The 46. int. AUVC-Treffen you may find by clicking this wheel cap

Finally Garitz again! As every year on 29th of May the old car has been loaded to the trailer. Lashed carefully, fully refueled, properly spruced up and looked after, greased and with packed suitcases everything was well prepared to depart next morning.

The weather forecast  predicted rain in our region so that wie expected to travel into better weather conditions.

Indeed this became true at first. Just arrived and freshly unloaded "our" DKW parked in the "famous" meadow of Garitz beside Franks F 102.

That car not was unknown to me: sitting on the rear seat of this car I drove as a passenger during the meeting in Kirchhundem at autumn 2016 (Germany). At that meeting the rainy weather was to wet to my "wooden shack on wheels". Nice to see this F 102 again! Today the forecast let expect better weather and a blue sky was decoradet beautyfully with little white clouds. Nevertheless the weather forecast on our smart phones changed their mind and threatened us whith rain next day.

 and it's raining again   at friday morning, looking out of the window, we remembered that song of supertramp. Unfortunately we run late that morning, while most drivers have been departed punctual at 10 a.m. for today's planned tour to Loburg.

A tiny windscreen wiper the "Reichsklasse" only provides on the driver's side, the front-seat passenger on the right side is missing any clear view on those weather conditions. Thankfully we did not have time to open the convertible top.

 The rain is gone  first miles we certainly run 10 minutes late following the other cars. But sometimes some drivers lose their way, others optimistically opened their convertible tops before depart and now had to stop in order to close it again. Afer a little while twe were back in contention and fortunately the rain stopped.

So brave that poor windsreen wiper blade turned right and left again and again, while its geared motor each turn seesawed slightly in the opposite direction for a litle bit. The axle of the wiper arm was somewhat loosened.

In Loburg the leading teams already parked their cars inside the area of our destination "Gut Barby" which was an old estate of gentry. Beatyful old cars in beautiful old surroundings.

"Those who come too late...", someway we remembered President Gorbatchev visiting Erich Honnecker as the leader of former GDR "...will be punished by life". Now we have been those being punished by life: in the illustrious internal courtyard no free place was left to park our old DKW. But hopefully the DKW will live longer, as Honnecker answered ("those who are declared dead will live longer").

 Memorial to Think About  Refugees there are not even since 2015 and the European crisis of refugees: this lord of the manor after World War II did not go with the political ideas of the Soviet occupation zone. At the age of 33 years he lost all his estate, his properties, his living, his alimony, simply everything. He got dispossessed and  displaced.

Where he has gone the tablet does not tell - the word "vertrieben" (displaced) says everything. The cruel fate to have to escape not many individuals in our federal republic of Germany know by own experiance of life. A lot of them have parents being escaped from Prussia, even from former GDR or other countries - most of them do not live anymore. It seemes to be easy to call refugees names and to turn them away. And it seemes to be so difficult to imagine their situation.

 Distillery Visit  During a visit of a distillery at afternoon the holder explained his work, the process of making alcohol and the history of his distillery in the GDR as well as since German reunification.

Of course some fine products such as cordial, different varieties of Gin and Vodka have been offered to taste and to buy, and for those who don't like alcoholic drinks there was honey offered, too.

The skill of distilling schnapps, hard liquor or even pure alcohol for technical use through several steps of distillation, the needed raw materials such as potatoes or corn and the rules of customs law to be observed have been interesting details of this lecture.

At this temperature my DKW beginns to feel unhealthy - to make hard liquor it seems to be exactly right.

The master of destillery told us the good old German "Korn" to be a very clean alcoholic hard drink, better than many others and better than vodka.

The 46. int. AUVC-Treffen you may find by clicking this wheel cap