First week: June 30 – July 5, 1998
Route: Berne (CH) – Constance (D) – Munich – Prague (CZ)
With hearts pounding, the journey into the unknown was due to begin in five hours, TWIKE pilots met on June 30 at the TWIKE Center Bern at Mattenenge for a working aperitif, where the focus was on the work of vehicle inspection, material distribution and briefing. Theoretically, we learned the convoy driving style, which then – it was the main rehearsal after all – went completely wrong at the dislocation shortly before twenty-three o’clock, as the TWIKEs lost sight of each other after the first intersection despite the light traffic and came to the starting line-up in two convoys in front of the Federal Palace in Bern. There were people coming and going, relatives and media, curious people and passers-by. They are amazed. Gazing spellbound at the futuristic vehicles. “10,000 km, they’ll never make it!” is one comment. Doubts creep up on me too on this pitch-black night. I give us a 60% chance at midnight. It was 90% at breakfast. What a difference a night like this can make…!
The starting shot at last. Fired with Oscar-winning drama by H. R. Giger, the designer of the film Aliens. And off we go. In the direction of Langnau. Through the night. Alone in the vehicle, my eyes almost fall shut. Good thing I can pedal hard. It stimulates the circulation. And keeps me awake. Instead of stretching my legs in parking lots!
First charging of the batteries in Langnau. Cables are laid before going to bed. Plugs inserted. A ceremony that we will soon have to perform several times a day like a traditional round dance. Then a short sleep. Wake up before six. Generous, hospitable breakfast. This brings us our first delay of 30 minutes. It’s already 60 minutes to Lucerne. We load up at the Museum of Transport under a DC3. Remark from a museum visitor: “When were such crazy vehicles built?” Onward journey to Birmensdorf near Zurich. The fuses blow during loading. Oh dear, another hour lost. We drive through Zurich’s dense city traffic. We take a shortcut, which causes a 30-minute traffic jam. Meanwhile, journalists are getting on our nerves at the Töss depot in Winterthur. “How can you be so unpunctual…!”
But expeditions have their own rules. Planning by the minute is simply not an option. Rather half-day announcements. As a consolation, media representatives are allowed to ride themselves. They leave the TWIKE with enthusiasm. Wil is the next stop. The town welcomes us with food and drink. We explain TWIKE and CHALLENGE. Onward journey to Constance. Sweat. The sun is burning. No check at customs. Despite Schengen. Here, too, we are welcomed by the city. We are bombarded by local radio and the media. Hunger sets in. After trying out the media, we find a Turkish restaurant.
The ferry leaves for Meersburg at 20:30. At 20:05 the meal is still a long time coming. The latest departure time is 20:15. Five minutes to eat is a bit short. We leave 3/4 standing. Good for the line. And then a speedy journey through Constance. Reach the ferry at 20:29! Cool crossing. Night falls. A closed road hinders us. With the last drops of energy we arrive in Ravensburg at 23:30. A short night. Departure at 07:00. Isny and Kempten are our next stops. We are greeted by mayors. School classes marvel at our vehicle and we continue via Starnberg to Munich, where we arrive at 20:00 despite the heavy traffic. The Swiss club gives us an enthusiastic and applauded stage arrival. We thank them with test rides for everyone. Bavarian snack at 22:30. Start at 8:00 in the morning.
Near Landshut, in a small village with a passion for solar power, the mayor and his wife invite us to a homemade farmer’s buffet with students from a technical college. As a passenger, I take a nap in the TWIKE on the way to Regensburg. Once there, we become an attraction on the market square. The Princess of Saxe-Coburg – attending a medical congress in Regensburg – wants a test ride. She is thrilled. I get off the TWIKE with trembling knees. I’ve never ridden blue blood before…! Then uphill after uphill towards Cham, the sister town of Cham in the canton of Zug. The town council offers an extensive snack. Leberkäs with egg and chips restore my spirits. Passengers stick to beer. I only have enough for an apple spritzer.
