This blog is, or should become, part of www.brauner-benz.de (German). So far I have no idea of how to actually build it in. The original page is unchanged since the late nineties, as the design clearly shows. Well, at least it's hand coded...

What about the hardware? In the meantime the main actress became two main actresses. Both are from Mercedes-Benz's W123 series, both 200D (2 liter diesel engine). One brown (no. 19,919), one blue (no. 27,641). The brown one resides in Oregon, where it enjoys the luxury of not having to rust any further than she already had during her active life.

In Oregon's vast, arid meadows...
_{Image: Blue, N. (Oregon, 2021)}

The Blue one, on the other hand, usually lives in Northern Ireland and therefore can't enjoy this kind of luxury. Everything rusts in Northern Ireland, and if it doesn't rust, then it gets moldy. Usually it does both. Also the Blue had a yet unsolved issue with her air-condition. It was the second one built in already, but it just didn't work the way it should have. For these reasons and the fact, that the rust was getting to the very substance of the structure, I decided to do a complete refurbishment, to restore it from the scratch. One young fellow in Küstrin told me he could do it. He had himself restored an old W115 that he pulled out of a junk yard in Portugal, so there was no doubt that he could do it. That was in 2013. Several years later it looks like the masterpiece is ready for another test drive.

The first test drive took place in the Summer of 2020. The condenser box of the air-condition was not original and the man doing all the work recommended that I get an original box. He had found one at the Dutch border, which is exactly on the opposite side of the country. I took the Benz for a test drive and wet to pick up the box. Driving with no air-condition just isn't for me. The plan of driving all the way to Vilnius was dropped. Not without an air-condition. So, back then we only drove to Danzig and back to Küstrin.

Let's roll...
_{Image: Besold, M. (Iran, Dasht e-Lut, 2010)}

Now, how to attach this blog to what is in fact a digital ruin, is a question I have no answer to. We'll see. There are some major trips planned. Islamabad once again, since I have to go see my dentist. And then I also need to go and see the coast in Vladivostock. And since Russia is not forcing a muzzle on it's people, neither making it compulsory that all people have to get some experimental stuff injected into their bodies, I might even stay there. It's some sort of family tradition. My grandfather went to Russia in 1941 and never came back, though for other reasons. However, the car has to be in perfect technical condition with the air-condition working, before can start making any plans.

To be honest, I shouldn't be making any plans at all, because my plans always have a tendency to go completely wrong. For instance, when I left Germany back in 2000, my destination was South Africa. I ended up in Northern Ireland, which means, I didn't even hit the right hemisphere. That's how good I am with directions, by the way. The plans that worked out best in my life so far, where the ones that I never made in the first place. If there is no plan, it can't go wrong. Think African...

Funny, that for a little over a year, everybody seems to have problems making any sort of travel plans. Problems where created now that didn't exist within Europe in the past. They usually started where Europe ended.

_{Images: M. Besold (2010/1999)}

For years I have travelled the world with nothing more than one of my famous plans, which usually consisted of starting to drive roughly into some direction and then look out for what ever happens. We would get through somehow, and if not, then something else would happen. There was no rush, there was no destination, whatever happened was part of the trip. That's why we travel. The journey is the destination. We don't travel to get somewhere, we travel to be on the road, and it doesn't really matter where the road leads to at the end: »Think African...«

I would never have thought that this would be the concept that I would have to use in Europe. Not here on that tiny continent, on which we were always able to move back and forth as we wished, and all there was to do was more or less to observe the traffic rules.

Now there are border requirements, border controls, rules, regulations, chicanery, fines, fear, uncertainty and doubt - and one constantly has to watch out for the henchmen of the regime. In other words, now everybody in Europe knows how it feels like to live in Germany.

On the other hand, it's not only a good opportunity to test drive the car, but also to test the borders and regulations and all that. After all, last year even though there was much talking about restrictions in the mass media, in practice there was nothing, really. No restrictions, no border controls, no Covid bullshit, whatsoever - at least not on the road. So let's take her for another test drive...