At one point our tour lady who's been with us every day (her name's Karin) gave us some cookie thing.
It was good. Maybe I should buy a bag and bring home.
We arrived at the BMW place at noon.
Rainy afternoon at BMW
The inside had cars everywhere.
We had an hour to kill before the tour and it was suggested we eat lunch here. Since we just had breakfast that was a stupid idea so instead we got in cars and took funny pictures. I'm not a car person so it was a solid 3 on the 1 to 10 scale of fun. And we couldn't get in any Rolls Royce.
BMW bitches
They had a lot of interactive things to do besides sitting in cars. You could design a car on a screen, drive virtual cars, compare steel, aluminum, and some lighter material, fuel an electric car. It was pretty cool. I should note last semester I wrote a 45 page paper on BMW for an international business class. I still don't have an interest in cars but I'm biased for BMW. I was more interested in going here than Mercedes or Audi.
Around 1 our tour guide met us and took us to a room where we watched a short movie on BMW. I liked our guide. He had a sexy accent and gave us umbrellas whenever we went outside. Anyways, the video was boring. I counted how many times they said BMW in the 7 minute video. It was in the 20's.
Then we went inside the production plant! It was a 2 hour tour and no pictures and very professional. Mercedes was more relaxed. I'll just write the highlights, we saw a lot. The robots were awesome. We went in the Robot Nursery. That's not what it was called but they make robots there. They had robots showing what they were capable of doing and when we walked up to them one of the robots opened a book that said "Welcome to the BMW plant!" and I fell in love with that robot. It's weird but my god the robots were amazing. The robot I loved then turned the pages of a book and at the end turned a page that said "Please enjoy the tour". It was adorable.
The robot next to that one was doing one of those toys where you have to put a metal circle through a metal wire without touching the sides. It was crazy!
We saw the same stuff at Mercedes but a lot more. We got to see cars being painted. Before a car gets sprayed, they're cleaned with ostrich feathers. BMW has an ostrich farm in Africa. Ostrich feathers are scientifically proven to be excellent at removing any dust and static. After their feather dusting, the cars were sprayed and that was fun to watch. Everything is fun to watch!
Our tour group went into some strong smelling rooms and that part wasn't fun. In my paper I didn't write about BMW productions so most information was foreign to me. At one point someone asked how many women worked at BMW and I knew that (less than 20% are women and there's only 1 woman on the board of directors). Someone also asked top competitors and you don't need to write a 45 page paper to know the answer to that, we were just at their competitors plant last week and we're going to their other competitor tomorrow.
Everyone was really excited about getting to see "a marriage". I didn't asked what that meant but I think they were referring to when the engine is put into the body. We finally saw the last stage on productions when they turn the car on and drive it 5 feet and test all the lights.
I very much liked the BMW facilities but I don't know if it's because I personally like BMW or if the place was just that great. They didn't have a museum like Mercedes and that's a shame.
We got done around 3:30 and got back on the bus to go to Munich's city center. We were dropped off in the rain and Todd gave me his umbrella. He reminds me of Ian. We all split and Maria, Todd, the girl we went swimming with who I yelled at in Aalen for being loud, and a girl from Aalen university who was taking Austin's place as tour guide assistant or whatever. She was German. We were all starving and kept trying to find a place to eat but it was hard. It was all shopping. We did walk by town hall. It's this massive and gorgeous building you could just stare at for the rest of your life and be content.
We also found more cuckoo clock stores. I really really want a cuckoo clock but they're too expensive. The best puppies were over 2 grand.
In another life we'll be together.
We found a restaurant and just went with it. The German student had trouble translating and that's okay. Maria and Todd kept asking dumb ass questions about the menu (it's dumb because they'll both eat anything). I asked for a pasta recommendation, got one, and ordered that.
I can't read this.
I also ordered a still water (screw that nasty carbonated water). Our server brought out a giant glass bottle of water for me. Shit. That means I have to pay for it.
Our food came out and I had German mac and cheese with fried onions on top.
I got a salad too and ate and ate. My bill was 18 euro. The water was 5. That's bullshit,
Then we had to walk quickly back to the bus because it was leaving at 6. We had no time in Munich, that's upsetting. All we're doing is going back to Aalen, I think we should have been given more time here. This city seems really interesting.
Back on the bus I fell asleep. I woke up when we got to Aalen.
Maria and I went to the married couple's room to hang out with them. They had a bottle of vodka flavored like that orange fruit I had for dinner my first night here (the fruit that's popular in Brazil, I don't know what it's called). Anyways, we invited Todd to hang out so there was 5 of us. Maria and I drank nearly the entire bottle then we went to the bar because she wanted to do tequila shots. I don't do tequila and had a whiskey and water. Halfway through my drink I realized the error of my ways. I was drunk as a skunk.
So I went back to the room alone and fell asleep as soon as I was in bed. It was almost midnight.
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