Then drive to Neukirch near Heiligenblut, right on the Czech border. Huge hotel and hospitality as you would expect. Short sleep after a glut of beer. On to the Czech border! No questions about papers there. Only technical information about our vehicle. The Czechs are enthusiastic about the new technology. People gather in every village, drivers wave, cheers from pedestrians. On Pilsen Cathedral Square, cheered on by passers-by, we perform the first TWIKE ballet in world history and ride on to Prague, whose inhabitants and tourists we take by storm. The Swiss ambassador Fetscherin is waiting for us. The media question us. Then Bohemian cuisine, which we cope with perfectly despite its heaviness. It’s logical. A hundred thousand pedal strokes must already be behind us. Then a good night’s sleep. What a relief after the short nights.
Parade through Prague on Sunday. Organized by Blesk, the Czech Ringier-Blick. Across the castle and the Charles Bridge into Prague’s old town. Marveled at. Me as an ambassador rider. The stand with the Swiss flag on my TWIKE. Appropriate and environmentally friendly. Vehicles for the next state reception? They would probably cause a stir! After a visit to the coffee house, another short night and off to the Polish border, where we will spend the night in our tents for the first time!
Conclusion after the first week: we have discovered a new way of traveling! Driving for an hour and a half and staying for an hour and a half makes the journey a real pleasure instead of a stressful one, where you get to know the country and its people like you used to when changing horses in the stagecoach era. More in a week!
Yours, François Loeb
P.S. Confidence that we will make it is growing and …. is keeping its fingers crossed for us!
Second week: July 6 – 12, 1998
Route: Prague (CZ) – Warsaw (PL) – Vilnius (LIT)
We cross the Polish border without any problems after a long, calf-bruising climb at an altitude of over 1,000 m and then head back down into the valley on winding terrain. And that’s when the mishap happens. A TWIKE touches a road embankment at moderate speed and comes to a damaged halt after a spin. The occupants get out of the vehicle with minor bruises – the TWIKE is a vehicle with a high safety standard. The seventh TWIKE is no longer roadworthy and has to be returned to Switzerland in a rented Ford Transit after a marathon of paperwork and forms. Arrival at the hotel at midnight, dinner a beer and chips, the only thing still available. Departure at 7.30 in the morning. A long uphill and downhill drive, after searching for bridges in Wroclaw (the flood in ’97 had after-effects), to Kalice, arrival 01.30. Departure 06.30!
The group is in good spirits and the locals help where they can. Hospitality as it is written in the book. Arrival in Warsaw at 9.30 p.m. The TWIKEs are safely accommodated in the embassy building. Press conference at the hotel the following day. 3 TV stations and many press representatives are impressed by Swiss high-tech. Reception with Ambassador Quinche in the evening. Our CHALLENGE 98 takes center stage. After an enjoyable rest day, we continue towards the Lithuanian border. Overnight stay in Lomza. Farmers served us whole meals on the way while we recharged our batteries and asked for a postcard from the North Cape in return! At the side of the road, people are waving, flashing lights and honking horns in the oncoming lane and overtaking lane. We are probably better known here than in Switzerland!
Crossing the border into Lithuania. We get through with ease. The TWIKE of the German technicians gets stuck. The valid visa is missing. The Swiss have not needed one since April. No more visas available. We have to leave the technicians behind as night falls and it’s pouring with rain. The next morning we phone the consular department of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Visas are now being issued. In the evening in Vilnius – a city that impresses with its architecture, especially the courtyards, and with its university that has existed since the 16th century – all the chicks are back together and the TWIKE team enjoys the rest day with a media conference and press test rides. On Tuesday at 06.00 a.m., the start to Latvia is strengthened. 250 km to Bauska (Latvia) we will enjoy the beautiful Lithuanian landscape! See you next week!
TWIKE Challenge 98
François Loeb
Third week: July 13 – 19, 1998
Route: Vilnius (LIT) – Riga (LET) – Tallinn (EE) – Narva-Jõesuu
UFOs! UFOs! This is the cry of a grandmother as we pull into a farm to recharge. With our futuristic vehicles, we cause quite a stir in Central European countries. As soon as we stop in a small village, many people and whole crowds of children come to sit in the vehicle. In Latvia, we drive on partly unpaved side roads through untouched landscapes, rarely crossing other vehicles. The people are wonderfully warm and hospitable. We are entertained, coffee is made, tea is served, sweets are served, which we devour with a ravenous appetite after a strenuous ride – we pedal 100 km stages in places, although the range of our TWIKE is 80 km. Overnight stay in Bauska. An old Soviet hotel with appropriate service.
