Day 0 – From Salzburg to Vienna
…and it was an adventure! We are now riding the beautiful, brand new TWIKE TW1009. When Wolfgang and Christina handed it over to us last night, it only had 22km on the clock. Now it’s almost midnight and we have another 270km on the clock. After we had stowed everything we needed for the tour in the TW1009, we left the Oekotel in Salzburg at around 9:45 am, got a highway vignette at a gas station and drove straight onto the west highway towards Vienna.
From previous trips, I knew that the optimum speed for a TWIKE on the highway is around 70-75 km/h. At this speed, truck drivers notice early enough that the vehicle in front of them is slower and can pull out fast enough to overtake without being blocked behind the TWIKE. After more than two hours, 126km later, and some frighteningly steep climbs (for a highway), we arrived at our first charging stop in Linz. The charging infrastructure in Austria seems to be very good. I had printed out a list of possible charging stations in advance. Now all we have to do is enter the most convenient stations into our GPS and head straight for them. The one in Linz was right in front of an electricity company. We found four sockets, but I had no idea how to get electricity out of them. So I went to the porter and asked… twice… It’s easy once you know: insert your bank card, take out your bank card, select the charging plug, plug it in, press start and you’re done (no money was deducted from the card either).
How does the TWIKE work?
Two hours and 10 minutes later, we were ready to go again. In the meantime, we had explained the TWIKE to most of the company’s employees, gone for a walk, bought some drinks and a map of Austria. We also discovered that we might just make it to the WAVE meeting in Eichgraben without having to recharge. We drove back to the highway and of course we were stopped by the friendly Austrian police exactly 30km before our planned exit. They wanted to see our papers. After making sure that everything was in order, they wished us a safe onward journey and we drove on to our desired exit near St. Pölten. Now, on “normal” roads, we finally started pedaling along. After all, we wanted to prepare ourselves physically for the coming days. The plan is to pedal the entire 1500km of the tour. Then we realized that we only had enough power in the tank for 15 km. We might not make it to the meeting point. So we made a ten-minute charging stop at a small street café and ordered drinks for ourselves and a portion of electricity for the TWIKE. After everyone had been recharged, we continued on our way. We arrived at the hotel in Eichgraben at 17:15 after a 140km ride from our stop in Linz. After checking in, we went straight to the meeting. We only missed the welcome speech.
We are pretty happy with ourselves that we survived day 0 so well. We’re also really looking forward to tomorrow, the start of WAVE 2013. We’ve been given starting number 1, which means we’ll be the first to start this year’s WAVE tomorrow!
Andreas
Day 1 – From Eichgraben to Eisenstadt
The first day is almost over. Everything actually went quite well, although we had a few initial difficulties to contend with. First of all, we didn’t quite understand how the start procedure was supposed to work. As start number 1, of course we couldn’t just copy the others. At the start, the presenter held the microphone under my nose and asked me to say something about the TWIKE as the only true sports car in the field. So I had to improvise a few sentences on the spur of the moment. As a result, I may have missed the start time by a few seconds. I think I was waiting for something like a flag or something similar to signal the start. Hmm…. I hope we got away without any penalty points. At the same time, Angela was struggling with the satnav, which kept trying to send us back to the hotel. That’s why we got lost after just 200m! But we sorted it out pretty quickly and were soon back on the right track. As planned, we pedaled the whole way and after only about 30 km it was completely automatic to move our legs as soon as the TWIKE started. The typical question: “Can you stop pedaling for a moment? I want to change gear.” was very quickly shortened to “Click!” and changing gear became routine.
We had a short stay at a company in one of Vienna’s industrial districts. There the presenter announced me as “Dr. Schröder from Switzerland”! The next destination was the casino in Baden, where we stayed over lunch and had to visit the casino. The management of the casino was invited to evaluate the design of our vehicles. This was the first special test of the WAVE and the results were announced during the casino tour. The winner was our “Lone Viking” Robort, but the presenter addressed him as “Corbin Sparrow”… how embarrassing! We came third and are very happy with that. When we finally set off again, the presenter told the audience that “Captain Sparrow” was about to take off on his TWIKE. MODERATORS!!! ARGH, WHY HAS THE RUM RUN OUT ALREADY?
Relaxing in Baden with Gordon and Leora from Team Green Motor Sport.
