Twin Town Courier - Facts Figures & Images for Media Use
The journey:
- 10,000km (6,200 miles)
- 19 countries
- 18 twinned towns
- Depart Nuneaton 09:00 May 1st
- Return Nuneaton June 16th
- 47 days trip
The scooter:
- Built in Italy by Innocenti in Milan in 1968.
- Lambretta SX200 with an engine tuned to increase speed and fuel consumption while reducing reliability.
- Certainly not the most practical mount, even in my garage, just chosen simply because I love Lambrettas.
The rider: “Sticky” (Martin Round)
- Built in Hartlepool, England in 1968
- Male human adjusted by lifestyle choices to reduce speed and stamina.
- Avid scooter rider since 1984.
- Writer for Scootering Magazine since 1986. Former editor of Scootering.
- Author of best selling Lambretta manual with more than 25,000 copies sold (the Complete Spanner’s Workshop Manual; Lambretta Scooters)
- Author of travel book (Frankenstein Scooters to Dracula’s Castle*) about a journey with his wife Tracy, son Sam and friends Dean Orton and daughter Kim riding from Italy to Istanbul via Romania on classic scooters in 2013.
Inspiration:
I was inspired to tackle this trip after finding out via a BBC article that some British towns were ‘un-twinning’ from towns and cities that they once had strong ties with.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16408111
This seemed not only a bit rude but also a shame, given that twinning existed on a large scale to mend relationships and reduce xenophobia after two World Wars.
It is my intention to investigate the attitudes to twinning in other countries and whether or not the practice still has any relevance in the modern world.
And it seemed like a good excuse for a nice long ride and to write another travel book.
Challenges:
This trip will not be easy because:
- A Lambretta is really a bit too small for me and my luggage
- An old scooter is not really the most reliable form of transport so I expect some mechanical issues on the way.
- I plan to spend 24 hours in each of the twin towns, learning about each one, and this makes the schedule very tight.
- Organising all this when you speak only English is a real challenge, particularly trying to juggle many media appointments.
- With only a couple of weeks left before my departure there are still some towns where I have not succeeded in making any contacts at all.
The Photographs:
The idea is for each town to pass on two photographs to its twin. One photo should depict a important modern icon of the town, and the other photograph should show a major event or disaster in the town’s history over the last 100 years.
The idea of the photographs is to provide a positive message that every town suffers at some time or another, but when people pull together there is nothing that man cannot overcome.
Summary:
If there’s one thing that spoils tourism, it’s tourists. The point of this journey is to visit towns not necessarily on the tourist trail and get a feel for life on the other side of the fence. Is the grass really greener?
Photograph collections and drop-offs to Twin Towns on the Route:
Nuneaton, United Kingdom (to Guadalajara, Roanne. Cottbus)
Guadalajara, Spain (from Nuneaton) (to Nowy Sącz, Nuneaton, Roanne, Parma)
- via Andorra
Roanne, France (from Nuneaton, Guadalajara) (to Nuneaton)
Parma, Italy (from Guadalajara) (to Ljubljana)
Ljubljana, Slovenia (from Parma) (to Rijeka)
Rijeka, Croatia (from Ljubljana) (to Cetinje)
- via Bosnia and Herzegovina
Cetinje, Montenegro (from Rijeka) (to Veliko Tarnovo)
Nis, Serbia (to Veliko Tarnovo)
Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria (to Iaşi)
Iaşi, Romania (from Veliko Tarnovo) (to Chernivtsi)
Chernivtsi, Ukraine (from Iaşi)
- via Hungary
Košice, Slovakia (from Niš) (to Ostrava, Cottbus)
Nowy Sącz, Poland (from Guadalajara)
Ostrava, Czech Republic (from Košice) (to Dresden, Coventry)
Cottbus, Germany (from Nuneaton) (to Nuneaton)
Dresden, Germany, from 1971[18 (from Ostrava) (to Rotterdam, Coventry)
Rotterdam, Netherlands, (from Dresden)
Coventry, United Kingdom, (from Ostrava, Dresden)
Nuneaton (from Guadalajara, Roanne, Cottbus)
Follow the story:
Blog: http://www.stickyfeatures.co.uk/blog
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sticky-Features/1406965929541523
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frankenstein-Scooters-to-Draculas-Castle/251978358316742
Twitter: @StickyFeatures
Other contact methods:
(not for publication) Telephone (mobile): 0044 7771 556824
click to download high resolution images
Route part 1
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Route part 2
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