On the outskirts of Riga, we are met by a police escort with three vehicles. We drive like state guests with blue lights in a convoy to the mayor’s office. The mayor welcomes us with his staff in front of the town hall and doesn’t miss the opportunity to drive a TWIKE himself in front of the cameras of the three TV stations! A flurry of flashbulbs, interviews followed by a press conference at the hotel. In the evening, reception at the Swiss ambassador’s residence, political and technical discussions with local representatives. At night it is already light until 23.00. Tour of the old town in this wonderful Hanseatic city. As a small courtesy from the hotel management, we sleep in excellent deluxe rooms instead of the simple dormitories we had booked. The next morning we continue towards Tallinn, Estonia’s capital. Problem-free border crossing. We are treated as VIPs (probably due to our extraterrestrial appearance). Customs officers ride TWIKE laps. Overnight stay in Pärnu, an Estonian seaside resort with a unique sunset on the dunes.
We continue through forests with a detour to the Estonian president, who welcomes us to his summer residence. We spend two hours in his wooden house and are allowed to use the sauna and bathing jetty by the sea. After a short briefing, President Meri takes the TWIKE for a spin around his park. After a standing buffet, Mr. and Mrs. Meri personally serve tea and coffee, evening drive to Tallinn, where a press conference is held late in the evening. Another police escort with flashing blue lights. Test drives with journalists. Five-minute television program; the Estonians know the TWIKE as we ride through Tallinn’s old town the following day. In the evening, at an event organized by the Swiss-Baltic Chamber of Commerce, words of praise about Switzerland’s commitment to environmental issues. At night, “Miss TWIKE” contest at the Hotel Olümpia.
Early morning onward journey to Narva on the Russian border. Free day by the sea. Accommodation in a converted sanatorium! We needed it!
See you soon
Yours, François Loeb
Fourth week: July 20 – 26, 1998
Route: Narva-Jõesuu (EE) – St. Petersburg (RUS) – Vyborg – Mikkeli (FIN) – Iisalmi – Oulu
After a day’s rest in the converted sanatorium in Narva-Jõesuu – it rained all day – we set off for the Russian border early in the morning. A technical defect delayed us for 30 minutes and then two hours of paperwork. Two meters forward, one meter back. Every border official is a king and gives his individual orders. But the two hours, we are told, are almost record-breaking. It can take up to four hours. On the Russian side, we are met by Anatoli, an employee of the Swiss center in St. Petersburg. Drive to St. Petersburg on good roads. In St. Petersburg, however, potholes and exhaust fumes of every color. The exhaust pipes of buses and trucks at twike rider height! After a good night’s sleep in a first-class hotel and laundry, a city tour and a visit to the unique Hermitage. Reunion with famous Impressionist paintings as with old friends. Russian hospitality in the Swiss center and then as a highlight presentation of our vehicles on the square in front of the Hermitage, unique scenery, huge interest from the media, four television teams, radios and countless newspapers want information down to the smallest detail. A doctor wants to nominate the TWIKE for an award in the health sector. Two representatives of the Moscow city administration want to present the vehicle in a park in the Russian capital. Contacts are made, test drives are carried out on the traffic-free square, children jostle for places. During the hour-long drive back to the hotel (St. Petersburg has almost 5 million inhabitants), shouts from passers-by, drivers waving, honking and flashing their lights at us – the new noise- and emission-free mobility is very popular in this traffic-ridden city!
In the early morning, continue to Vyborg. Once a Finnish showpiece town, today a run-down Russian center near the border, visited mainly by Finnish drinking tourists. After an overnight stay, we cross the border without any problems in 30 minutes (!). The entire Finnish border station inspects our vehicles and takes souvenir photos with our team! Drive through beautiful Finnish lake and forest scenery, stopping at lakes for a refreshing swim. Necessary, as distances are long and we often drive up to the distance limit (100 km), resulting in up to four soaking wet shirts per day. We make washing lines at the store. Overnight stay at a campsite. We meet old compatriots. Barbecue party, it’s light until 11 o’clock at night. Overnight stay in Iisalmi, Karelia center, onward journey in continuous Finnish rain, trucks organize driver showers, in the TWIKE you sit low. Strawberry feast on the way. Arrival in Oulu, the harbor town on the Gulf of Bothnia, only 6 days to the North Cape. 3500 km behind us.
