Trip Home

I don't have a lot to say about the trip home, which was largely uneventful, but of course I need a concluding post to convey that the trip did come to a definitive end. We woke up way too early Wedneday, meeting at 5 am to leave for the airport. A few students stayed behind to travel independently in Europe, or to go to their homes in India, so we didn't get a formal "goodbye" with them.

We were challenged at the train station by the ticket purchase process, as when we finally figured out the right tickets to get the machine would not take a credit card. Fortunately someone had cash so we could get to the airport.

There we said goodbye to a few students who were flying separately, and also to our faculty lead Jeanette who stayed behind ro travel with her daughter. After a quick flight to Amsterdam, me met up with our colleagues and students who were returning from the trip to Budapest, and we shared a flight with them back to O'Hare.

At O'Hare I was, as expected, flagged for the extra-slow, extra-scrutiny homeland security line. Only one Budapest student ended up in that line behind me, and by the time I got out of immigration about an hour later, almost everyone else who wasn't leaving us in Chicago was waiting on the bus. We shared a bus back to Bloomington with the group returning from Hong Kong, and we spent a portion of the trip relaying our travel adventures and experiences. After dropping off a few more students in Zionsville, we made it back to Bloomington at 10 pm following 23 hour of travel - just me, Clark and three of our 24 students. Another X272 class trip completed.

Going home.

Company Visits

Although we saw a lot of great cultural sites and enjoyed making new German friends, this trip was, of course, part of a business class and we had a lot of interesting business visits. Our student teams had researched and presented on all of the companies we went to, so it was neat to visit them and learn more about them first-hand.

Employee at Weurth packs orders that are brought to him automatically.

Our first company, on Wednesday,  was Würth Group, which seems to be known for fasteners but actually is a manufacturer, supplier, and retail seller of range of products. We were at the headquarters of the global business, which is also the location of a major distribution center, which we toured. Obviously people work in places like this all over the world every day, but it was really fascinating for me to see. We first saw a "picking" area with closely arranged, super tall shelves. People on movable lifts which fit exactly between the shelves would receive order information audibly from a computer and then maneuver to the correct spot to pull the product needed. From there we moved on through the facility to see more automated systems including a new system which automatically delivers items to stationary employees for packing. These stations included a number of systems for ensuring there are no errors, including infrared sensors which can determine if a piece is put in the wrong box. Then we saw robots stacking boxes of various sizes on pallets for shipping, robots which wrap the pallets in plastic,  machines that automatically fold boxes, and conveyor belts that automatically sort boxes and bins based on size and where they need to go.

Back in the headquarters building, we met and had lunch with the board chairman, a Kelley alumnus. The headquarters was beautifully designed, and consistent with the company's values and philanthropic interests, was filled with beautiful artwork. Würth actually considers its art collection as an investment designed to safeguard the company against poor economic times. We saw (only too briefly, in passing) a beautiful exhibit of Namibian artwork, including sculpture, painting, and photography.

Thursday we began the day at Kärcher, which makes cleaners and cleaning products. They make steam cleaners for the home (you might have seen them in Lowe's) but may be better known for their industrial cleaning machines. They are known for innovation, and change most of their product line every five years. In all they make thousands of products.

We had a great host, Alexandra, who gave a nice presentation and Q&A before leading us on a tour of the factory floor. Kärcher makes everything themselves in order to maintain high quality standards, save time, and reduce waste (they can easily replace a faulty part rather than having to replace entire pre-made components). We saw the engine assembly line where workers assembled the engines piece by piece, and moved on to see product assembly lines, injection molding machines, and packaging lines. It was interesting to see the mix of human labor and automated processes. One reason they use more people than robots is for the ease of changing what products they are assembling. If one day they need to make a switch to make a machine for the Australian market rather than for Europe, they can simply tell the employees who know how to alter the products instead of reprogramming robots. Alexandra taught us a lot about how they use policy and workplace design to maintain high worker satisfaction. Employees can change tasks for variety, they get to interact regularly, and they take breaks at the same time, along other things like a nice team incentive program for high production. I really enjoyed the Kärcher visit.

Thursday afternoon we visited Klafs, a world leader in luxury sauna manufacturing. They make products for the home, but likely do a larger business with hotels and resorts. I noticed they built the sauna in our hotel, which seemed logical. We toured the factory, and what I remember most is a lot of automated wood curing, with high quality wood that is allegedly sustainably sourced. This is the largest wood shop I have ever been in, and it was surprising clean. They had large systems to remove dust, and they clean daily with a major cleaning once a week. We also saw an area where all of the component parts for sauna orders were pulled together ready for shipping and installation. As you can imagine, a lot of what Klafs does is very customized, and usually their own staff travel to the customer to install the product.

From the factory we went to the retail showroom and saw a variety of fantastic sauna and shower setups. There was a lot of fantasizing and envy involved, and I'm sure that if I ever build a house my standards have now been set outside of my price range. Among the unique  products were an expanding sauna which, when stored, is no larger than an armoire, and a bed which sways back and forth to help clear the mind and induce sleep.

Finally, our guide (whom I liked, but whose name I don't remember) took us upstairs, where they have a large, fully functional sauna where important clients can try different treatments before committing to a purchase. There, we marveled at the various treatment rooms: saunas, steam room, a snow room for cold treatment, a compete Turkish hammam, tubs with electrically charged water, a sleep pod/light/aromatherapy room, and more. After looking around we had a nice Q&A, where we learned that Putin is a Klafs client, the salesman uses the sauna with the clients (nude, of course), and he always makes a sale.

