May 14

We were all excited to go to the Neuschwanstein Castle on Day 12 especially now that we no longer had to worry about our projects. We began our trip by leaving the hotel at about 9 and we arrived at about 10:30. We checked out the gift shop real quick before we began a long uphill walk. After a good bit we had finally made it to our first stopping point (slightly out of breath). There was a deck which had a pretty good view of the castle and we decided it was a good place to take a group picture. There was also a “bridge” on the other side where there was a beautiful view of the area. After getting a good look at the views we began our walk to our next stop. It was a bridge with the popular, recognizable view of the back of the castle. It was incredible to see how the castle looks over the cliffs. The only problem was that the bridge was very crowded and it kind of sketched me out (although it was definitely worth it). The nest thing on our agenda was the tour of the inside of the Neuschwanstein Castle. The journey there was rather long as well, but it was not without some pretty amazing views. The tour itself was rather interesting because of the stories about the king who had the castle built. He was definitely an intriguing man although rather crazy and his interest in swans was rather strange. The tour was actually surprisingly short and unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures. I was not too disappointed though because the inside was unimpressive compared to the outside of the castle. After the tour we were done at Neuschwanstein and the next thing was to go to the small town of Füssen for lunch. A few of us could not wait to eat so we grabbed some bratwurst sandwiches quickly. They were delicious and really hit the spot. Still hungry, we were ready to eat in Füssen. It was a cool, little city and we were excited to find a kebab place where we could get döner again. After Füssen we went to this cool church in the middle of nowhere. It was super nice and some great paintings and architecture. I just couldn’t believe it was so nice considering the surrounding area. After a long day we had planned a group dinner as our last planned activity. We went to the fancy Ratskeller and everyone was there, all the Germans and Americans together for the last time. It was really a bittersweet dinner. I had the schnitzel again and I thought it was better this time. Many of us didn’t want it to end, so we headed to the brewery to just hang out together. It was really a memorable day.

May 13

Day 11 was the day where we put all of the work we put in to the test. Our project group got together in the morning before our 12 o clock meeting at Mensa. We put the finishing touches on our presentation of KUKA and went through a couple of practice run-throughs to make sure we have the information and time down. After we got it all down, we headed for our lunch at Mensa. After we finished our brain food it was time for our presentations. Our group got lucky as we got to present first and get it out of the way. The presentation itself wasn’t too bad because I felt that I was well-prepared, but I was happy to have it over with and not have to worry about it anymore. All that was left for me to do was sit back and watch the rest of the groups present their projects. I was impressed that everyone seemed to have done their work and know their stuff really well. Also, the group seemed to very attentive as there were plenty of questions asked. We were all happy to be done and ready to eat some dinner. We went to a little place that is right by the University of Augsburg campus. It was there that I had schnitzel for the first time. It wasn’t exactly mind-blowing, but it was still very good. After a tough day, we were all ready for the rest of our stay in Germany to be like a vacation.

May 12

One the agenda for Day 10 was a trip to the city of Ulm. This was a very cool day from the beginning because we got to make the commute in a bullet train in order to make the trip quicker. The train accelerated slowly but eventually got up to 199 km/h. After about a 45 minute ride, we arrived in Ulm. Soon after we began our tour of the city. Once we got out of the main square, we got to go through some of the other city streets and see all kinds of old buildings and they were really cool and interesting. An especially interesting building was the old, crooked hotel. I was surprised that it was special enough that people would pay top dollar to stay there even though the floors are slanted and the rooms aren’t particularly nice. We also got to walk along the city wall and see the nice view, but the main attraction for our visit was the Münster tower. The plan was to walk through the main floor, which is a church and then go to lunch and climb the tower afterward. For lunch we went to a nice Italian restaurant. The food was delicious and I was surprised to learn that it was actually owned by Germans and not Italians. Many of us had decided it would be a good idea to try to eat a whole pizza before our climb of the tower. A few of us (not me) were able to complete both impressive tasks. After lunch most of us were able to make it to the top of the tallest church in the world. It was a tiring and scaring climb, but it was definitely worth seeing the view. After the tower, we had some free time to walk around the city and get some gelato. This marked the end of our time in Ulm, so we took the bullet train (which broke down for about a half hour) back to Augsburg for the night. For dinner, we revisited the biergarten and it was just as good as the first time. In summary, it was awesome to see Ulm as it was probably my favorite city to visit.