François Loeb
Fifth week: July 27 – August 2, 1998
Route: Oulu (FIN) – Honningsvåg (N) – North Cape
After a day’s rest in Oulu with plenty of sleep and shopping for food (air-dried reindeer, which tastes like Bündnerfleisch for the first time), we continue on to the north of Finland. Easy ascent, wonderful river landscape, hardly any villages. We load up at a small farm. The farmer, whose main job is as a social worker, breeds South African and Australian ostriches and is happy to give us all the information we need about ostrich breeding and ostrich behavior. A real surprise to meet such animals here in the north, of which there are 1,400 in Finland. Another surprise in the evening, the campsite is on a hill, 3 km steep ascent, almost all vehicles run out of energy. The error in my calculations (who would expect a mountain campsite here, where hills are more likely to be counted) costs the team a lot of energy and sweat, especially embarrassing that my vehicle manages the climb without any problems. The evening meal tastes particularly good, the huts are super-comfortable (with sauna!) and offer protection from the voracious mosquitoes. The journey continues through hilly terrain, which is hard on the muscles! Crossing the Norwegian border, no checks as Norway is a member of the Schengen Agreement.
The stages get longer. Hardly any villages or hamlets to recharge in between. We decide to get electricity at a marked hotel, but it is shut down and the elderly owner only opens it hesitantly after a glance at the curtain of field glasses. No electricity, only one working socket. One TWIKE ventures the last 20 km to the overnight cabin with almost empty batteries, four drive to a lonely house, where we are warmly welcomed, supplied with electricity and entertained by the woman of the house, who is a post office clerk in the town 40 km away, owns a truck with which she keeps the state road open in winter and is a passionate moose hunter. In front of the hut where we spend the night, we are greeted by swarms of millions of mosquitoes, who are clearly enjoying their dinner, as are we, by the way: the Lappish stew (reindeer meat, cheese, mutton) prepared by the owner’s grandmother tastes heavenly. Departure at 5.30 am. Long stage to Honningsvåg on the North Cape island. The first recharge after 90 km without any problems. At the next place in a tourist campsite it doesn’t work, the owner refuses the electricity and expels us from the site because we are not staying with him. The vehicles are allocated to private houses. I am entertained by a widower who tells me his whole life story. On to the ferry. As my bike drive is on strike, I have problems covering the long distance. I miss the ferry and only reach Honningsvåg after 23.00, it’s still light!
On August 1, we are welcomed by the mayor of the North Cape community. After a drink at the summit (we really deserve it after 31 days of traveling), he shows us the North Cape facilities, which resemble the Jungfraujoch. Fog, no visibility, but the good feeling of having reached our destination makes the sun shine inside! In the evening, August 1st bonfire prepared for us by the mayor at a mountain lake. It’s cold, we’re freezing, the long johns, windbreakers and sweaters come into their own. It was agreed among us that rockets could only be fired after dark. And as night doesn’t fall here, we didn’t bring any rockets with us…. Soothing, such a quiet first August with chicken legs and toast from the embers! The mayor celebrates and freezes with us, at 22.30 we set off back to Honningsvåg for a rest day, which is spent individually. Then we set off on our return journey, looking forward to the fjords, and the sun comes out again!
With best regards from the north Your François Loeb
Sixth week: August 3 – 9, 1998
Route: North Cape (N) – Alta – Kvænangsfjellet – Oteren – Bardufoss – Ulvsvåg – Rognan – Korgen
Imagine, everywhere you drive through or stop, you are photographed, surrounded, cars overtake you slowly, peering into the vehicle, from above of course, because the TWIKEs are dwarfs in height and length. Sometimes we felt like a substitute for moose while driving along the Norwegian fjords, because although there are moose warning signs everywhere, so far we haven’t spotted any, which may have been the case for most of the other travelers. It’s understandable that our sleek vehicles have to be the subject of photos, films and videos! But we enjoyed the magnificent landscape, the unexpected views, the shimmering green-blue sea and the glorious sunsets with the TWIKE panoramic windows and our comfortable 40 km/h speed. The sometimes wild mountain landscape also strains the muscles of the whole team, on average I soak two to three T-shirts a day and in the evening we drink the evaporated liquid like camels! And how the food tastes when we’re sitting at the table. Delicious!