Following Klafs we went to Mobil Gunst, the furniture store. They also sell kitchens, since most flats and homes in Germany come without kitchens installed. Both the furniture and the kitchens were well designed, and once again I found myself dreaming about all of the cool things I could put into my house if I ever built one. Tom pointed out the back office areas of the store, and mentioned a challenge of being a small business owner - the building needs a new roof, but it will be several years before he can save enough to replace it.

Friday morning we visited Recaro, a world leader in manufacturing airline seats. The bulk of their business is probably for short-haul economy-class seating, but they do make long-haul and first-class seating as well. They sell world-wide, but in the U.S. they mentioned a contract they have with Alaska Airlines. A couple of execs gave us a very German-style presentation, which was challenging because by this point in the trip we were all pretty tired. It was interesting to learn that just a few years ago they had a huge problem with quality control and missed deadlines. They shared a number of changes and management strategies they implemented which flattened the management structure, improved efficiency, increased accountability, better identified problems and solutions, and made drastic improvements in quality and on-time delivery. I couldn't help but think this company would be a perfect case study in business management.

We concluded the Recaro visit with a factory tour, where we saw component parts being manufactured and several lines of seating being assembled. It really surprised me to see how manual this process was. While we saw some large press and stamp machines, every step of the process was done by hand by real people. Through the tour, we also saw evidence of the management and accountability systems we had discussed before the tour.

Not until Tuesday did we have our final company visit. And while it was more of a commercial tour, and not a meeting with any company employee or executive, we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing and comprehensive tour of the BMW factory in Munich. This factory was mind-boggling. Again, people build stuff like this every day around the world, but I never imagined the level of technology used and the logistical planning required.

BMW Four Cylinders headquarters building and BMW Museum. 

Due to space limitations within the city, the factory has grown up instead of out. I believe it is five levels and we started at the top where, illogically to me, they use their heaviest equipment to stamp and cut body parts out of flat sheets of steel. After that, everything we saw was a highly automated and complex system of car parts moving from room to room and floor to floor while individual pieces were moved into place and welded together by hundreds of precisely choreographed robots. In one room we saw side panels mounted onto the undercarriage before the entire frame would be lifted and disappear into the ceiling above. There was a holding room with a store of a  hundred or so frames (still being held in line order) which would keep production running for about 90 minutes in case part of the line was shut down to make a change or fix. At some point along the way we saw the engine assembly room which was reminiscent of Kärcher but on a larger scale.

One fascinating area was the paint shop, there about five layers of primer, paint, and finish are applied to the body. In the initial stages the frames are dipped - completely immersed and rolled end-to-end in the paint so every crevice is covered. In a later clean room, the cars are grounded while the paint is charged and flung in fine particles at high speed toward the exterior of the body (by robots which can also open and close the doors).

The paint is actually electronically bonded to the metal. In the next room, the interiors of the frame are painted with airbrushing robots. In both of these rooms there is a constant high speed wind coming from the ceiling, and a rushing pool of water covering and draining through the floor. Any stray paint particles are captured by the water and removed from the room.

Eventually we made it to the final assembly area, where robots assisted people installing heavy batteries and the near-complete cars moved slowly along conveyers where people install the customized interior parts and trim. These conveyers are designed for the convenience of the workers, as the cars are tilted back and forth to provide access to the top or bottom of the vehicle as needed, and the workers do not need to bend or kneel.

All of this results in a new BMW every couple of minutes. They brag that every car being built is already sold. This means, amazingly, that essentially every car coming off the line is a custom order. One car might be a black wagon, the next a red sedan, the following blue with a sunroof, etc. All of these parts come together at the right time from wherever in the factory they are produced, in order, to build the final product. I can't even imagine how the engineers designed such a process and system, with what must include a million steps and hundreds of individually programmed robots.

Traveling with students can be crazy and exhausting. I certainly don't follow the same timeline or do the same things I would do if I were traveling on my own. But traveling with business students on behalf of Kelley certainly brings unique opportunities to learn and see things few people get to see. This was quite a trip. (And now I'm a BMW fan!)

At BMV Welt - some of the many cars on display. Some of the mini cars on display?

Munich

Munich is quite a bit different than Stuttgart. One thing I noticed immediately was a lot more diversity than we had encountered to this point. No one specifically stood out as refugees, but I do wonder if some of the people we saw were. The city is also historically Catholic, so that sets it apart from most of the rest of the country. It's a larger city, and I felt like there was a lot more traffic and activity. There are some great green spaces, but we didn't visit them so my impressions consist primarily of buildings and traffic The city is flatter, too, and while there are mountains in the distance, I never saw them while walking around. There are a few impressive buildings that pre-date the war, or were re-built following the war, but on the whole it didn't seem "pretty." In all, the city seemed less "scenic" to me so was less impressed. However my assessment may be unfair - we had just come from the spectacular Schwäbisch Hall, and by this point in the trip I was growing more tired and ready to go home. 

We had two full days in Munich, beginning Monday morning with a U-Bahn (subway) ride to Allianz Arena, home to the two Bundesliga teams in Munich: the multi-year and recently crowned champions Bayern Munich and the lesser-know second-division TSV 1860 Munich Lions. Our guide was good, and she took us into the stands to tell us a bit about the stadium, it's history, and the teams that play there. The stadium was built as a joint venture between the teams, but the Lions, being less successful, had to sell its stake to Bayern Munich,  now the sole owner. The Lions rent the stadium for the games they play there. The stadium was not clean and full of confetti, due to the big celebration after Saturday's game at which the won the league championship. We had just missed the city celebration downtown the day before. 