We are standing under a wind turbine in a huge wind farm. The only things you can hear are the birds and the wind in the rye fields. Modern windmills are almost silent. During the journey, Angela is responsible for the navigation system. I’m slowly getting used to her instructions, which usually sound like this: “In 800 meters, the road goes a bit meandering back and forth or something.”
Group photo under the windmill
Start no. 1
We’re going to spend the night in Eisenstadt, 40km away, and the people there have invited us to a wine festival. So we should probably get going again…
Andreas
Day 2 – From Eisenstadt to Aibl
What a day! We are now in the best hotel imaginable, the Romantikhof Kiefer in Eibiswald. A perfect place to end a fantastic day of traveling with lots of sun, 270km of pedaling, super nice people and lots of questions and explanations about the TWIKE, the WAVE and electric vehicles in general.
We set off very early, around half past 6 a.m. The first stage was 125 km long and the charging time in Güssing was only from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. We arrived at 10:08, which meant we got almost all the charge we needed for the remaining stages. Unfortunately, we were unable to refuel in person. The only food available was goulash soup, there was no vegetarian alternative for us. An apple and a muesli bar had to suffice.
Sun driving
Sammy hung on to our slipstream to save energy and also used us as a sat nav (her sat nav was no longer working).
We left our hosts in Güssing at exactly 12 noon and drove to Gleisdorf. Today’s special stage took place here: SLALOM driving! Our start time was exactly half past one! We reached the course at 13:20. So I immediately jumped out of the TWIKE and jogged along the course with a jury member. I wanted to do everything right! Meanwhile, Angela took our stuff out of the TWIKE to keep the weight as low as possible. We weren’t allowed to practice before the test and I was supposed to be the first to complete the test. I think I did quite well with 57.47 seconds. The second team to start was Team 2 with a Tesla and of course they were 13 seconds faster. But because they forgot a pylon, they received a 20-second penalty. Nevertheless, in the end we had no chance against the other “high performance” cars. Another Tesla won this special stage. On the other hand, there were many other teams that finished worse than us. I’m looking forward to reading the final results on the WAVE website. We also finally got something to eat: sweet rolls filled with jam.
Finally, all the teams had completed their test, photos and films were in the can and I did another lap with the pilot of the model helicopter camera. Then we all drove together in a convoy (which diverged somewhat due to the long climbs on the way) to Graz. Graz seemed like a very charming city, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of it. We were far too tired to take part in the city tour after a day of “TWIKE cycling”.
At twenty past five and another not-full load, we left Graz for Deutschlandsberg. There we were warmly welcomed by the local gymnastics club. Speeches were prepared for us, stage presentations were shown and there was also a nice dinner. This time there was a vegetarian alternative, but we almost didn’t get to enjoy it as we had so many questions to answer.
We continued on to the village of Aibl. We were greeted with drinks and electricity, and of course were again inundated with questions. After a while, we managed to sneak off to our lovely hotel. We finished our last unfinished load while we treated ourselves to a well-deserved shower.
Andreas
Day 3 – From Aibl to Lake Weissensee
WOW! Today was the first real mountain stage so far, before we reach the maximum tomorrow with the Grossglockner. We left our lovely hosts on time at 9:46 and started to tackle the climb towards Soboth. Here we got a slight foretaste of what was to come. It was 25km uphill and sometimes it was so steep that our speed dropped to 20km/h. We even had to pedal in places. At such points, we even had to put the pedal shift into 1st gear. I assume that everyone reading this knows that we don’t actually have to pedal at all. The TWIKE motor is perfectly adequate. Pedaling does not increase speed or acceleration. It does, however, extend the range.
But I can tell you one thing: when the mountain calls, we’ll answer with everything we’ve got! We’re not going to give up because of a stupid hill! After 25km we reached the pass, drenched in sweat, at an altitude of 1349m with 60km to go.
We allowed ourselves a little breather, took some souvenir photos and then we sped down the other side of the mountain. What a wonderful feeling after all the hard exertions. At the bottom, our remaining range had doubled to 120 km thanks to the regenerative braking system. So we didn’t have to charge the TWIKE again in Völkermarkt. Nevertheless, we made a charging stop: We recharged our own energy reserves with ice cream.
The next planned loading stop was in St. Veit. We arrived a little too late and missed the introduction of the so-called “Fuchspalast”. This “palace hotel” was designed by the Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs. A very colorful building. At least we arrived in time for lunch.