The route from the North Cape to Oslo is almost as long as the one from Oslo to Rome. Halfway there, I am now convinced of this too. By the way, I forgot to tell you that we used about 50 SFr. of electricity per vehicle from Bern to the North Cape! Hard to believe, but true.
Our daily stages took us from the North Cape first to Alta, where we visited one of the most beautiful open-air museums with prehistoric rock paintings, via Oteren to Badufoss to the beautiful bay of Narvik, to Ulvsvåg, where we spent the night in a campsite right by the sea. Over mountain roads, past glaciers and snow peaks, our route led us to Rognan, across the Arctic Circle to Mo i Rana and then to Korgen.
Tomorrow morning, a steep climb from sea level to around 900 meters awaits us, so the route planning with the charging stations has to be particularly well prepared, although we will recover energy on the descents. We are all already looking forward to the next recovery day, which will only be switched on in Trondheim. The next media orientation will also take place there. We have now had a well-deserved media break, with only the local newspapers providing information as we pass through. However, interest in Swiss high-tech is also very high here in the far north and we are widely admired everywhere for our Swiss vehicle of the 21st century.
With warm fjord greetings from François Loeb.
Seventh week: August 10 – 16, 1998
Route: Korgen (N) – Trones – Levanger – Trondheim – Hjerkinn – Lillehammer – Oslo
Suddenly it’s night again! We have become so accustomed to white nights that the first star we see seems like a miracle! We are now heading south. Always following the Europastrasse 6. It’s one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever driven. Wild mountain landscapes alternate with magnificent green-blue fjords, the vegetation ranges from sparse to lush, forests give way to high alpine worlds of stone, snow and glaciers. The route is so varied that the days fly by, we enjoy the viewpoints and sweat like bears on the climbs. From sea level to 1,000 meters and back to the sea, where the next ascent awaits us. Saunas, which we encounter at our overnight accommodation, are disdainfully spurned, the water runs off our foreheads, even though the temperature in the mountains barely exceeds 10 degrees and icy winds during breaks in charging make us dream of the heatwave at home – which we hear about on the phone!
We usually get electricity without much difficulty, although there are sometimes energy shortages, as we need a lot of power on the climbs. However, the downhill sections, which are very fast, partially recharge our batteries thanks to the recuperation brakes, and our daily distance is still over 200 km.
After 10 strenuous stages without a rest day, we enjoy the return to civilization in Trondheim twice as much! The Arctic Circle has been crossed again, traffic is increasing and the snow is receding into the distance. In Trondheim – a wonderful place with a magnificent cathedral – we make contact with the university. The newspapers devote entire pages to our expedition and the Swiss high-tech product TWIKE. We pose in and around our vehicle for the photographers, the public can test ride and make good use of it.
Strengthened and rested, we set off for Oslo on our bikes and pedals. At an altitude of over 1,000 m, we climb over the next pass, where we are allowed to fill up with electricity at a Norwegian army camp. For the first time, I’m freezing like a castle dog. Wearing shorts – my long pants are at the bottom of my luggage – I try to do the same as the officer, who chats cheerfully with us in a T-shirt. In the hotel at the top of the pass, a fire is burning in the fireplace, which brings me out of my deep-freeze! At night, I dream of the warm Lake Murten and the heatwave back home. In Oslo, a program prepared by the Swiss embassy awaits us, we arrive here late in the evening, the big city atmosphere is quite unfamiliar to us, we have to get used to traffic lights, traffic circles and people in a hurry, whose primary goal – at least it seems so from a TWIKE perspective – is not to lose a second and to maltreat the accelerator and brake pedals accordingly.
Tomorrow we’re heading for Sweden, and we’re all looking forward to taking big steps towards our destination! With greetings from François Loeb.
