Two decades, 280,000+km – countless hours of driving bliss and a persistent attribute of my life – Thank you, TW560! Built in Switzerland mid-2000 by the nascent TWIKE AG, it was put into service one month before my eldest daughter was born. My wife and I had just returned from 3+ years of living abroad in Asia and southern Europe in June 2000 and had just begun to restart our life in Switzerland. My TWIKE was the 560th in the line, but due to some administrative miscommunication, more than one TW560 exists – my TWIKE’s twin lives close to Munich. […]
TDST2020 – Heading back home
Today’s entry will be a short one – my own family has already left and I’m going to spend some last hours with my extended family – doing what we do best: chatting, eating and drinking. For lunch we chose another very typical restaurant where I got a very last fix for my year-long craving: Steirisches Backhendl. To end our meal, I help my digestive system by having some local Schnapps with my coffee, before saying goodbye to everyone. My drive to Graz is slow, relaxed and on a small road I’ve never taken in the past. The […]
TDST2020 – Styria, beautiful as ever
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 […]
Not quite 2000km on one charge
A world record with a TWIKE? 2000km on one charge…with a 25+ year old electric vehicle? Wishful thinking or validation of a decades-old vehicle concept? Thomas Bechtiger from Bemoto in Zurich has been our trusted TWIKE repair shop from the very beginning and thought that this would be feasible. He wanted to just load as many used electric scooter batteries into a TWIKE as possible and then see how far the TWIKE could go. It took him and a small and dedicated team months to build the blocks, add a lower-voltage 48V motor and controller electronics to go with it. […]
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 […]