We learned that the field is something like 3% synthetic grass and 97% natural, with the synthetic pieces tied several inches into the ground. There is a system of lamps providing artificial sunlight which are used for 48 hours at a time. The current coach keeps the field well-watered and damp. We also learned a bit about the synthetic shell of the stadium and saw a small piece of the thin but sturdy plastic it's made of. The stadium can be lit, theoretically, in millions of colors using a system that was recently switch to LED lighting, resulting in a 60% energy savings. Primarily the stadium is only lit in red or white or blue, depending on which team is playing, and it's only lit for a couple of hours before sunrise and again after sundown. If the stadium is lit in other colors, it requires special approval from the city, due to safety concerns on the nearby highway. Recently it was lit in orange for a visit by the King of The Netherlands.

We had the opportunity to go inside to see the press room, the Bayern home dressing area, and the tunnel leading to the field. What was fascinating to me is that the stadium is considered "neutral," so anything in public areas with Bayern Munich branding is changed out for Lions games or German National Team games. And we saw a lot of branding in the hallways, player entrance, and press room. When the Lions play, everything in the stadium is branded for the Lions. Even more amazingly, in my opinion, is that the stadium name can be changed, too. Because Allianz is not a sponsor of Bundesliga, the German National Team, or FIFA, the Allianz name must be dark, covered or removed for any German National friendly games, tournaments, etc. During the world cup, they removed the giant lettering from the side of the stadium and re-named it the "Munich World Cup Stadium." We ended our visit with barely enough time in the huge gift shop, and a quick bite to eat so we could make it to our next thing.

The tour took longer than expected, so we were pressed for time to get back into the city center and transfer trains in order to get to our arranged tour at Dachau. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to us in advance, it was a holiday (Whit Monday - who knew?!). That meant a change in the train schedule. We were supposed to transfer trains at Marienplatz, which has to be the most confusing station. The platform was on a level that could only be accessed from certain other levels, and it was not easy to find the level or get off of it if you didn't want to be there. A couple of the escalators bypassed the level altogether. Finally we all got to the right place, only to discover that the schedule was changed. So we waited... and the train never came. There were no S-Bahn employees around to offer assistance, but we finally found someone who told us that the train had been re-routed completely for the holiday and wasn't even stopping at this station. We had to go the the Main Station to catch the correct train, which we did. I was not happy with all of the chaos, and we were heading out of the city to Dachau for a tour which I wasn't even sure we would be able to take, considering how late we were going to be.

Eventually we made it to Dachau, and our guide Michael was there waiting for us. By this point, it was quite chilly and we were enduring a steady rain... It didn't make for a pleasant tour, but I think it was strangely fitting considering what a solemn place it is and there is nothing happy about the horrible atrocities that took place there. It was also a stark reminder of the horrible weather the prisoners must have had to endure, year-round, wearing nothing but thin striped uniforms and made to work outside, and stand at attention for hours at a time. Or even worse, being hung by their wrists for punishment.

Michael was a no-nonsense tour guide. We were surprised to learn that the tour was scheduled to last two and a half hours. Jeanette tried to tactfully tell the guide that we were tired and asked if the tour could be shortened a bit. That didn't go over well, and we basically ended up with a two and a half hour tour. We barely saw any of the museum exhibits themselves, which is a good thing because I'm sure it would take more than a full day to see it all, and it would probably be way too overwhelming. However, we did see the grounds, the Maintenance Building, the Bunker (camp prison), Crematorium, the re-constructed barracks, and a devastating home move shot by a young U.S. soldier during the liberation of the camp. Michael knew his stuff, he shared a lot of stories and could answer any question, sharing some very specific details about the concentration camp system outpost near Schwäbisch Hall. (There were thousands of concentration camp sites, overall.) He asked us what movies and documentaries we had seen related to the Holocaust, and then mostly reacted in horror telling us how unrealistic they were. He seemed to especially hate Life is Beautiful ("a comedy!") and he didn't have much good to say about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. He didn't hear me mention Bent, so I don't know his opinion on that one. At the end of the tour I asked Michael what motivated him to give tours at Dachau. He said he's always been interested in history, and he was motivated by the stories of his grandparents. He went on to decry the rise of right-wing nationalism occurring around the globe, from Russia to France to Donald Trump. He's not sure what will happen to trans-Atlantic relationships if Trump is elected; I agreed the prospect is unthinkable.

Back in Munich, the rain finally let up and I had dinner with Jeanette, Erika, and Clark at an expensive (but good) Vegan restaurant. Later that evening I took advantage of my only opportunity to check out the Munich gay nightlife. On a Monday. On a holiday. Anyway, I found my way to the right part of town and, although things weren't busy, I enjoyed myself. I had a single beer at each of two bars. The first (Bau) was smallish and trendy with an attractive clientele, and a great painting on the wall. The second bar (Moro) was larger and is also a restaurant, had a slightly more traditional, classy decor, with several nice paintings on the wall and a friendly bartender. I concluded that nightlife is one area in which Munich beats out Stuttgart.

Tuesday began with a U-bahn ride to BMW Welt (BWM World), which was nothing less than amazing. Across the road from BMW's iconic "Four Cylinder" headquarters building, the BMW museum, and the manufacturing plant, BMW Welt is a stunning example of contemporary architecture on the edge of the Olympiapark. The building is large and I'm not sure what all happens there, but it is where they deliver new BMWs to new owners and there's a cafe, gift shop, and beautiful displays of some of the latest BMW, Rolls Royce, and Mini cars. And this is where the tours began. We had very knowledgeable, and funny, guide named Peter Bosch. He took us on a thorough tour of the factory, which blew my mind. It is a multi-level, high-tech manufacturing plant and assembly line. The logistics, robotics, and engineering used to produce hundreds of individually-customized cars daily is unbelievable. More on this in an upcoming post.

