Today Domi and his friend Matthias, nephew of Friedrich Hübsch, picked up a 1960 Volkswagen Bug in the very South of Burgenland, one of nine Austrian provinces.

The black Beetle resides in its original condition. It still has the original paint, six volt and 1,192 cc with 30 horsepower. And it seems like that this vehicle has never been welded.

The only question remains is, who the next owners will be? Either Katharina, a friend and DLV club member of ours, or Domi and Zainab. Anyway, Herbie found a new friend!

Matthias, Georgy and Domi visited the biannual air-cooled Volkswagen show in Laxenburg. More than 100 vehicles showed up – from Beetles to Kombis and Buggies to Brezels. Thanks to the “VW Beetle and Bulli Lover’s Club Laxenburg” for that wonderful day. The “DLV – Aircooled Community” are patronizing you.

Yesterday we visited the legendary “Hot Summer Nite” at the SCS (Shopping City South). A lot of air-cooled Volkswagens and Porsches attended the show. Here the pictures:

Somebody hurt Herbie last week! His rear bumper got hit and the radio antenna broken. We traveled around the world in 80 countries and nobody ever did this to Herbie.

It is very sad that people do such things. It is actually a shame that Austrians can behave like that. The bumper got hit even two times – deliberately or unintentionally?

We’ll also have to buy a new antenna as somebody broke the old one off. Why would this person do this? Sometimes we just don’t understand other human beings.

Although we are an “Aircooled Community”, we couldn’t avoid coming across water on the streets of Eastern Austria. As Herbie is tucked away safely on a hill, we’re driving “Trabi” these days. Herbie encountered enough “watering obstacles” on his way round the world. Yesterday Domi and his friend Flo (from DLV) inspected some local flooded roads.

The South African adventure travel magazine “Drive Out” features a story on Herbie’s World Tour in its latest edition including six full pages about Herbie’s “gravel travel”.

Herbie and his friends from “DLV – Aircooled Community” visited the monthly “Friday Night Cruising by Altblech” at the SCS Shopping Center in the South of Vienna.

This was a very special day for us! We met Faye Gilbert and Luc Tremoulet who came all the way from the UK to film us for a documentary about the Volkswagen Beetle. They’re covering Herbie’s World Tour as an example for the worldwide VW enthusiasm.

As Faye and Luc were coming via Germany, we arranged to meet in St. Kolomann, a little town just outside the city of Salzburg. Unfortunately we had a foggy Saturday, so we weren’t able to cover the beauty of the Alps, but we still got Herbie in motion pictures.

Today we headed to Salzburg for a film shooting. A British production company wants to cover Herbie’s World Tour for a documentary on the legendary Volkswagen Beetle.

The plan was to film Herbie driving through that beautiful mountain scenery, but the weather forecast isn’t well-disposed to us. We hope for the best and wait until tomorrow!

Herbie carried us along the freeways “A2” and “A10” across the Austrian provinces of Lower as well as Upper Austria to Salzburg and a town called at St. Kolomann.

We’re staying at “Gasthof Alpenrose” (Guesthouse “The Rose of the Alps”) in the incorporated village of Wegscheid (St. Kolomann), just about 30 kilometers from Salzburg.

After more than 30,000 kilometers (or 19,000 miles) Herbie needed a pit stop at Friedrich’s shop in Vienna. Finally the Love Bug got a new master brake cylinder as the old one was leaking since a Togolese mechanic ruined the filler plug.

We also replaced the brake cylinders in the back as well as one of the rear wheel bearings, which was accompanying us on our tour round Africa with a weird pulsating noise. Herbie’s now ready to make a trip to Salzburg next weekend!