After our stop in St. Veit, we had another stop in Freistritz an der Drau. We were given a small snack and an excellent ice-cold elderflower syrup, which we really enjoyed. We then continued towards Weissensee. We still had about 63km to go. The route was mostly very flat except for the last few kilometers, which were another challenge: Some sections had 15% gradients! I suppose this was another good test for tomorrow. We learned what speed to set the cruise control at on different gradients to get the best efficiency out of it.
Lake Weissensee is located high up in the mountains, surrounded by many small villages. There are many hotels and tourist attractions there….but what is really beautiful is the view from our hotel balcony:
The evening in the town hall was very interesting. We enjoyed the good food accompanied by two guys playing the accordion (actually I can’t stand this kind of music, but they were really good!) There was also a talk about a round-the-world trip on a solar-powered ship. The charging situation, however, was a mess. After several short circuits, we decided to charge at the hotel. We wanted to be sure that we had enough energy for the long climb to the Grossglockner tomorrow. It turned out that half of the teams were doing the same.
Andreas
Day 4 – From Weissensee to Neukirchen (via the Grossglockner)
Today was THE DAY…the best day so far! And we did it: WE CONQUERED THE GROSSGLOCKNER WITH THE TWIKE!!!
It’s indescribable how that feels. We covered 1400 meters of altitude in just 20 or 30 km. We pedaled ALL THE WAY UP in our TW1009.
The first stage was from Weissensee to Heiligenblut. We therefore first had to ride down the steep mountain from yesterday evening, so that our range at the bottom showed the somewhat optimistic value of 494 km. This range was slowly but surely reduced to more realistic values until we reached the mountain road towards Heiligenblut and the Grossglockner. We had to overcome a 700m difference in altitude in just a few kilometers. We quickly fell into a steady speed of 25 – 30km/h while pedaling along in second gear. Of course, we were often overtaken, but we got lots of thumbs up, were photographed and filmed and had a fantastic time! Our loading stop in Heiligenblut turned out to be a nice little village, perhaps a little too crowded due to the Grossglockner tourism:
At around 1pm we decided to take a detour of 7km (and 400m uphill) to visit the Kaiser Franz Josef Glacier, although we weren’t entirely sure of our range and the time this detour would take. It was a HUGE load off my mind when we made it: The view of the glacier was absolutely incredible. Pictures can’t capture that, but I tried to take a panoramic shot with Autostitch anyway:
After taking part in the group photo, we moved on to the real challenge: we rode the 7km back (and 400m downhill) to tackle the Grossglockner mountain stage. By now, the riding and pedaling was going by itself and we were able to concentrate on the incredible views around us. The panorama changed every few meters and after every bend, making us completely forget the pain in our legs. It was a steady ride to the top of the pass and the feeling of achievement when we reached the Hochtor at 2505m was unique:
The temperature was 7.5 degrees. There was snow everywhere and frozen waterfalls on the walls of the tunnel, but we were happy and didn’t notice the cold. On the other side of the tunnel was another parking lot with a gigantic view of the mountain peaks around us.
Then came the long downhill section with lots of regenerative braking. I think I only touched the mechanical brake five times, the rest of the energy went straight back into the batteries. A few times I thought there was something wrong with the TWIKE because it smelled kind of burnt. But then it turned out that the smell was coming from the burnt brakes of other vehicles and motorcycles.
What a waste of energy…
We continued on to Neukirchen, where we spent the night at the Sporthotel Wildkogel and shared a room with Gordon and Lenora from Team Green Motor Sport. It was an unforgettable, fantastic day!
Andreas
Day 5 – From Neukirchen to La Punt
After yesterday’s highlight, the Grossglockner, today seemed less exciting. Well, compared to twiking on the M25 around London, it was still one of the best rides. Despite everything, the day dragged on, consisting of riding and charging through some very beautiful but no longer breathtaking scenery.
It started with some confusion. Apparently a mudslide came down overnight on the first mountain we had to cross, but it turned out that our route was still open. This was of the same caliber as our first mountain pass two days ago (only two days ago???) but from now on there was nothing to worry about. The ride downhill towards Zell am Ziller (short loading stop) was pretty spectacular. However, on the way to Innsbruck the Zillertal opened up more and more and we started to get a little bored. Also, the region is a famous tourist attraction and so we wouldn’t normally visit this area anyway.