Once again, our tour took longer than expected, so we had limited time for the gift shop and we didn't get to explore Olympiapark or see its trümmerberg (the hill made of rubble from the WWII destuction). We had to rush to make it to our next visit at UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at the Technische Universität München, There we enjoyed a really good lunch at their cafe before learning more about the place from a graduate student who coordinated our visit. He then toured us around and we got to see the MakerSpace filled with all kinds of fantastic tools which can be used to make product prototypes. These included a 3D printer which can print fabrics and objects with moving parts, and a machine that can cut designs and patterns out of 50 mm steel using high-pressure sand and water. We also met a couple of entrepreneurs in their business incubator and heard (very very) briefly about the work of their business accelerator. Aside from the cool tools and good lunch, this visit wasn't as great as we hoped it would be. I'm sure it didn't help that everyone was tired to the point of being easily distracted and silly.

We took the train back to the city center and most of the students went to the hotel to pack. Jeanette, Erika, Clark and I met two recent Kelley graduates who were traveling on their own and walked around the Marienplatz area looking for souvenirs. We left the students in the market and went for our final dinner at a wonderful German food restaurant. After dinner we headed to the famous Hofbrauhaus for a final informal gathering with some of the students. There I chatted with two IU students who were in Germany on a SPEA program. One of them I had met in Bloomington this spring and we had talked about being in Germany at the same time. Some of the students on my trip are in his fraternity, which is how we ended up at the same place at the same time. I had one (very large) delicious Dark Radler as we talked and listened to the talented polka band perform throughout the evening. We went back to the hotel before it got too late, and I spent more time than expected packing up, ultimately getting a few hours of sleep before our 5 am meeting for departure to the airport.

Castles!

On Sunday the hotel opened breakfast for us 45 minutes early, because Sasha came way too early in a brand new Mercedes-Benz bus to take it to the Germans' most despised tourist attraction, Neuschwanstein!

I planned to blog on the bus, but I was just too exhausted and I slept most of the trip, noticing that I almost felt the beginning of a cold coming on. I woke up when the bus came to a stop at an intersection in a town, and I noticed the time: I was supposed to already be at the ticket office picking up our tour tickets. I called them, and was relieved to learn we had an extra half hour to get there. We were there within 10 minutes.

This place was crowded with tourists so I can understand some of Germans' attitude, but on the other hand the forest, mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and castles are absolutely gorgeous so I think they should get over it. They will never know, though, because they won't go there.

Schloss Hohenschwangau

We first walked up the hill to the original castle, Schloss Hohenschwangau. It is impressive and beautifully furnished, and has great views of the surrounding countryside, and I concluded it must have been good to be the king. There were other people on our tour, though, and one tour was right after the other, so the tour didn't feel very personal and the guide stuck closely to a prepared script.

We didn't have time to grab lunch before climbing the even bigger hill to the much larger, way more elaborate and impressive, somewhat over-the-top, and never fully completed Neuschwanstein. King Ludwig was a friend and huge admirer of Richard Wagner, so the walls of every room were outlandishly painted with scenes from Wagnerian operas. The poor guy only lived there for six months before dying mysteriously. I think the Germans are still upset he bankrupt Bavarian building this extravagant place just for himself.

Views just outside of  Neuschwanstein.

At the end of the tour, we had a difficult time ushering the students out, as they all wanted to buy souvenirs. On the way out there were two souvenir shops still inside the castle, then one more right outside, all of which held us up before getting to our planned souvenir and snack shop 15 minutes walk back down the mountain. We finally got there, and I enjoyed the most delicious brat for lunch. In all the chaos we lost a student and were left with no choice but to walk down the mountain and hope we found him at the bottom. Thank goodness we did.

It was a pretty drive on the bus ride to Munich, but unfortunately I couldn't stay awake. I woke up as we entered the city and we made our way to the Arthotel Munich, our home for the next three nights. There we checked in and met up with Jeanette's daughter Erika who led us on a long walking tour of the city. (According to FitBit, I walked over 11 miles that day!)

Our tour took us to three different Catholic churches, the Marienplatz and glockenspiel at the New City Hall, and a (by this time closed) marketplace. Then we walked past the intentionally unmarked first meeting place of the National Socialist Party, the Hofbrauhaus, the Munich Residenz, the site of a failed assassination attempt on Hitler, the former headquarters of the Nazis (also not memorialized in any way), and the site of many large Nazis rallies. By the time our tour ended and we walked back toward the hotel and restaurants it was after 9 pm. The only place we found that was open was a nice Chinese restaurant, so ten of us went in and sat down for a good meal. I returned to the hotel exhausted.

Bundesliga Soccer!

Saturday was one of the most anticipated days of the trip. We took a group of students to the final match of the year for the Bundesliga teams 1899 Hoffenheim and Schalke 04. I got up just a few minutes early for my only chance to check out the hotel's salt water pools, even though I'd had a late night at the festival. Again, I found a uniquely German culture surrounding the pools. The area had two indoor pools, one of which was essentially a giant swirling aerated whirlpool bath with built in lounge chairs. There was also an outdoor pool with a bench overlooking the hills on the opposite side of the river. There was a juice bar, and the pool clientele appeared to be mostly old people socializing as they soaked. No lap swimmers here! Except maybe outside.

Headed to the Bundesliga match!

Couldn't enjoy that scene for too long, because we had to walk to the train station to take a three-leg trip to the town of Sensheim which is oddly (but for known reasons) the home of a top tier soccer team and 30 thousand seat stadium. The train ride was fairly uneventful, and as we went along there gradually came to be more and more of the opposing team's fans getting on the train. Any time we questioned when to get on or off a train, we just followed the Schalke jerseys.