Eighth week: August 17 – 23, 1998
Route: Oslo (N) – Strömstad (S) – Gothenburg – Halmstad – Copenhagen (DK)
Civilization has finally caught up with us again. We realize this when we leave Oslo, the day after driving through demonstrations in pouring, torrential rain. The cars are lined up bumper to bumper for miles to get to the city center. Fortunately, we are driving out of town, but even here there is heavy traffic on the highway we are using. We are driving at over 60 km/h and need energy accordingly – gone are the days when we could manage over 100 km at a leisurely pace on one battery charge. But we don’t want to be an obstacle to traffic (the TWIKE has a top speed of 85 km/h) and are happy to escape the clouds of exhaust fumes quickly. Our salvation is a cycle map, so that we reach the Swedish border on side roads with constant ups and downs. We pass through one beautiful coastal town after another, spend the night at a campsite and then follow the beautiful Swedish beach roads the next day. In a small harbor, we meet a Swiss sailing yacht whose crew can hardly believe that we were able to reach the North Cape with our mini-cars in this rather rainy Nordic summer. Still twisting inland on cycle paths, we get so perfectly lost that we arrive in Gothenburg four hours late, where the Swiss consul welcomes us despite a long, cold wait. The next day, we display our vehicles and drive a parade through the city, led by an electric car built in 1904. We then present our vehicle at Gothenburg’s eco-center, take countless test drives and are welcomed by the mayor in historic buildings. In the early morning we continue to Halmstad; it is raining cats and dogs. We spend a restless night in this small town, as most of our vehicles are broken into at around one o’clock in the morning. One team member observes the break-in, alerts the police, another runs after the young, probably no longer sober thieves in his pijamas, two of them are stopped by the police and most of our rucksacks are recovered. As soon as the day is light enough, we set off in search of other missing items, finding business cards, phone cards and an umbrella from our possession in the park, but unfortunately not the numerous cables and recorded video footage of our trip. We are still hoping that these will be found and sent to us. This experience also vividly illustrates our return to the “civilized” world!
We leave the town tired, only to be woken up again by the cold wind on the short ferry ride to Denmark. After a 50 km ride, we reach Copenhagen, park our bikes in front of the town hall and are surrounded by the Danish population. The following day, we take part in the celebrations to mark the 85th birthday of the Little Mermaid sculpture. Here, too, Swiss high-tech causes a stir. In small groups, we then roam the Danish metropolis, visit the sights and enjoy the TIVOLI, which is especially dressed up with a flower show. Now it’s off to Germany, and soon (in 16 days) we should arrive in Bern.
With greetings approaching in giant strides
Yours, François Loeb
Ninth week: August 24 – 30, 1998
Route: Copenhagen (DK) – Fåborg – Glücksburg (D) – Hamburg – Bremen – Münster – Amsterdam (NL)
After the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, we actually headed out to sea. After a wonderful ride through southern Denmark – we visited the impressive research center for wind energy – we boarded the ferry in Fåborg to reach Gelting in northern Germany two and a half hours later. The crossing was a great and inexpensive experience, as our TWIKEs were transported at the bicycle rate because they have pedals! Crossing the sea so comfortably on a ferry is much more pleasant than the previous day’s journey over the 20 km bridge between southern Denmark and Copenhagen, which was opened just a few weeks ago and where we had to contend with strong gusty crosswinds, reminding me of sailing in force 6 winds on Lake Murten while riding my TWIKE.
In Glücksburg, we were welcomed at the Research Center for Alternative Energy in pouring rain – we seem to be subscribed to it – and invited to a beach barbecue party in the evening. The German beer was a delight, but the low temperatures of around 14 degrees and the open skies dampened the mood. Incidentally, we drove through meadows and forest paths in the afternoon, including through a wildlife park. At one enclosure, dozens of wild boars suddenly ran towards us, attracted by the silent chirping of our vehicles, with a huge boar leading the way! That was quite a sight. It remains to be seen who was more frightened, us or the wild boars!