The closer we got to Innsbruck, the more traffic and industry greeted us. And as Innsbruck was only intended as another loading stop, we didn’t get to see much of the city. The world-famous Hilton Hotel was unable to provide us with a vegetarian meal. We moved on to a small restaurant near our loading vehicles on Landhausplatz.
Our next loading stop was in Landeck. As we only stayed there for a short time, we took the opportunity to enjoy an ice cream in the sun. We then set off for the Swiss border. Fortunately, the landscape became a little more interesting again… just like the weather: it got darker and darker over the mountain peaks. And just in time for the border crossing, it started to rain heavily! Well…a quick stopover was necessary to close the side windows of the soft top. Back in the TWIKE and another ride in a thunderstorm. Of course, it was over again within a minute and we were warmed too much by the reappearing sun inside our TWIKE through the closed side windows and due to the oversized windshield.
However, as it was only a few kilometers to our first Schweitzer loading stop in Sent, we decided to continue with the windows closed. Little did we know that the last few kilometers would be VERY steep. After this challenge, we were extremely grateful for the drinks offered to us in this beautiful village.
TW1009 in Sent
La Punt is the next stop for the night ahead. We were served a fantastic meal (with lots of vegetarian alternatives) as well as free drinks. The highlight, however, was our accommodation: a veritable nuclear bunker!!! Not everyone was happy about this choice, but we think it will be an experience and above all a very safe night.
Andreas
Day 6 – From La Punt to Arosa
After spending the safest night ever, today is sure to be a great day. We’ve just come from breakfast with a short daily briefing and have lined up behind the start line. Today is one of the most spectacular rides in the Alps. The route runs uphill over the Albula Pass to Lenzerheide and then to Arosa. There are many tunnels, hairpin bends, fantastic views and climbs. As the start will take place in a few minutes, I’d better stop now and get back to you later.
And here I am again… we have arrived in the clouds, also known as “Blatter’s Bellavista Hotel” in Arosa. We move into our room with the promised view, the view of the inside of a cloud. Now we can finally give the answer to the question we asked a few days ago: Yes!!! It makes no difference whether you are UNDER or IN a cloud.
The Albula Pass would have been a wonderful experience if the weather had cooperated. But since that wasn’t the case, we spent a lot of time sitting in our vehicles. We parked in rows and squares, got out, did the WAVE wave in the rain, got in… all to take the necessary press photos. When we finally reached Lenzerheide for our lunch break, it had finally rained off and the sun seemed to be asking for us. Food for vehicles and meat eaters, bread and water (well, lemonade) for us.
On the way to Arosa it started to rain again. Well, we are now in the dry and in a very nice four-star hotel. Showered and warm, I’m now hoping for an internet connection so I can upload my last three blogs.
See you soon
Andreas
Day 7 – From Arosa to Romanshorn
The seventh day! Has a week really already passed? It feels like we’ve only just started!
We are currently parked on the harbor promenade in Rorschach on Lake Constance. Last Wednesday, we drove along the other side of Lake Constance on our way to Salzburg.
When we woke up this morning, the weather was already much friendlier. The sun was shining on the mountain peaks and the forests seemed to be giving birth to lots of little baby clouds. They are forming between the trees and slowly rising towards the sky. As baby clouds, they are still nice to look at. Later, we found out again what happens when they develop into teenage clouds and start having silly thoughts. But we were actually able to escape them most of the time and drive on in the warm and dry.
View of baby clouds from the hotel room
Baby clouds taking off
Today we had to deal with completely different challenges. It all started with another attempt to repeat the efficiency test. We left the hotel in Arosa fully loaded at a quarter to eight, drove down the steep mountain road to Chur and then took the highway. We had to have covered the 60-kilometre route by 9:15 at the latest. That meant: step on the gas and don’t waste any time! In Chur we were still a little behind schedule. As a result, we sped along the highway at a constant 85 km/h to make it just in time at the end. Despite everything, our consumption was only 5.5Ah of the 22.3Ah available to us. Our energy consumption was therefore comparable to a small glass filled with gasoline!