I wasn't sure what we would find when we arrived at the stadium site, but the exit from the platform led to a bustling street with some businesses, a souvie stand, a bratwurst place with a beer garden, a döner stand, and a Burger King. The BK has quite handy due to the availability of free public restrooms. Clark and I ate at the döner stand with a few students, then I got a  Spaghetti-Eis from a street vendor before re-connecting with the other students to walk to Rhine-Neckar Arena. (It's ice cream made to look like a bowl of spaghetti, BTW.)

Dӧner stand in Sensheim.

Dӧner Box for lunch.

The walk to the arena went through a very odd-looking Auto and Technik Museum featuring, among other things, used concord aircrafts mounted as if they are taking off. Just past the museum, we passed under a big highway through a graffiti-covered tunnel (very German). On the other side of the tunnel, we entered into a countryside of rolling green field with a huge stadium sitting a few hundred yards away. Immediately upon exiting the tunnel, we could hear the thunderous chants of the fans coming from inside the stadium.

Due to a student issue, a few guys and I were arriving a bit later than anticipated, and it didn't help that I couldn't read the sign correctly and led us all to the wrong gate. We were turned away and directed to the right gate, entering the stands just as a bunch of flags were being taken off the field and the game began. Things continued to go wrong, as I didn't know that the seat numbers start in the middle of the stands. There I was like a pied piper leading three students up and down the aisles, interrupting fans and looking for seats 1-4. We missed the first goal by Schalke before finding our seats in the dead center of the row.

Finally we were in our seats and watched the game. It was quite cool, but the sun actually came out which I thought made the game pleasant, even though we were seated in covered stands. Schalke scored again in the first half, which was a fun goal to watch. But Hoffenheim scored and showed some life for the rest of the half and much of the second half. We saw some good soccer. Hoffenheim had a lot more opportunities than Schalke from corner kicks, but they didn't convert any. After the world's most boring halftime, play resumed. I loved the constant, rhythmic chanting of the fans, which alternated between the opposing sides, along with people in the stands dancing and waving flags (although not near us). It was almost soothing. I hoped Hoffenheim would tie it up, but near the end Schalke scored again, and the Hoffenheim sealed their own fate by scoring an own goal. Final result was 1-4. The loss wasn't unexpected, but it didn't have to be that bad.

Halftime at the match.

After the game we went out near the concession area to collect the group, and one of our students noticed that they were giving the beer away for free. Yes please! We thought it was completely un-American, but I guess the Germans don't want to waste beer. And, we guessed, fewer people drive home from the stadium. Although we benefited from free beer, our waiting was in vain because some of the students had already walked back to the train platform. Eventually we all found each other and managed to get on the correct train back.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, everything on the ride back was uneventful until we got to Heilbronn, where we had to change trains. I'll explain here in greater detail: We had about 10 minutes, so some of the students ducked into the convenience store in the train station. I swept them all out so they could get on the train, and we managed to confirm it was the right train and hurry on just as the doors were closing. That's when Clark told me that we were still missing two students who went to Subway. I quickly jumped back off, walked into the station and found the students coming toward me just as the train pulled away. They were shocked. They apologized profusely and blamed a slow Subway worker.

I knew they felt terrible, so I accepted their apology, didn't make a big deal out of it, and quickly went about trying to come up with an alternate plan. We looked at the schedules posted on the wall, which might as well have been printed in German(!) and were of no help at all. I pulled up Google Maps, and my heart sank when the only train itineraries it came up with would put us back in Schwäbisch Hall at 7:30 am the next day, an hour and a half after our bus was set to leave. Suddenly, the railworker appeared at my side, looking at me incredulously because he had been urging ne to get on the train. In the end, he was super helpful. He helped us buy tickets for an alternate route that put us back in Schwäbisch Hall by 10:30 pm.

Outside the Heilbronn train station.

We went to the Subway so the guys could sit and eat their sandwiches. They were still shocked and embarrassed and ate in near silence. Eventually one of them suggested I could eat supper and, since we had an hour to wait, I went to get a sandwich. I experienced first-hand the frustratingly slow sandwich artist! He did three or four orders at a time before completing a single sandwich. Ugh!

Before long we were back on a train and the rest of the trip was uneventful, but it proved to be a good bonding time. 

When we got back, they went straight back to the hotel while I went to see if I could find Jeanette at the final night of the Festival. No luck there, but I enjoyed some käsespätzle from a food vendor (traditional cheesy Schwäbian noodles), ran into Tom Gunst, saw the procession of the salzherstellers (even larger than the night before), walked around the carnival ride area (which they don't call carnival rides), watched an animated marionette play which was completely in German, and walked a good way past the festival along the river on the path through the park. It was way too late to be out, but it was my last chance to take in Schwäbisch Hall. 

Covered bridge leading to the festival grounds.

Käsespätzle. I accidentally forgot to have onions added, because I wasn't sure what it was or if it cost extra.

Some of the festival rides and games.

Schwäbisch Hall pt. 3

Friday morning we took a city bus back to the industrial area to visit Recaro, directly across the street from the Southwestern American Bar & Grill. Recaro is one of the leading manufacturers of airline seating, though we determined their products are not used in KLM 747s (so I'm not sitting in one as I type.) There we had a presentation by the head of Logistics and another employee before taking a tour of the factory. More about this tour later.

Following Recaro, our HHN colleague Birgit coordinated our travel by city bus to the Bausparkasse, Schwäbisch Hall's most famous institution. This is a very large bank which handles all of the mortgage loans throughout Germany. While there we didn't visit with anyone from the bank or learn about the business - we were only there to have lunch in their lunchroom, compliments of HHN, with the German students. It was a nice, served, set menu lunch (asparagus once again!).

