The Trabi .

The Trabant or Trabi was the ultimate in the auto industry in the former DDR ! Waiting lists were long and once purchased a Trabi had a life span of approximately 28 years.Not due to great engineering , but rather a question of needs must ,make do and mend, and if you had smelled those 2 stroke fumes you would have thought the devil himself was driving .
According to statistics 3,096,099 Trabants were produced in 30 years. During this time no noteworthy changes were made.
I well recall the smog caused by the influx of these smelly vehicles. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, many were driven over and dumped as trash. Then a wave of nostalgia meant a few became collectors items . Others after much TLC have been used as ' Berlin experience items '.
For a fee you can rent a Trabi and drive around Berlin. However waiting seems to be the name of the game with these cars .
The picture is of a young man who had travelled especially from Zurich to try this mode of driving. Sadly the vehicle died on him and here you see him smiling at the irony whilst waiting for the man from the rental firm . It was made to cough and splutter back to life ... well enough to take back. I have a bike, there is the BVG and railnetwork but if engineering and odd cars happen to be your thing, plus you find yourself in Berlin then how about that for an adventure ? Seems the police were very good and helped out by moving the car off the road.