The whole story was on German media two days ago so I had kind of a head start. You can find more on http://www.ottosreise.de/start.html (you can apparently route it through google translate and get decent results).

Believe it or not: he was the first one to draw an accurate map of Djakarta, Indonesia in 1977 and kept releasing updated versions until 2005. He sold thousands and thousands of them. That's what financed the trip.

Dem interwebz. Always something new around the corner. Enjoy.

Now all your other wild ideas (shooting brakes in particular) have to become reality as well!

Those of you who understand German (or just like looking at pictures...) can find extensive documentation at http://www.ottosreise.de/start.html

As far as I know, Mercedes already agreed to take it into its museum.

To me it sounds like prioritizing equal treatment above good deeds. Europe has suffered under monarchs that enjoyed tremendous privileges and rights normal people could never achieve no matter how much work or effort they put into their lives. Just like you, I don't pretend to know that's the reason. But the idea of a…

Although I don't share your point of view, I think you're the one who stated the most important point. It seems like US-Americans and Europeans argue on the basis of completely different assumptions and understandings. We will never understand the grade of adoration towards the armed forces while you will never…

Nowhere did I say that the salary is sufficient or adequate or anything like that. Heck, yes, I have no clue what soldiers are paid in the USA. Probably not enough. Just like their insurances and health care will all be bad. All I said was that their salary shouldn't come in the form of eternal gratefulness of every…

I don't hate you. I simply don't share your opinion.

http://flightclub.jalopnik.com/flight-attenda…

I think the fact that we Europeans get up at least 5 hours before the USA certainly helped our case.

Then I must have missed the part where soldiers do their service for free. And I wouldn't criticise the sergeant for what he did. Asking for his jacket to be hung sounds like a reasonable request and I can't see why coach class travellers shouldn't have their jackets hung. And it seems like he wasn't the one getting…

Flight attendants make your flight pleasant, safe and as trouble free as possible. Respecting ones profession and showing some gratitude towards them should be a general understanding. Everyone serves a purpose. Just because your profession is more exposed or supposedly more complex shouldn't give you the right to set…

Stop with the soldiers "bullshit"! My god, have you seen the behaviour of the soldiers in Abu Ghureib? What respect do they deserve besides a fair trail before civil courts?

Why?

If being a soldier is a job you chose on your own then it's your job. It's not better than choosing to be a teacher, firemen, doctor, flight attendant or whatever. Once you chose to join the military you should be aware that taking risks and following instructions passed to you is your job. Salary and social security…

Those are the men and women standing between you and chaos:

Raise taxes to enable better payment of servicemen, to give them sufficient health insurance and first-class psychotherapy. That shows gratefulness. The military should not ingress into society to force its rules and symbols upon it. It's a lesson Europeans learned from the USA after the world wars.

It may be bad company policy to reserve closets to first class passengers. Yes, it's actually a pretty stubborn thing to do. But there is no need to give it a militaristic spin and make news out of it.