Jeanette and I pose with the Schwaebisch Hall town mascot
after lunch at the Bausparkasse

After lunch we quickly went across the street the HHN for the next-to-last student deliverable of the course: presentations by the HHN and IU students together. It was a long afternoon with six presentations lasting a half hour each. Our students did really well, in spite of some frustrations about the direction their German teammates wanted to take, as well as the slides they added. But of course all the presentations were great to see. Our students were complemented on they great presentation style, and I thought they did well with Q&A. The Germans overcame their fear of speaking English in front of a large group and managed to work through the American-style interruptions for questions. Everyone was challenged and learned a lot, and it was rewarding to see everything come together after months of planning. I sat next to Max, a really nice German student who works for HHN and wasn't able to get into the class. We enjoyed getting to know each other throughout the afternoon. After the presentations we took group photos before Jeanette, Clark, and I went to the rooftop patio with Jason, Birgit, and Frank to take in the views and bask in the day's success. 

Panoramic view of the Bausparkasse and Schwaebisch Hal from the HHN Rooftop.

That evening, the six of us went to dinner at a great German food restaurant near the river, which is related to the local brewery. Our party kept crowing, and the table grew more crowded as we were joined by another HHN faculty member Joachim Vogt, a HHN administrator Sven and his girlfriend, and Tom and Tanja. Drinks were flowing and we had a great time as locals came in and out with their dogs.

Dinner restaurant.

Eventually the heavy rain stopped and we moved the party outside to the Kuchen und Brunnenfest along the river next to the beer garden. I got a Nutella and banana crepe from a food vendor, then we all stood around and talked* and laughed and shared wine (as is the custom) while the band played classic American rock (and some Irish music) until the salt makers (salzherstellers) marched down in full costume playing drums and horns. We pretty much closed the festival down that night, and that's when I realized Jeanette was right: we would fall in love with Schwäbisch Hall.

Wine stand at the festival, appropriately capped with a rooster.

* In one conversation, Tanja explained the meaning of the festival to me. Apparently, there was a mill on the river near where we were standing. One night, hundreds of years ago, there was a fire. A rooster awakened the salt makers who were able to put out the fire before it burned down the mill. The mayor, in his gratitude, promised to give a cake to the salt makers during a big celebration, and annually to this day a large cake is brought out from the city hall to be presented to the (now ceremonial) salt makers in a big ceremony on the final night of the festival. None of this was clear to me following my Internet research into the festival. All I knew was that the festival had something to do with cake, salt, and roosters and that people in costume marched around by the river. I'm eternally grateful for Tanja's explanation.

Frank, Tanja, Clark, Jeanette, Tom, and I enjoying the Festival.

Schwäbisch Hall pt. 2

Thursday in Schwäbisch Hall started out cool and grey, with light rain. Sasha picked us up in the bus and took us to a nearby town for our first company visit of the day, at Kärcher. I really enjoyed the visit - we had a presentation by a good tour guide, who didn't mind sharing her own experience and opinions, followed by a tour of the factory floor. It was all very interesting, and I will write more about it later.

Sasha then drove us back to the industrial area of Schwäbisch Hall, the location of our next two visits. The plan was to have lunch on our own in the area, but we didn't see many options. We went as a group to the "American" restaurant, the Southwestern Grill. It was pretty kitschy - a few American flags and Mexican blankets on the walls, along with other paraphernalia and I think wagon wheels. They were good to serve us all in a short time, but everyone was a little amused because nothing came out quite as expected. Most people tried to order burgers without mayo. Most of those orders came out then with no mayo on the plate with the fries, but with mayo still on the burgers. Also, people got the wrong sized burgers and were charged different amounts, but we all were fed.

Jeanette's friends had all begged us not to go there, claiming it was only a place people would eat after a long night of drinking, but since it was the only place we could find we took a chance on it.

After lunch, we walked to Klafs, the world leader in the construction of luxury saunas. We had a tour of the factory led by the head of sales, followed by a visit to the show room and then a Q&A in the fully functional sauna where they demonstrate their products to their commercial clients and wealthiest customers. Most everything was turned off, and of course we were clothed, but we learned all about how the Germans experience a proper sauna and our mostly American students thought it was odd that the salesman would use the sauna with the clients. True, he's one of the few people I've ever met in a respectable occupation who is usually naked with his clients. He says he always makes a sale, though! More about Klafs later.

Next we walked around the corner to Mobil Gunst, the furniture store owned by Tom Gunst. Tom and Tanja met us there to tell us about the business and lead tours. Helga also showed up to say hello. This is a true Mittelstand company, and Tom is the fourth generation owner. He is a salesman and loves talking about furniture. Things ran long, but we finally  concluded our business visits for the day. More about their business later.

By this time it had stopped raining, fortumately, and the plan was to walk back to our hotel in the center of town. We decided to stop at the train station along the way to buy train tickets for the the upcoming Saturday. It turned out to be a very long and somewhat stressful walk. Jeanette was walking very quickly and the group got spread out. I had a map of the most direct route pulled up on my phone and I wanted to discuss it with Jeanette but I could never catch her. We came to a major intersection which I thought would be my chance, but she didn't actually stop and headed off in the direction I didn't want to go. As we were standing there shouting at each other about which way to go (due to distance), Tanja showed up to give us some Gunst pens they forgot to distribute, and she confirmed I could walk the route on my phone. Meanwhile, motorists were angry that we were standing next the the crosswalk and not crossing, so I finally decided to just go my own way. The students with me followed, and poor Clark went with Jeanette feeling like his parents had just gotten a divorce.

