When in East Germany do as the East Germans did!
This is a rare and unique opportunity not to be missed. As another reviewer remarked, I too am a gear-head of all things wheeled and in the process of the tour, came to really appreciate some of the aspects and culture of Berlin and its history that I wasn't aware of. The little cars are totally bitchen! I was giddy with anticipation because I had only read of the East German Trabant motor vehicles and here was not only a chance to see one, but to drive one for a couple hours.
These vehicles, despite what is otherwise claimed, boogie. If you know anything about 2-stroke dirtbikes or scooters (or weed whackers), you know that these vehicles need to be run at high RPM to get any power and to keep them from bogging down and smoking. So if you shift often to keep that little motor humming, it flies without smoke. The gearshift protrudes from the dashboard looking like what should be the parking brake. To shift, you have to push/pull/twist to move through all 4 gears, so it's not like a floor shift and not like a column shift. It took a little getting used to but after a few miles in traffic - no sweat.
The tour is a caravan of 5 or 6 vehicles in procession. The lead vehicle is the tour guide and his driver. The tour guide is announcing the sites, history and a dry sense of humor on social topics via a radio transmitter in his lead vehicle and a radio receiver in each car. Cool! The single file procession zips through town. I was near the end of the group and sometimes getting caught by a traffic light. When that happened the tour guide could see and the procession just pulled over ahead until I got a green signal again to catch up. That was actually a lot of fun.
The cars are well maintained and have seat belts. Each car has a unique color scheme and some are convertibles, nice on a warm sunny day. My car was a hardtop and had leopard print motif. So cool. Each car can seat up to four. The tour pulls over half way through so that cars with multiple people in their party can switch drivers, giving multiple people a chance to experience driving the little beasts. I went on a beautiful sunny Sunday and the traffic was light. I took the 'cold war tour' and it passed all the key spots as well as the beautiful parks and gardens surrounding the new Reichstag. We really covered quite a bit of Berlin. Everywhere people waved at us and took our pictures. I felt like a celebrity, but it was the car, not me. I waved anyway. What a great afternoon. read more