A Berlin Nightride with the Knight Rider

K.I.T.T. ready to lead the way

I can assure you, there aren’t many songs worse than David Hasselhoffs “Looking For Freedom” to be stuck with a whole day. Just click the link and see how you feel – hate me yet? Admittedly, back in 1989 this song was kind of the inofficial anthem to go with The Fall of the Wall, being #1 for 8 weeks, and his concert at the Berlin Wall on New Years Eve really was something. That may be the reason why The Hoff is still hugely popular in Germany – if no where else in the world. So since the Eastside Gallery is facing a piece-by-piece-demolition by the hands of evil real-estate investors (not my narrative) he is a regular guest in Berlin once again.

There he is…

25 Years ago he made the Wall crumble by singing to it (am I the only one who has to think about Jericho’s trumpets here?) and 2013 he was back to keep it up. Right now (may 2014) The Hoff is back in town to attend re:publica and talk about his take on freedom – and sing of course. No idea why anybody would grant him ANY authority on the subject, but here we are.

By far the more important people for the evening were the guys from Trafo Pop. They are not only offering workshops to build your own light-jackets, organize Nightrides and are generally awesome, BUT; they invited The Knight Rider to come along for a protest-ride to the Eastside Gallery. And he accepted – publicly. The moment we heard about that, we entered the next asia-penny-shop and bought a bunch of Glowsticks to braid about our bikes. You can’t ride with K.I.T.T. and not glow or blink at least a little yourself, can you? Later we rode to Heinrichplatz (this is where critical mass starts as well) – and waited. And waited some more. Met Peter. Marveled at the car. Were told that the man would meet us at the Eastside Gallery. Started our short ride along Skalitzer Strasse and Oberbaumbrücke:

Sorry for the bad quality, still trying to figure out how to refocus while riding 🙁

It was like a (not so) small Critical Mass with extra bling. The police was there in force, clearing the whole way for us, all very friendly, they even blocked the road along the Gallery – for nearly two hours. If I had to describe in one word: amazing! Of course the hero of our childhood didn’t show up in the end, but we had a blast. The best thing though, we finally met the guys from Trafo Pop, hopefully we’ll find some project to collaborate on.