drink some coffees until the mechanics arrive and insist on […]
TDP2021: Day39-40 – Castelo Branco
Saturday morning…7 am Martim and I are ready to explore the town of Castelo Branco and the fields surrounding the town on foot…running. He’s a triathlete, 10 years younger than me – his pace for the first 10km was at a brisk ~5min/km. I really liked the early morning temperature. My runs in Lisbon were mostly at 5am when the air is still clear and cool. I tried one late afternoon at 33°C – it just killed me. After 16km and an average of 5.11min/km we were back and ready for a protein shake and – for me – a […]
TDP2021: Day34-38 – an unexpected part of TDP2021
Early morning I load all my stuff into the TWIKE, clear my apartment and hand back the keys and remote control for the garage before driving to the Airport to work from the lounge until my flight leaves later that afternoon. All is good until I have to slam the breaks due to a distracted driver and the TWIKE does not break as expected – no breaking at the front and virtually no breaking at the back. It seems that the endless cobblestone treatment has gotten to the breaking system and something has broken. I immediately research some motorbike mechanics […]
TDP2021: Day27-33 – Back in Town, daily commute to work
Another week as a digital nomad starts – I can reach my office by TWIKE in about 12-14 minutes and I really like trying to discover a new way to get to the office every morning. The only thing I don’t like about Lisbon (and many parts of Portugal) is TWIKE-related: Cobblestones. Lots of this kind of surface…coarse and fine. Very bumpy and definitely the reason why I’ve had to tighten many more screws than under normal circumstances. Every evening I get to go out with some colleagues from my office or with people that reached out via Twitter. My […]
TDP2021: Interview for Lisbon’s Mensagem
As mentioned in the last entry, my trip generated quite some interest in the Interwebs. Specifically, this tweet, which motivated Leonardo Rodrigues, a journalist from a Lisbon-based digital-only publication, amensagem.pt to reach out to me and ask me if I were interested in a creating a piece in his publication. TW560 is no stranger to press coverage. Leonardo and I met up and he got the full TWIKE treatment. All information, a long cross-city drive in the TWIKE and lots of ‘TWIKE magic’! Being used to interviews, we quickly ticked off the usual boxes. Leonardo, also, had done his homework […]
TDP2021: Day25-26 – Escaping the City Bustle of Lisbon in Foz
Another place without any noise except for the ever-present wind blowing from the Atlantic. I slept very well and woke early morning. My host was also awake – offering me breakfast with fresh fruit, yogurt and fresh fruit. With a full day of doing nothing ahead, I decide to drive along the same road I took yesterday to have some time in the sun at the two beaches – bay and Atlantic. The drive there is even more beautiful than last evening! The sand bank is visible from afar and is unlike any landscape feature I’ve ever seen. As this […]
TDP2021: Day 20-24 – Lisbon Living/Working, first week
With my vacation over, I start living and working from Lisbon for the next 3 weeks. I’m really happy that my work setup allows me to work from anywhere, as long as I’ve got high-speed internet with a latency below around 75 ms. From my apartment, my commute to the office takes only 14 minutes. The office itself is located at a central location just off Avenida da Libertade, in an old and typical Lisbon townhouse with high ceilings and large rooms. Normally, parking in the ‘red’ city centre would cost me a fortune – unless it’s an electric car, […]
TDP2021: Day 19 – Heading back to Lisbon
Much too soon, it’s time to leave this paradise of quiet and friendliness. I’ll be back for sure. If you feel like visiting this place, you can reach Dorris and Ed here. I strongly recommend you to visit them if you can. Ed was adamant to not let me leave without a sandwich and prepared one for me with all his usual love and dedication I have become used to with his breakfast concoctions: There is just that much that I can say about my stay – see the following video showing them sending me off. After returning to the […]