At
the end of June 2001 my friend Stuart and I found ourselves in Berlin. We were
looking to collect a Trabant Kombi he had arranged to buy over the internet with
the intention of then driving it down to Chemnitz for the International Trabant
Treffen held in the town every year. Stuart had been over the previous year and
had returned to regale us with tales of bizarre cars, mad Germans and cheap
beer. How could you not want to go?
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| Stuart and the emergency Trabi |
The
big problem when we got to Berlin was that the car we were supposed to be
buying had been sold. The seller hadn’t quite believed that anyone would travel
so far to buy his wee car. So, off to a newsagent to buy the Berlin equivalent
of ‘Auto Trader’ magazine and search for something else. In the end we found a
very tidy saloon model with a reconditioned engine. It wasn’t what Stuart
wanted, but at this point beggars couldn’t be choosers, and he could always
sell it once we got home.
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| arriving on site |
Now all we had to do was squeeze ourselves, all of
our gear and a garage load of spares into the car, drive to the Tref, drink
lots of beer, stare at all the funny people/cars, and then drive it the xxx miles
home. How difficult could that be?
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| "Form an orderly queue now, ladies!" |
Once
at the Tref site outside the town we put up our tents, put on our kilts (fräuleins, and worringly for Stuart, not a few blokes, love a man in a kilt!), and
took a turn around the site, which was huge, a bit like a cross between a rock
festival and a car show.
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| Trabant Glamping |
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| row of convertibles |
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| interesting trailer |
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| Caravan Club eat your heart out |
We wandered round looking at all the restored and
customised Trabants, visited the MZ motorcycle sales area and the huge
autojumble, ate and drank at the food and beer stalls, and met up with a great
many interesting people. It was an experience to see so many Trabants all in
one place. It’s also slightly worrying that some owners had spent thousands on
a car which had cost them only a few hundred to buy. The results were
impressive though.
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| collection of MZ race bikes |
Later
on we took a short trip out to the motorcycle museum at Augustusburg. This was more my cup of tea. Loads of bikes
to drool over. My personal favourite was an ISDT BK350 sidecar outfit in trials
trim. Unfortunately, Stuart steadfastly refused to distract the guard long
enough for me to push it out the door and ride off into the distance
astride this piece of MZ motorcycling history. Maybe next time?
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| I want this one for Xmas |
The
next day we took part in the Trabi Parade, with perhaps as many as 3,000
Trabants happily polluting all parts of the town, cheered on by wheezing soot-covered
locals.
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| cruisin', DDR style |
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| homemade camper wagon |
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| interesting use of beer bottle caps |
It ended at the Trabant museum,
which is great. The guides were helpful and you could tell that they too were
enthusiasts rather than just employees. Some of the prototypes were
interesting, and it was a shame that none made it into production.
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| rather ironic numberplate |
The
holiday over, we drove to Amsterdam to catch the ferry home. This wasn’t really
a problem, even with a 50mph cruising speed. It helps, though, if you can find
a slow lorry to tailgate or attach a grappling iron to.
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| fire brigade vehicle |
On board our ferry at last, and in spite of our
earlier fatigue after the twelve hour journey, all our intentions to get an
early night disappeared when we met up with a group of Austin A35 enthusiasts
returning from a Rally in Holland and we were forced to consume more beer and
stay up late again.
And so the trip ended. The car we had just acquired did
about 800 trouble free miles, passed its MOT once home and then went off to its
new owner. Stuart eventually got the Kombi he wanted, from someone who lived not quite so far away.