Suddnly, Tanja appeared again to talk more in-depth about the route we should take, and she pulled a map out of her car and gave it to me to be sure we didn't get lost. Helpful, but we lost valuable time in our race down the big hill against the other group. As we walked down the path, we stopped to admire some huge snails. Super cool...  then we started walking again, and Jeanette was texting me to say she was going to the train station, not the hotel. I was texting back to tell her that's where we were going, when I heard the most horrible crunch under my feet and gasps from the students. Let's just say: people should not text and walk. Finally we made it to the bottom of the hill and saw Jeanette's group about a block away. Rather than wait for us, they turned and headed across the road to the train station, where we were finally reunited.

As we tried to figure out the train tickets, Tanya showed up again, followed by Helga and Till. It was funny that they kept appearing at every turn, but it's a good thing they did because Helga spoke to the conductor and figured out which was the least expensive ticket we should buy.

Finally this chaos was over, and I was worn out from five days of work. Everyone made dinner plans and disbursed into Schwäbisch Hall while I decided to have time by myself and walked back to the hotel. I headed to the sauna to relax and experience the health benefits of the German Sauna. The sauna area was pretty large, including a seating area, showers, steam room, cold tank, foot baths, four saunas of varying temperatures, a quiet relaxation room, and an outdoor seating room with a smoking area (of course). I tried it all out, excluding the steam room and smoking, alternating between hot and cold as is the custom. It was nice, but we learned that in order to have a proper experience one needs at least a few hours in the sauna. I only had an hour and fifteen minutes before closing. Thursday was supposed to be men's day in the sauna, so I thought it was a little strange that there were two women using the sauna and a woman attendant. It wasn't until I had been there an hour that I discovered the Panorama Sauna upstairs, which was that day's men's only section. Here there were two whirlpool baths, two or three more saunas, another quiet room and a second outdoor seating area, much of which had views over the river to the city center and hills beyond.

Once the sauna closed, I spent a little time exploring the hotel, the floor plan of which I found pretty confusing. The Solbad (sauna and pool area) was actually separate from the hotel but attached. As I was trying to figure out the pool area, I stepped out onto the rooftop sunbathing area where I soon found myself locked out, on the roof. Just before panicking, the attendant entered the hall and I got her attention through the open window so she could let me in. She also let me back into the hotel, where I eventually found the fitness room and did a brief workout before wrapping up the night checking email in the hotel bar.

Interim Post

I promised to write something today. I started to, but I was so exhausted that I used most of the time on the bus to sleep. So for now, a photo from today.

About to tour Neuschwanstein.

Schwäbisch Hall pt. 1

On Wednesday we connected with our bus driver Sasha, a guy not much older than our students. He drove us out of Stuttgart to the headquarters of Würth Group, where we toured the warehouse floor and meet with the Chairman, who is a Kelley alumnus. This was the first time we met our German colleagues and their students from Hochschule Heilbronn - Schwäbisch Hall, who joined us for the tour. Following lunch at Würth, we accidentally drove in a circle before taking a road to Schwäbisch Hall which passed under the highest bridge in Europe. I don't even know how big it is, but it's certainly impressive.

We checked into Hotel Hohenlohe in Schwäbisch Hall, which was very nice. My room was on the ground floor so the view wasn't much. I looked out onto a lawn, some trees and a street with some historic buildings so it was fine, but not as fantastic as what I would have seen from an upper floor.

Very quickly we departed on a city walking tour with Jeanette's friend Heidi. We were running late, so unfortunately we rushed through the tour and didn't get as much time or information as I would have liked. Schwäbisch Hall is a beautiful Medieval city of about 40,000 people in an a scenic river valley. Only a couple of the original city gates remain, and one was right next to the hotel. We walked down along the river, across, past the apartment where Jeanette used to live, and up the hill to the Marktplats and the famous church. We quickly looked inside the church before the students met up with their German counterparts for the evening. Along the way, we learned some of the town's long history, primarily as it relates to their traditional production of salt.

That night, Jeanette, Clark, and I joined her friend Frank from HHN and Jason, our faculty colleague from HHN for dinner at the home of Jeanette's friend Helga Gunst and her family. The family includes Katya, whom we met earlier at Würth where she works, her brother Tom, his partner Tanja, and their son Till. Helga has a nice and neat German home with a beautiful garden overlooking the forested valley. It goes without saying that the hospitality was wonderful. We began with some sparkling wine in the garden, eventually moving inside for the home-made dinner. We enjoyed delicious Schwäbian dishes - the local ravioli in soup, and local asparagus with ham, pancakes, and Holandaise. There was plenty of wine, and good conversation highlighted by Frank's telling jokes in the Schwäbisch dialect, translated by Jeanette and hilariously reiterated by Frank in English. The point of the story was that some things are very hard to explain. Finally we went back to the hotel, tired after a long day but really happy.

Stuttgart

The soccer match has ended, and we're on the train back to Schwäbisch Hall. Unfortunate result for the home team, as expected. I think the final score could have been closer, because they had some decent play, but some mistakes by the GK and an own goal led to a 4-1 Schalke win. I'll write more later about what a great experience it was, but first: a review of our time in Stuttgart.

We sent the students on a scavenger hunt before checking into the hotel so they could become familiar with the city. Of course everyone was dead tired, and it was unseasonably warm but they saw some sites and generally enjoyed it. We checked in, unfortunately getting sick with some smoking rooms (and I had no view), before heading out to visit the Robert Bosch House, which now houses the Bosch Foundation - the primary stock holder of the company Bosch. It was a beautiful old Italianate home on a hill overlooking the city and was technologically advanced for its time. We climbed to the tower above the fourth floor for great views of the area, including the Mercedes-Benz Museum and stadium. The adjacent building was a modern architecture gem built just ten years ago.

After Bosch, we made our way back down to the center of the city and had an amazing group dinner near the Schlossplatz. It was a really quaint  restaurant, too. Unfortunately, the smokers on the patio outside our open window sat all evening discussing literature. Welcome to Germany! Our table was super tired and quiet, so it was nice to get back to the hotel and into bed.

