A Great Day for Ruben Once Again

Well Rubén had another top experience today when we both took the BMW factory tour. You don't even have to be a car enthusiast to appreciate the precision, design and cutting-edge technologies that the factory uses to make the cars. Most of the cars they produce at this location (there are maybe 8-10 plants worldwide?) are created from start to finish in the 5 story building, except for one high tech engine transported from another factory. First we saw the steel press room that cut and pressed large sheets of steel into car doors and other parts. Then we saw a few welding areas where massive robots (maybe 25 ft high) all converged on a car at once to perform up to 100 welds in 1 minute. Sparks went flying! Later we saw the robots paint the car bodies with a fine mist of paint with positively charged ions, while the car was made to have negatively charged ions so the paint adhered better. Then they got fitted with their engines and interiors. Another thing was that while this plant only did two models of cars, there were many variations of car doors, upgraded versions and sunroofs, etc. and they were totally mixed up in the line! The robots and workers just changed tools when a different model passed them. It really was amazing to see how efficient and sophisticated the plant was!

Then we got back on the Autobahn to travel about 5 hrs to the Rhineland. But on our way we had the interesting experience of not being able to find an open restaurant! We stopped at 5 in cities of various sizes until we hit the jackpot. Some didn't open until 6 and some just seemed to be closed because the owners had other plans! But we saw many beautiful, fairytale-like villages in our way through. Many half timbered buildings, old downtowns and churches that seem ancient. But at the same time, as we went we along, dotted between these sleepy looking villages were major industrial plants, factories and rail lines. And the roads are full of semis hauling goods. There is a huge amount of industry in Germany, even in the country!

Our next two days will be in the town of Bacharach, on the Rhine river. Our hotel is stately and creaky, but very comfortable. The Rhine river is famous for its medieval castles all along its banks that used to charge merchants for going through "their" part of the river. We will see many tomorrow on our Rhine cruise, but we have one right out our window! Bacharachs castle is now a youth hostel, and we have a perfect view to it out our window.

One last thing: you know toilets vary throughout the world, and Europes seem to be unique in the fact that rather than a little handle to flush, you have a large button on the wall above it. It's neat because the button is usually divided and you can flush with varying degrees of pressure and water in relation to your needs, saving water. But Ruben has pointed out that as the bathrooms get smaller...the buttons get bigger! Crazy!