The ferry arrives on-time in Genova. With the help of a tugboat, we find our way into the port like an oversized log. This process takes a while and whilst everybody else is on the upper deck watching our arrival in Genova, I, having seen this process last time, I stay in the bar and get a piping hot coffee and a cornetto, fresh from the oven. With this I’m ready to start my day – the only one in Italy this trip -and drive home. No-one seems to care about any reduction of the virus’ spead when the time […]
TDP2021: Day45 – Barcelona – Genoa
I splurged on my last hotel on this trip – complete with all the trappings and a rooftop swimming pool. Today’s breakfast, however, was quite muted and did not live up to the expectations. This didn’t have anything to do with the hotel, though – local health regulations reduced the offering dramatically. I’ve definitely had enough restrictions by this current situation. Let’s hope that it will not last too much longer until we can get back to ‘normal’. I’m not an advocate of going back to the good old way of doing things for everything… but: let’s do it at […]
TDP2021: Day44 – Lleida – Barcelona
My last full-day drive in Spain has begun. Yesterday evening I researched a little as to which kind of options I had to get to Barcelona as I wasn’t keen on 150km of main road driving – today I’ll take some smaller roads to Tarragona, visit the city and then take the road along the coast to Barcelona. Add some hills to cross into the mix and this should turn out to be a very nice day of TWIKEing. The last hill before Tarragona turned out to be a real surprise – complete with a steep winding road up the […]
TDP2021: Day43 – Atienza – Lleida
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 […]