I realize I'm missing some nice scenery as I type, and my battery is running low, so I guess I will have to take a break from writing.
...
And an interesting break it was! We were transferring trains in Heilbronn and had about eight minutes. I borrowed a power bank from a student, which allows me to continue writing. Anyway, a bunch of students ducked into a convenience store to grab snacks. Three minutes before the train was to leave, I rounded everyone up while Clark and I were trying to confirm we were getting on the right train. As the door was closing Clark told me we had students in Subway. I immediately jumped off, and found them walking toward me just as the train pulled away. The befuddled railway employee helped us find another (and the last) route to get back to Schwäbisch Hall and purchase tickets. We ate our Subway sandwiches and are once again on the train which - assuming we don't mess up the next connection - will put us back an hour and a half after everyone else.

Tuesday we went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. It's across the road from the headquarters and the plant where they manufacture all of their emgines, and it's in a beautiful, award-winning contemporary building. The attention to design was amazing and might have been satisfying enough even without the exhibits - but the exhibits! We saw the world's first two automobiles, along with the world's first bus and first truck. All kinds of awesome cars were arranged chronologically, along with special exhibits of celebrity cars, race cars, and concept cars. It was a really amazing, and we had nice tours in English. I recommend this museum to anyone.

From there we went to nearby Ludwigsburg to find lunch on our own. I had a nice döner lunch with Clark, followed by a coffee on Marktplatz. The group re-convened at the palace, Schloss Ludwigsburg. We had another tour in English of the large, beautiful palace, seeing the queen's apartment, the theatre, church, and several other rooms. In all there are hundreds of rooms: in its prime, the palace housed five royal family members and 1500 servants! After the students disbursed, Clark, Jeanette, and I walked in the light rain around the edge of the gardens before returning to Stuttgart.

That evening we had a late dinner (salads) before they walked with me to drop me of at a gay bar in an "interesting" area of town. It was a cute little place, what we would call a neighborhood bar, with a fair amount of American pop culture decor and plenty of cigarette smoke. The bar was in a traditional German timber construction building. I enjoyed a local pilsner (as much as one can enjoy a pilsner) and mostly sat by myself. Eventually a Czech guy said hello and we tried to chat with the help of the iTranslate app, but that was only somewhat successful and soon I went back to the hotel to sleep.

I'm Not Dead...

Take two... I already wrote a couple paragraphs of this post, but it wasn't saved.

I can't believe it's my sixth day in Germany and I haven't written a single real blog post. If it weren't for a few Facebook posts, people might assume I have dropped off the face of the earth. I'm still here, but I have been super busy and having I'm having a great time. I'm now on the train to the Hoffenheim 1899 Bundesliga match with Shalke 04, so I have time to write.

Itinerary Overview:

After taking a Sunday bus to O'Hare, we made it through the rediculous security line and boarded the flight to Amsterdam. I tried to sleep on the flight, and did a little, but I was in the back row of the plane in a seat that didn't recline. It was pretty uncomfortable. The landing was so smoothe, though, I didn't actually realize we were on the ground until the plane stopped. We landed in Stuttgart Monday morning and took a train to the main station, where our hotel was located. We walked around the city center and got some lunch before or first visit that afternoon.

Tuesday morning we went to a museum (more later) before making a day trip to Ludwigsburg. It was rainy, but well worth the trip. Wednesday morning we had a difficult time connecting with our charter bus on the busy street in front of the hotel, and we assumed all of the locals were getting a kick out of watching us.

The bus took us first to a nice company visit at Würth Group, then on to the Medieval city of Schwäbisch Hall. It is gorgeous and we had a way-too-short walking tour of the historic city. That evening we met our colleagues at Hochschule Heilbronn Schwäbisch Hall campus, as well as the friends of my Kelley colleague Jeanette. We went to the lovely home of Helga Gunst for homemade German food (delicious and filling!), good conversation, wine, and a lot of laughter.

Thursday was full with three company visits and a long walk down a big hill back to the city center. While everyone else went to dinner, I took advantage of some quiet time to myself and had an authentic German sauna experience at the hotel. After a quick, light workout I went to the hotel bar to catch up on email. (Intention was to blog, but I didn't get to it!)

Friday morning we had another business visit, followed by lunch with our German colleagues and an afternoon of presentations by our U.S. and German students in their combined teams. It was the academic culmination of the trip, and the end result of a big experiment which ended up going really well. Last night my colleagues Jeanette, Clark and I met with other German friends in a German food restaurant for more great conversation and socializing. When the rain stopped we went out to the annual local Kuchen und Brunnenfest and had an amazing time with lots of laughs.

This morning I managed to enjoy 15 minutes in the salt baths at the hotel before breakfast and meeting students to walk to the train station. We're now only three minutes away from the stadium. The game starts in 2 1/2 hours! It's cool and overcast, but so far not raining.

More later!

I'm exhausted!

We landed in Stuttgart around 10:30 this morning, and had a full day. It was unseasonably warm, but generally pleasant for walking all over.

Let's just say I'm really tired and well-fed.

Maultaschen and spaetzle.

Der Schwabenpfeil

Zerrupfter Kaiserschmarrn

On Our Way!

We are three hours into our drive to the airport in Chicago. I'm probably too tired to travel, still trying to recover from year-end activities and last weekend's concert. But I'm excited about our itinerary and the people with whom I'm traveling. We will meet eight more students at the airport, and then the real work begins - handing out stuff, checking in 27 people, getting through security, and getting on the plane. I will be able to relax a little once we're in the air.

I will miss Barry and our dogs. I can't imagine how big our puppy Rufus will be when I get home.