Simson Schwalbe KR 51

Simson Schwalbe KR 50 and the KR 51 pictured below was East-Germany’s answer to the Italian Vespa and to me is still the ultimate retro scooter. 153,500 KR 51 scooters were produced between 1964 and 1968 before eventually being replaced by a more modern SR50 model, but the KR family lived on till 1986 with…

Berlin Walking

Here’s a bunch of photos in no particular order other than being taken chronologically as we spent two days walking through and visiting the German capital.

The East Side Gallery – Berlin

The East Side Gallery, not to be confused with the Far Side Gallery :), is a 1.3km long section of the Berlin Wall that was left intact as an international memorial for freedom. 105 paintings by artists from all over the world were painted in 1990, shortly after the unification. Documenting a time of change…

Trabi World

The Trabant 500 was introduced in 1957. The name Trabant means a ‘companion’ or ‘satellite’ in German, and was chosen as a result of an inner contest that took place in the year of the Sputnik in the Soviet controlled East German manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. It was the most common car in East Germany,…

Checkpoint Charlie

In 1961 the Wall was built and Checkpoint Charlie became the best known symbol of the Cold War representing the separation between the east and the west. The checkpoint itself was officially removed in 1990, a year after the wall was opened, and has since become Berlin’s most famous tourist attraction. The booth that now stands best…

GOVECS in Berlin

I spent three days searching for our very own GOVECS electric scooters among thousands of two wheel vehicles in Amsterdam and didn’t find one. In Berlin, GOVECS found me! We took the metro towards Berlin’s museum island exiting at the Friedrichstrasse station. The first thing that caught my eye right after leaving the station was…

Volkswagen Group Berlin Dealership

Our most recent Berlin trip began with a rare photo opportunity of the fastest car on the planet, the Bugatti Veyron. It’s parked behind glass at a huge Volkswagen group dealership in the center of Berlin, tucked away in many floors of an office building. Even parked, the Veyron does what it’s supposed to do…

Berlin – Tegel

Berlin’s Tegel airport was opened in 1948 to accommodate bigger planes necessary for the Berlin Airlift, a humanitarian mission led by the U.S. and allied forces to bring help to people of Berlin. The airport then grew to become western Germany’s hub for all international flights. It also played a huge military role during the…