For breakfast I had a bowl of yogurt with seeds and an earl grey tea. Our group was running late and we left the hotel around 7:30.
I sat by myself on the bus. It was just our group and we take up less than 1/3 of the seats. I listened to music and fell asleep.
When I woke up we were outside some big buildings.
Is this the hotel?
We were at the Mercedes Benz plant! We were having a tour of the productions, I think. Inside the main area we waited around for stuff to happen. I used their bathroom. It was classy and smelled like pine.
Our tour guide lady greeted us and took us to another building where we watched a movie about Mercedes Benz. It was basically like "We're awesome and we invented cars". Someone in our group whispered "I thought Ford invented cars..." And some people were confused. After the video we were given protective glasses and headphones like yesterday at the eyeglass place. Our speaker had the microphone.
Alternative universe Calla studies science.
And we watched cars being made! It was just like what you see on TV when a car goes through the production lines. The first building we went in was parts being built. That was absolutely mesmerizing because it was all robots. I don't know what it is about actually being there to watch. It was just very fascinating to see. I didn't listen to our guide AT ALL. Nothing. I just watched. Every now and than something would be built that would case sparks to literally fly into the air and come at you. That was exciting until one came a little too close to me. Then I had to worry about getting hit with a spark and burning an eyebrow off or something terrible. While I was picturing myself with one less eyebrow, Maria thought it would be funny to tug on my braid (I had my hair braided really cute in two side braids then meeting down the middle). She kinda tripped and ended up pushing me out of nowhere. It scared me and I jumped. To an onlooker that was probably funny. I was pissed. Now I had to worry about my eyebrows and being pushed from behind.
After we were done there we went to another building where we saw the car bodies. There they were on the assembly line and dashboards were being put in. That was neat too! Here there were more people. Everyone was hustling but they weren't moving like they were rushed. Those employees not on the line rode bikes or scooters to get places.
Obviously we were not allowed to take any pictures. When done, our guide thanked us and gave us each a BMW keychain. There was a coin inside that was the same size as a euro. I have no idea why there was a coin or what that was about but I liked the keychain.
Mercedes-Benz bitches
Back on the bus I fell asleep again. When I woke up at 1:30 we were at the Mercedes Benz Museum!
It was suggested we get a snack here so I went to the cafe and bought a sandwich. It was vegetarian. Everyone thinks I'm vegetarian on this trip and keeps pointing on vegetarian options for me.
"Calla, here's a sandwich without meat!"
My sandwich sucked! It was really hard. I couldn't rip off pieces with my digits and had to bite off chunks and spit it out. It wasn't crunchy and toasted, it was just rock hard bread. And the seasonings on top got everywhere and my hands were a mess. It cost 4 euros and all my happiness.
After that I went to the museum. The museum is about 6 or 8 floors and slender. There wasn't mazes of rooms to go in and get lost. I appreciate that. I was given headphones that told me English stuff when I walked by certain things but I didn't really listen. It started with the history of transportation or some shit because I didn't have time to read every description.
I'm no sailor but those are boats.
They had old cars (it doesn't feel right to call it a car but I'm not sure what else to refer to it as) in the center of the room on rotating platforms.
Then it was more old cars but not as old.
The place wasn't crowded and there was a security guard or two on every floor. Things got more glamorous around the second floor.
They had Mercedes aero engines too. Originally, back in Mercedes first couple years, they made aeroplanes instead of cars.
Mercedes Flugmotor DIII
This is a WW1 engine. It was very reliable and an advanced design, thus creating high military demand and the largest production volume or aeroplane engines in WW1.
Every floor brought an update on cars. Walking down the stairs they had pictures describing the time period you were entering. I thought that was stupid and wished they had just talked about how transportation was evolving. Looking back, I changed my mind. I liked getting an overall feel of where the world was at and what was popular beyond just the focus of cars.
Floor 3: Diesel and Supercharger (1914-1945)
I met up with Maria and the guy I think she should date and we went to the 4th floor.
Post-war (1945-1960)
Mercedes-Benz 300 S Cabriolet A
Each car had a description on car stuff like how fast it goes and numbers that mean nothing to me.
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Unlenhaut-Coupe
We had 10 minutes to get back to the bus. We skipped the next to floors ("Safety and Environment"- vehicles like buses and police cars, "Emmision free"- that would have been interesting, and "Races and Records"-race cars, BORING!).
While leaving we saw some crash test dummies just chillin like they do. I made Maria take some silly pictures of me.
This is all moving so fast for me.
When I was getting up from sitting between the dummies, the other dummies hand got caught on my map in my back pocket. After pretending to get groped I literally got groped by the other one. This is the beginning of a Twilight Zone episode I believe. I hauled my ass back to the bus where everyone was waiting.
Back on the bus we drove to Stuttgart (we were just outside of it earlier) to kill time in the city center. We were given maps but they sucked so Maria and I just winged it. We found ice cream and I got a scoop of hazelnut for 1 euro. It was warm out now.
We window shopped. I was looking into one promising food store when a lady came out and offered me German bread to try. She gave me two slices and I went in the shop where another lady offered me a glass of their apple juice. It was great! These people were very kind to potential customers. My status of potential turned legit because I bought a bag of apple chips, a jar of lemon jelly and a jar of apple jelly, a small bottle of the apple juice they gave me, and a bag of five frosted cookies. Everything was organic. It cost me 20 euro. I loved it and want to eat it all. But the lemon jelly is for Ian, cookies for Camin or Ian if Camin hates them, apple jelly for my mom, and apple chips for the household.
I've really wanted a cuckoo clock ever since I found out we would be in the area where it originates. Maria really wants a beer stein (the beer mugs with a flap over the lid). We lucked the hell out and found a small shop that sold both clocks and steins! The clocks were big and expensive.
I'm no clockmaker but those are clocks.
I can't make that type of commitment. So I settled for a cuckoo clock magnet that may or may not tell the time. It has a battery in the back but I don't know. Maria's steins were expensive too. Each was hand made and cost 20 euro for a mini version one.
We went back to the bus. It's kind of hot out now. While we waited outside the bus where it was cooler we threw pieces of my free German bread at pigeons. I didn't like the bread. It tasted like a wheat, sourdough mix. But the pigeons liked it.
Get some
Everyone was having fun feeding the birds. We took the bus all the way back to our hotel (it's only a 90 minute drive) and got there around 6. I'm so happy with my purchases today! I spread them out on my bed to stare at them fondly.
Pictured: good decisions
Maria wanted to invite Todd to our room and did so. He hung out with us and we did shots of the vodka I bought and then another girl (the female part of the married couple) came down too. It was a mini party! Lots of funny things happen when you drink with people who are new to the alcohol scene. I didn't want anyone getting shitfaced and was counting the drinks and timing them so no one got truly drunk.
The highlight of the night was when Todd got stuck between the two beds with his feet in the air.
"In hindsight this was a bad idea." Came his muffled voice from the ground.
"Hind.. sight" Maria said, starring at his butt.
It was fun! Then I kicked everyone out at 11:30 and Maria and I were asleep by midnight.
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