Our second Herbie drove us and “QEK Junior”, the camper, all across Europe last year and should put even more miles on. We’re planning on another road trip with Herbie!

Domi bought Herbie, a “Volkswagen Type 11 Luxus”, on June 1, 2007, from Ewald Artmayr, who was owner for six years and who lived in Stadt Haag, Upper Austria.

Originally our Herbie No. II was manufactured in 1963 and got sold to a farmer called Leopold Reisinger from Haibach, Upper Austria, on June 19 of the same year.

Domi and his friend Flo made another trip to Germany in order to pick up a blue Volkswagen Bug from 1989 for their friend and mechanic, Friedrich. They left Austria on Wednesday in the evening and got back Friday morning. However, as it transpired, this trip should get a challenging and nerve wrecking adventure for both of them.

The tow bar was a back up if they couldn’t get the blue VW running. The engine was dismantled and they had to put everything together before actually driving it.

They got the car running, but the dynamo was broken! They decided to drive without using it and changing the batteries from one car to the other every time they stop.

They even disconnected the wires of the dynamo in order to save energy and just used the batteries to keep the car running. It was exhausting changing batteries so often.

But during the night and the need of lights the cars were sucking more energy than one car could produce, so they had to tow the blue Bug for the rest of the night.

It is prohibited to tow a car on the freeway, so they depended on highways. Therefore they had to use the GPS, but they had no cigarette lighter (see above).

Just 34 horsepower (1,200 cc) towed another Bug for more than 370 miles (600 km) all the way from Germany to Austria. But it worked, even though it took forever.

We just bought another cult car! It is a “Trabant 601S de Luxe” manufactured in former East Germany before the Iron Curtain came down. Even though, the “Time” magazine rated the so-called “Trabi” as one of the 50 worst cars ever made, Domi loves to drive it – and it has an air-cooled two-stroke powered engine with 26 horsepower and 600 cc. The “Trabi” will be our daily driver, while Herbie goes around the world.

Domi and Flo drove to Germany again, in order to pick up two cars – a Trabant for Friedrich and another Bug for Flo. They decided to go there in a VW pulling a special tow bar. They were just two guys driving three cars, but everything worked out!

On the way to Germany Flo and Domi met Friedrich and his “Última Edición” (right) – a Volkswagen Bug from 2003 – close to his family home in Upper Austria.

Domi and his friend Flo took Herbie for a ride to Bavaria, Germany. On their way Herbie lost all case studs of one of the cylinder heads. The wildest nightmare got reality, but the Love Bug made it back to Vienna and Friedrich’s VW shop safely.

Domi noticed a weird and loud noise in the back. He knew immediately that Herbie is loosing his right cylinder head, where cylinder one and two are operating.

It got worse and Herbie lost all case studs. Flo and Domi couldn’t hear each other talking, because it was getting so loud. Herbie sounded like a tractor!

Moreover Herbie shed a lot of motor oil on the freeway, but he eventually made it and got back to Vienna, where Domi and Friedrich will repair his Brazilian engine.

Domi is still working on a 1,200 cc carburetor engine for Herbie No. II at Friedrich’s shop in Vienna. We’re thinking about taking the Love Bug for a final ride continuing Herbie’s World Tour, after we’ve traveled more than 95,000 miles (150,000 km) so far.

A special feature is the additional oil filter including a bigger oil pump by BOCAR.

Furthermore, Herbie gets a high performance coil and an electronic ignition system.

But we’ll stick to a simple dynamo as they are more resistant than generators.

On the occasion of Zainab’s birthday, we went together for the first time to the drive-in on Monday. This is the only drive-in theater in Austria, it is called “Autokino Center Wien” and is located in Groß Enzersdorf, just outside of Vienna. We had a blast!