In Trübbach, each driver was allocated a time slot of two minutes. Within this period, we had to drive up to the school and give a convincing speech of exactly one minute to the pupils, explaining that our own vehicle was the best. We then drove to another school (in Sevelen) to repeat the whole procedure. All good things come in threes, the third time took place in Gams. Lunch was then in Sennwald: the attentive employees of BRUSA had cooked us Älpler Macaroons, consisting of pasta, potatoes, cheese, roasted onions and apple compote. Great!
Convincing students, teenage clouds on the horizon
After lunch, the game “Convince the pupils” was repeated three more times in the villages of Oberriet, Eichberg and Heerbrug. Then we finally made our first and only loading stop in Rorschach.
Loading stop in Rorschach
Shortly before we arrived in Rorschach, we experienced the shock of our lives. We were driving along a highway at around 65 km/h when the driver of a silver family car decided to cross the road directly in front of us without looking left. The moose test I performed was cinematic. Thanks to the new Heidenau tires, I just managed to avoid the car and the oncoming truck (Martin, you were right… the tires are really good!).
We are now waiting for our dinner, right on the shores of beautiful Lake Constance. The vehicles are easily accessible to interested passers-by, who ask lots of questions. The weather is dry and warm, but cloudy. We will spend the night in the youth hostel in Romanshorn, just a stone’s throw away from here.
Andreas
Day 8 – From Romanshorn to Baden
Hello everyone. This is Andreas from Team TWIKE again. Today was a day when we had to make a difficult decision. But when we realized THAT it was time to make it, the result was obvious: We had to cancel all special stages of the WAVE 2013 for today!
We’re still taking part in the WAVE, we’re still riding all the routes, but we’re no longer going to put ourselves out there to win a prize. Before you get worried or wonder what happened, I’ll fill you in here and now on what happened today.
Actually, it all started yesterday when we realized that there was no vegetarian food for dinner again. We then made the mistake of accepting a meal of three small spring rolls and a small salad as a substitute for a proper dinner (instead of going to another restaurant).
At our first stop at EMPA in St. Gallen the next morning, breakfast was very poor, consisting of just one (good) coffee and a sad, lonely croissant. From this point on, we were desperately hoping for a substantial lunch at the loading stop in Gossau, as we hadn’t actually had a proper meal for 24 hours. Unfortunately, our “vegetarian” lunch turned out to be a vegetarian burger, which was fried in the same “meat pan” and also in meat juice. After the efforts of the last few days, this was too much for Angela and me and I had to think about the next step. My subsequent decision: We went to a decent restaurant to finally have a decent meal. We also took it easy and didn’t take part in any special stages today, voluntarily accepting ten penalty points. We made it clear to everyone else, but also to ourselves, that we no longer had any chance of winning the WAVE 2013. From now on, the WAVE will be like a vacation again, without stress and without headaches.
While Angela took the whole day to recover, I tried to make life as easy as possible for her. She’s feeling much better now and it looks like we’ll be able to take part in the big electric vehicle parade in Zurich tomorrow. So we’re going at it again, let’s see how far we get, because health comes first! It’s great to be part of this fantastic adventure. We would like to thank all our friends for their help and support today. We are all one big family!
Andreas and Angela
Day 9 – From Baden to Neuhausen
We spent yesterday night in the youth hostel in Baden. We managed to get a room just for us so that Angela could recover a little and get a good night’s sleep. The next morning she felt so much better and was almost back to her usual Angela self. After an early breakfast, we packed everything into the TWIKE and left Baden for the center of Zurich. We were due to arrive there on time at 8 a.m. for the world record attempt for the longest electric vehicle parade. To our surprise, we didn’t come across a single other electric vehicle on the way. The first ones only came into view at the meeting point at Lake Zurich. But then the real CHAOS began… more and more electric vehicles appeared, it was incredible. Such a variety! Of course there were lots of TWIKEs, but there were also almost as many Teslas. We saw Ions, iMievs, Amperas, Tazzaris, City-Els, Zoes, Twizzys and many many more. I think I even saw a Horlacher 1. The TWIKEs were all directed to one side to form the end of the parade. Louis wasn’t sure if the people in charge of the Guinness Book of Records might consider these to be hybrid vehicles and not count them.
We didn’t care, as it was really unique to ride in such a large group of TWIKEs. The parade itself was chaos. The promised route to Züri Fäscht was partially blocked by idiots setting up their stalls on the road as well as vans trying to get in and out to supply the stalls along the road. But after more than two hours, we had broken the record with a total of 388 electric vehicles. They all took part in the parade and set another record along the way: the world’s first electric vehicle jam!
