There is not much to write about after all the other years I’ve written about traveling to Styria. It’s been 16 years now that I and my family have been attending a family gathering of my Austrian family in Styria. Usually this is a 5-day stay in southern Austria. We drink lots of wine, eat very well, spend time catching up and doing fun activities together. This year, I’m not writing about every day but rather about some of the highlights – coupled with some photos that will give some context. If you want to know more about what you […]
TDST2020 – Day5, Wolfsberg – Graz – Southern Styria
Our prologue’s last day has begun. This evening, we will be arriving at the winery we’ve been going to for the last 15 years. We will be meeting with our kids who have texted us that they were on their way. For them it will be a 850km road trip from Switzerland. For us the day starts with friendly temperatures and sunshine. Our parking spot for the night was perfectly adapted to the size of our TWIKE – since the building was built a very long time ago, this was the size that was required those days – not quite […]
TDST2020 – Day4, Villach – Wolfsberg
Our day starts lazily after another hearty Austrian Breakfast. The only plan we have for today is to visit Klagenfurt – I’ve never been myself and looking forward to it. The weather stays cloudy, grey and rather cold. A TWIKE comes with little options to heat the cabin – we therefore add another layer to what we’re wearing and off we go! Klagenfurt is just 45km from Villach – having arrived there, our first goal is to get inside a coffee place and warm up a little. Later we walk around town – a typical mid-sized Austrian city with an […]
TDST2020 – Day3, North Italian Alps – Villach
At last: our day starts with a blue sky, warm temperatures and the sun fighting its way through the last remainders of fog in the valley. Our destination for today is Villach – getting there will see us leave the northern Italian Dolomites region and crossing into southern Austria – both regions are, given nice weather, beautiful – we’re really looking forward to our drive today. We will have to cross three passes today – some of them are above 1800m. We will have to see if the roads have already been cleared. I’ve promised my wife that we would […]
TDST2020 – Day2, South Tyrol – Dolomites
Today is our official first day off – we wake up to a grey day with us not really being able to fully take advantage of our awesome suite-style room with huge balcony so obviously designed for the lazy consumption of a sunny day! After a hearty Austrian-style breakfast my wife and I start our trip with a traditional TWIKE pilot team picture. With me traveling long-distance with my TWIKE since 2008, there are many of these pictures – maybe I’ll create a page for them someday. Not much later, I spy a first real Italian bar and stop to […]
TDST2020 – Day1, Home – South Tyrol
Finally, the day has come for TDST2020! My wife and I will be traveling to Southern Styria together by TWIKE. We will be taking our time, whilst our children will follow a week later by car and meet up with us at one of our favourite Buschenschanks close to where we stay every year. Packing our stuff is done in just a minute and we’re ready to leave. Since it’s still Friday, my wife will be driving whilst I work – I just love how this is possible nowadays. Since it’s raining, there isn’t too much to see – our […]
TDI2020 – Heading Home – A Few Days On My Own
As I got up early morning, I suddenly felt different about what I should be doing the next few days: I wanted to drive home. No hardcore TWIKEing. Direction home, nevertheless. Starting my trip at 7am today, I am, yet again, greeted by a very nice day, promising to be hot and sunny. I cross the hills on some very uninteresting roads which take me to the very flat Pianura, which I really don’t like: 80kms of pure flatness. Let’s skip forward to Milan – a town I’ve been visiting regularly for the last 30 years. This year, as with […]
TDI2020 – A few days at the sea
Our stay in Lucca was much too short. Today’s drive will take us to Massa Marina, just 80km from Lucca. My family will enjoy the town for another few hours whilst I start bright and early. My plan for today is to drive from the coast inland up some hills and back to the sea again. Off we go! Temperatures soar and I’m happy to climb continuously. Every 100m up means about 1°C less temperature. A first pass at 1300m brings me to a plateau at around 1000m, complete with mountain lake and many, many people escaping the heat. For […]
TDI2020 – Northwards along the Ligurian Sea
Time has flown by in Terni & Rome. We’ve had a great time as a family with all our friends and we’re very grateful for their friendship. Today I will drive to Lucca on my own – my family wants to spend less time on the road – rather a long and relaxing lunch at the sea somewhere en-route. Me, however, am looking forward to the trip. Today will be a very hot day and I’ve planned to take TW560 up some hills to get a reprieve from the heat. TW560 was charged slowly at 0.02C to allow the […]
TDI2020 – Terni & Rome
After arriving in Terni, we’re ready for a week of time-off, Italian-style! We live with our friends whilst our kids live distributed across town with their grown-up children or stay with the extended family. Most of our days consist of sitting at long tables and eating fabulous food or visiting other parts of the family – very relaxing. With Covid Lockdown1 over, most of public services are back – with the hot weather we’re loving the fact that we have a swimming pool just around the corner from where we live! We spent a few afternoons here. Our kids, however, […]