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.