The rest of the day was spent hunting for various stamps. We had to collect these at the many checkpoints around Zurich. A large number of the parade vehicles followed us on this hunt, which was really great: for the first time in our lives, we experienced what it feels like when the density of e-vehicles exceeds the density of combustion vehicles. It was an indescribable feeling! Everything was so calm and relaxed. Wolfgang and Christina also joined us with their world record TWIKE (510km range on a single charge) and we set off on the stamp hunt together. At the end of the day, we had collected all our stamps and arrived in Neuhausen two hours late due to the chaos in the morning. We took the additional five penalty points in our stride…
Neuhausen is great! In case you didn’t know: The Rhine Falls of Schaffhausen are located in Neuhausen! On a walk down to the Rhine, we took a closer look at the falls. They may not be as spectacular as Niagara Falls, but they are still very impressive:
Tonight is the last night of the WAVE and we’ll be spending it in… yes, you guessed it… another fallout shelter!
Have a safe night! See you tomorrow.
Andreas
Day 10 – From Neuhausen to Küsnacht
WAVE 2013 is over and we have actually won something! We came third in the “best vehicle” competition (judged by over 1000 schoolchildren) and also third in the “best blog” category. And in the end, we also took first place in the efficiency competition (lowest energy consumption). We were really pleased to have won this prize, as we actually tramped 1800km through the Alps in a 10-day period! I suppose we deserved it …
1st place in the “most efficient vehicle” category
The morning was again filled with the hunt for the last stamps after our “breakfast” (paper bag filled with croissant, muesli bar, apple, butter, jam and a mug of cold latte) was brought to our accommodation by the local bakery’s delivery van. The drive was calm and relaxed through beautiful countryside. The sun was shining, a cool wind was blowing, the stamp points were easy to find and the people greeted us warmly. The ferry ride across Lake Zurich to Küsnacht was a special experience.
In Küsnacht we received free drinks, ice cream and cake… the “Bratwurst Days” are finally history! We had a long wait until the awards ceremony started at 5pm, filled with lots of chatting with new and old friends. Then Louis finally appeared on stage and the end of WAVE 2013 was heralded. I was SO happy that in the end Frank and Frank from Team Phoenix Contact won the first prize. These guys are really great and really deserve to have won. Congratulations again!!!
The winners: Frank and Frank from Phoenix Contact
Then suddenly it was all over, a few photos followed, hugs, goodbyes, lots of promises to meet again soon, and then we were already on our way to Thomas Bechtiger’s TWIKE Service in Zurich. Wolfgang and Christina were already waiting for us there, loading our trusty TW1009 into their bus (Angela had tears in her eyes). We spent our last evening in Switzerland here before catching the train to Salzburg the next morning. Thanks again to Thomas!
However, our journey is not quite over yet, we still have the road to England ahead of us. But we already know that we will miss the daily ride on TW1009… we could have continued without any problems.
Andreas
WAVE 2013: Epilogue
The adventure is over. We are currently on the train from Zurich to Salzburg to pick up our car. Then it’s home to England.
As usual, we got up early, but we still have to get used to the end of the road book time. We no longer have to look up where we have to be and when. The mountains can still be seen through the train windows, but they are now out of reach. It’s like a movie passing by behind the closed windows. Train travel is a very civilized but also impersonal way to travel. It is not possible to establish a relationship with the people or the landscape. You just observe… or you fall asleep. It’s a very strange feeling after ten days of intensive contact and traveling with the windows open.
We’ll be in Salzburg at 13:58 to pick up the car we left there a week and a half ago. Then we’ll continue on the highway directly to Calais, where we’ve booked the ferry for tomorrow afternoon.
It was a good trip with highs and lows. In the end we will have covered a distance of 5000km in just over two weeks… by car, boat, TWIKE and train. We slept in guesthouses, hotels, fallout shelters, youth hostels and an electric vehicle store. We made many new acquaintances, some of whom we will probably never see again. We also met up with friends we hadn’t seen for years.
Our thanks go to everyone who made this trip possible and to all those who helped us along the way. Many thanks also to you, dear blog readers!
It was a good trip!
Angela and Andreas
