TWIKE 560 Adventures

Welcome to the last day of TDAF2016 – currently, we are at an alpine resort called Aprica at 1100m. Toady, we have a day full of alpine passes waiting for us: 1181m – Passo di Aprica – Italy 2621m – Gavia Pass – Italy 2291m – Foscagno Pass – Italy 2315m – Livigno Pass – Switzerland-Italy 2328m – Bernina Pass – Switzerland 1815m – Maloya Pass – Switzerland 2117m – Splügen Pass – Italy-Switzerland First thing in the morning, I open my window to be greeted by the usual blue sky that has followed us during all our trip. Thinking […]

Welcome to the 8th day of TDAF2016, TW560‘s yearly trip to somewhere outside of Switzerland. Currently, our total cost for energy still is at €0. Last year’s trip totaled at €2.5 for 2900km 🙂 I start my day by opening the tall windows of my room, just to be greeted by…   …yet again. My family and friends have sent me grey and rainy pictures for the last week. I’m getting increasingly reluctant to send back anything pertaining to weather. 🙂 We leave our place to have some Italian-style breakfast somewhere at the main square.   Unlike yesterday, the street […]

Today gave us a comprehensive mix of everything we like about our trips: cruising along a coastal road, lots of small towns and villages, super-small roads, very steep climbs, beautiful views and very friendly encounters with people we met along the road. Our trip starts after a warm farewell by the hotel staff. Our day off yesterday sees us back on the road, very much looking forward to what today will bring us. We’re very happy that there are some clouds in the sky – every time we drive into the sun, it gets very hot really quickly. The roads […]

Everyone needs a break from time to time. Same for us – after 5 Days on the road, we decided yesterday that we would add an additional – drive free – day in Diano Marina. Instead of a travelogue, today, just some impressions of what we were up to. (Add a generous afternoon siesta for me).   A walk along the beach, then drive to Diano Marina old town.     We then decide to have our hair cut and be shaved.     Go back to the beach… it’s still really quiet there. (First wave of tourists start arriving […]

Our travelogue for today is short. Since our aim is to be on a much more relaxed schedule than last year, we leave from Menton at 9am after sleeping well in our very basic hotel. All our battery indicators are back to normal, since we’ve allowed for a full and normal charge and are looking forward to meaningful information by our onboard computer. (Since we only changed the maximum charge voltage yesterday, our computer was trying to cope with the fact that we were still able to recuperate over 500Wh into the battery although it was ‘full’ from its point […]

Welcome to the fourth day of TDAF2016, a yearly adventure with TWIKE 560 making its way to the sea after 3 days relentlessly crossing some of the highest (and the highest) passes in Europe. No passes were crossed off our list today. This, however, doesn’t mean that we didn’t get to climb a few hills… below 2000m 🙂 Spoiler alert: Lots of fun, heart-wrenching sounds, beautiful roads and places you have to visit coming up. After some very fitful sleep we are engaged in long conversations with the other guests and owners of the Grand Chalet. They absolutely wanted us […]

Welcome back to the third day of this year’s TWIKE adventure to southern France. Today, again, we have a tasty mix of 2k+ alpine passes from our list waiting for us: 2361 m Col d’Izoard – France 2108 m Col de Vars – France 2715 m Col de la Bonette – France 2350 m Col de la Lombarde – France/Italy After spending the night in a very old and rustic place, we are greeted by yet another brilliant day with its first golden sun-rays filtering through the many trees around the property.     We pack our stuff and set […]

Part of TDAF2016 is about the ‘AF’ – the Alpes Françaises and TW560’s ‘task list‘ of highest roads in Europe which kicked-off last year with the visit to the highest road in Europe. Today we crossed-off following passes from our list: 2188 m – Little St Bernard Pass – France>Italy 2770 m – Col de l’Iseran – France 2645 m – Col du Galibier – France 2058 m – Col du Lautaret – France Spoiler alert: it was – yet again – an amazing day! After some fitful shut-eye I wake to heavy rain, dark grey and low-hanging clouds. Yuk. […]

Time flies when you’re looking forward to something! Just a blink of an eye ago, our counter on this site showed 7 weeks to go…and already it’s time to get in our trusted TWIKE for a new 10-day adventure across Europe.   Although we had sustained torrential rainfalls during the last week – if someone told me that we were going to be driving through rain for our first day of TDAF2016, I insisted that our first day crossing Switzerland would be a picture-perfect day. The more I spoke about this first, perfect day, the more convinced I was that […]

We’re on the road! Really looking forward to our newest TWIKE adventure, TDAF2016. As usual, we’re going to be posting a travel log update about once a day. Follow us: with our GPS location updated every 5 minutes and accessible through an interactive map!