The next day we drove to Hamburg, first via Flensburg to Schleswig and then the big city traffic caught up with us very quickly. As the local radio stations kept us informed about our location, we were constantly greeted with lights and other horns, which made us feel insecure at first, as we knew nothing about it. Wherever we were in Hamburg, there were crowds of people around our vehicles, we were welcomed by the Senator for the Environment of the Free Hanseatic City and the Swiss Consul General, and we had TV appointments at eight in the evening and seven in the morning. As luck would have it, the Alster Festival was taking place in Hamburg that evening with over 300,000 visitors, so we were able to experience live how the people of Hamburg know how to celebrate. A huge firework display to the music of Bizet’s Carmen crowned the party, and we were finally able to catch up on August 1st after a delay of almost four weeks!!!
The next morning we started directly at the Hamburg exhibition center, where the exhibition “You and your environment” was opened. We continued through heathland to Bremen and Münster, where television, radio and the press reported on the TWIKE as a Swiss high-tech product and the vehicle of the future. On the way to Amsterdam, only a road sign drew attention to the change of country to Holland, since the border from Russia to Finland nobody wanted to see our passports, no more border stops – we experience Europe as Europe! An intensive contact program with universities and the media awaits us in Amsterdam, and the TWIKE is causing quite a stir in the cycling country of Holland! After a journey of over 9,000 km, we are all looking forward to seeing Bern again! Best regards
Yours, François Loeb
Tenth week: August 31 – September 6, 1998
Route: Amsterdam (NL) – Brussels (B) – Aachen (D) – Bonn – Mainz
On Wednesday, September 9, we will arrive at the Bundesplatz in Bern at 19:30! The goal will have been reached. A goal that we ourselves doubted when we set off. Is it possible to cover a distance of over 11,000 km, travel through 14 countries and find enough electricity in the sparsely populated far north with a small electric bus? These were the nagging questions we asked ourselves at the start of the journey on July 1. Yes, it is possible, we can say today after 98% of the route. Not just possible, but a unique, unforgettable experience. The long journey with the egg-shaped TWIKE, the 2-4 times daily charging stops made it possible for us to get to know the countries we traveled through and their inhabitants in a way that we have never experienced before and will probably never experience again! We experienced hospitality and warmth that we can all take as an example! Landscapes of unparalleled beauty passed by our panoramic windows, and both high and low points of the CHALLENGE are already topics of conversation during loading breaks in Germany.
We discovered Holland this week, the small, pretty villages, the canals and canals, the always helpful population. We drove through Belgium and presented our vehicles to the media on the imposing Grande Place in Brussels. In the Salle de Mariage in the city hall, we were welcomed by the deputy mayor and then drove on towards Bonn. On arrival in Aachen – we didn’t get there until around midnight – after having trouble finding electricity in a Belgian city at 8 p.m. I found two plugs in a waiting room of the Belgian state railroads and, after obtaining permission, charged my vehicle on the platform (!) – an accident occurred when turning left, which fortunately went smoothly without any injuries. A cab drove at 70 km/h into the side of one of our TWIKEs. The damage was such that we had to send the vehicle back to Switzerland. And so we moved closer together. Every seat is now taken, we still have five vehicles. In Bonn, we were greeted by representatives of the Bundestag, who made time for us despite the election campaign. On Münsterplatz, Bonn’s first female mayor welcomed us and the vehicles were surrounded by crowds of people in no time!
The ride along the Rhine was fantastic, the Loreley was even more impressive from a TWIKE perspective than on the train. In Mainz, we had problems loading the vehicles at night and storing them safely. The Mainz fire department (2 km outside the city center) proved to be most helpful, as we were able to load and safely store our TWIKEs in the fire department garage and were then driven directly to the hotel by fire department bus and picked up again at 7 a.m.! On the drive to Karlsruhe, where a big barbecue specially organized for the CHALLENGE awaits us at the Hotel Kübler (known for its solar power promotion), we experience a big TWIKE festival organized by the TWIKE Zentrum Lorsch. The following morning, we will travel to Strasbourg to visit the Council of Europe, then continue via Freiburg im Breisgau to Basel, where we will reach home on Tuesday between 11 a.m. and 12 noon near Weil am Rhein. The next day we will travel via Solothurn and Biel to Bern! We are delighted, the journey was fantastic, but äbe Bärn i ha di gärn also applies to the TWIKE CHALLENGE TEAM!
See you soon, François Loeb.
