Today Annabelle's parents drove Annabelle and us from Reyhns' home in Rothmuhle to Wolfsburg, about 30 minutes away, to tour the Autostadt, the plant and grounds that are a Volkswagon showcase in Germany. Wolfsburg is truly a “company town.” It was barely on the map before Volkswagon built a huge plant there, one that employs 46,000 people! We toured the production plant itself in a small tram that had a German-speaking tour guide. Annabelle sat next to us and interpreted, so we were set! We got to see part of the production process, including the robotics that make up about 45% of the production of Volkswagons. The tour guide mentioned that the robotics are used where precision is required—to avoid human error! (Hey Toyota! Robotics! Get it?) Everything in the plant was immaculate, and throughout the plant we would occasionally see a bicycle parked. These bicycles are used for employees to get from one part of the plant to another to deliver a needed part, or whatever. How cool is that!
After the mid-morning plant tour, we had several hours before we took an afternoon tour of other parts of the Autostadt, so we went on a Volkswagon-sponsored canal cruise on the canal adjoining the Autostadt. The air was cool but the sun was warm, so we enjoyed sitting on the side in the sun, along with all other passengers. When the boat turned around to head back, all of us moved to the other side to stay in the sun. Fortunately the boat was big, so we didn't capsize!
When we got back to the Autostadt, we had a great lunch in one of the many restaurants, then had a personal tour of the beautiful Disney-like grounds, where we were told about the need to conserve energy, especially water, and Volkswagon's efforts to make their cars as fuel efficient as possible. We also viewed the museum that displayed and traced the history of cars, including not only Volkswagons, but all other brands of cars, including the Model A Ford. We saw the rhinestone studded, gold millionth Volkswagen (pictured above, and the Bucatti-(the silver car also pictured) which sells at the obscene price of something like $2 million!!! Our grandsons, Alex and Gabe, would have loved it! We were told how orders for cars were filled at dealerships, but that customers have to option of picking up their cars here at the Autostadt. By the end, we'd spent the whole day at the Autostadt, and loved every minute of it. Of course, since our first three vehicles were Volkswagon Beetles, we now are wanting to buy another Volkswagon! Little wonder the company puts so much into showing off its products!
Annabelle's parents had not joined us for the afternoon tour because they were putting on a “barbeque” for us tonight and had relatives and a couple of Annabelle's friend coming for dinner. Annabelle's boyfriend, Guido, whose father is in a high management position for Volkswagon, joined us for the afternoon tour, and then we rode back to Rothmuhle with him. When we got home, the relatives on Ulrike's side of the family were there, including her mother, her younger sister and husband, with their 15-month old daughter. Then two of Annabelle's girlfriends, Maren and Sarah, who will soon graduate with her joined us right before dinner. We were so amused when Sarah came into the room with this take-charge attitude. She came up to us, stuck out her hand and said, “Hey! I'm Sarah. How 'ya doin'?” She looked and sounded like student body president from a Sioux Falls high school. Bev was as astonished as I was, when she took a step back, looked at Sarah and asked, “Where are you from?” We ate a German version of an American barbeque, with Holger working the grill and pumping out mass quantities of sausages, bratwurst and pork! We had a really enjoyable evening. After the company had left, we sat around visiting with Annabelle and her family. We got talking about music and Holger mentioned that he was a big Neil Diamond fan, so I borrowed Julius' guitar and dedicated my rendition of “Sweet Caroline” to him. He seemed to really enjoy that, but then again, he is very polite!
Tomorrow, we become Lions fans as we attend our first "real" soccer game in Braunschweig-ROAR!
No comments:
Post a Comment