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"  TALLIN, Estonia \u2013 The sun has popped out once or twice, but largely it&amp;#039;s been overcast and drizzly on Day Five of the Mercedes E-Class Experience road trip from Paris to Beijing.  Yesterday, we managed to get into Riga, Latvia, in time for a brief sightseeing trip. Despite our being quartered in a very nice hotel, the neighborhood in the older center of the city was dirty and graffiti-laden\u2014quite a contrast to the ultra-modern M-B dealership across town where this caravan&amp;#039;s rally cars were sequestered overnight.  Our E320 has been delivering between 25 and 30 mpg on ultra-low-sulfur diesel. That&amp;#039;s astonishingly good considering the high speeds back in Germany, the traffic in the cities and slogging through a considerable amount of standing water.  Most of the roads in Lithuania yesterday were narrow, with intermittent opportunities to pass. Balkan drivers are made of stern stuff\u2014virtually every driver being overtaken will edge two wheels over onto the shoulder to give the overtaking car room to pass. You simply have to trust that oncoming drivers will do the same and give you enough room\u2014which, fortunately, they do. Also fortunately, the E320 Bluetec we&amp;#039;re driving has enormous midrange and torque, making the window of vulnerability for overtaking a short one. We&amp;#039;ve burned through the entire playlist on my iPod since we left Germany. Lunch today was cellophane-wrapped cheese sandwiches and a bottle of mineral water. I understand that the wave of journalists who will be driving our car through parts of Russia, Kazakhstan and points east will get boxed lunches\u2014and dinners on some days. Other days, the local governments have marshaled entire towns into providing hot meals for the convoy. That includes providing beds in private homes, seeing as how there isn&amp;#039;t anything like a hotel for hundreds of miles in some of the more remote areas (a thought that makes our neighborhood here in Tallin seem pretty comfy).  Tomorrow: Another day short on mileage, as we&amp;#039;re told it should take at least three hours to get into Russia. Border crossings thus far have been fairly intimidating, what with a generation of Cold War movies leaving stereotypes of Iron Curtain border guards indelibly impressed onto my brain. Despite having Mercedes-Benz staffers versed in the local language pre-positioned for us, it still leaves the hair on the back of my neck standing up when the uniformed border agent demands my passport and leans into the car.  But Friday also takes us into St. Petersburg, where a new wave of journalists will take over the cars for next week&amp;#039;s journey. I&amp;#039;ve been asked by the event organizers to say a few words during the reception before dinner. They want me to formally welcome the new guys to the crew, and impress on them the need for responsible and courteous driving as they traverse the continents. How I got picked for this escapes me, but I&amp;#039;ll do my best.  Saturday: Leaving my hotel in St. Petersburg at 0300 to catch an 0600 plane to Paris and my connection to New York, so it looks like another nearly-sleepless night is in store for me. I&amp;#039;ll wrap up the trip on the plane home. \u2013Mike Allen Earlier: Warsaw to Vilnius, Paris to Berlin, Prepping in Paris There may been dreary weather and intermittent delays across Eastern Europe yesterday, but that still made for a rainbow-covered pit stop. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a3600/4200498/>