May 11

For the beginning of Day 9 we stayed in Augsburg with a short tram ride to the Fraunhofer Institute. While there, we learned all about the kinds of different research projects that they do there and the things they are working on. The Institute conducts research with many large companies in Augsburg including some of the companies we are looking at in our industry analysis. After this we got to take a tour of the institute to see what they do first-hand. After our tour we journeyed to the university for lunch at Mensa. Following our lunch we departed for Munich for our visit at Hospital University of Munich. We began our visit by listening to a presentation concerning some of the things that they are doing at the hospital. It was cool to see the advanced technologies that they have. After the presentation we got to take a tour of different parts of the hospital. After our tour of Siemens Healthcare and seeing the MRI machines, it was interesting to see them in an actual hospital being used. I would say that this “company” visit was one of the more interesting ones that we had. After the tour, we headed back to Augsburg for the day where we would be on our own for dinner this time. After arriving at the hotel, I rested and did a little bit of work before heading downtown for dinner. We went to a small kebab place to get some döner because everyone had been raving about it. After a few bites of the döner I had realized that it lived up to the hype. It is a type of Greek food with lamb meat; it is very similar so a gyro and it is delicious. We didn’t do much the rest of the night as we decided to just relax.

May 10

On Day 8 we had more of a somber day with our visit to Dachau and movie night. The first thing on the list was Dachau and we arrived there around 11. Our tour of the camp started shortly after. It was a very interesting experience to see what one of the camps was like for the first time. At first I was surprised at how big the camp was, but I realized that there were over 20,000 prisoners there and it didn’t seem so big. Walking around the camp and through the buildings was a fascinating yet saddening experience. It played such an important but tragic part of history. The tour was made even more educational thanks to our excellent tour guide. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to genuinely care about the information that he provided to us. The most interesting part and the part that I will always remember was walking through the gas chambers and crematorium. Even though the chambers in this camp had never been used, the feeling you got from walking through there was still very powerful. It was an was an eye-opening experience and it made you wonder how anything like that could ever happen. It was also interesting to see the bunker, so we could get a feel for what the rooms that held the special prisoners were like. The other activity scheduled was pizza and a movie called "The Lives of Others". The movie didn’t exactly lift us up as it wasn’t an incredibly happy one. However, I did think the movie was very good. I also got to learn from it because I knew nothing about the Stasi before watching. All in all, it wasn’t exactly “Sunday Funday”, but it was still a good day.

May 9

On Day 7 we started bright and early on a Saturday morning. After breakfast we began our trip to Munich for what would be a full day. Shortly after our arrival, we had a good, two hour tour of the city. We were able to see much of what the city has to offer. Without even being there very long I discovered what a fascinating city that Munich is. I also noticed how different it was from Augsburg. Munich is a much busier city, always full of tourists unlike Augsburg. However, we did go on a day in which the local soccer team, Bayern München, had a game which likely contributed to the busyness. Anyway, I wouldn’t say that I had one favorite part of the tour, but I enjoyed the Frauenkirche, Hofbräuhaus, the random Michael Jackson shrine, and just walking the streets of the city. The tour ended around 1:00 and we were given about 6 hours of free time before dinner to eat and explore the city. So, we branched off into smaller groups to do whatever we pleased. The first thing my group did was go to the market area to get some lunch. Eventually we found a little sausage place which turned out to be delicious. Next, we began exploring which mostly included shopping. After a couple hours of this, we chose to take a break and get some gelato. We passed by a few places until we found one with a bunch of different flavors. After a wonderful gelato break, we used our remaining free time for shopping and exploring. The end of our free time meant that it was time for dinner. For dinner we went to a burger restaurant called Hans Im Glück. The place was very interesting and seemed to be going for some kind of natural theme. There were fake trees everywhere that stretched from floor to ceiling, even through the tables. In addition the ingredients were natural and fresh and they offered a whole grain option for a bun. The important part is that the burgers were very good. Overall it was a good day and it was nice to have free time somewhere other than Augsburg.

May 8

On the agenda for Day 6 was the last of the 4 company visits, the trip to SGL. The SGL visit was different from the others as it did not include a factory tour. It consisted of 2 approximately one hour long presentations, a little tour around an area that included some of the products they contribute to, then lunch. It was interesting to learn about the things that SGL does since it was probably the company that I knew least about coming in to the program. We were also able to learn all about carbon fiber and its uses, which I had no prior knowledge of. This was cool because we learned about what the future might be like with the product. The best part was seeing the products made with carbon fiber like the car door, and how light it was. After arriving back in Augsburg at the hotel we had some down time, which most of us used to work on our projects or blogs. Then, many of us enjoyed a trip to likely the coolest place we have eaten so far, the biergarten, for dinner. The food was great, but I think it was the atmosphere that made the place special. It was basically a large picnic area in the middle of the woods and it awesome. This was definitely one of the best days so far.

May 7

The schedule for Day 5 included solely the company visit to KUKA and lunch at the University of Augsburg cafeteria, which meant we were able to sleep in. This day was important for me though because my project group is assigned to KUKA. The beginning of our visit was a short slideshow presentation and our group was able to ask the lady some questions in order to help with our project. Then, we took a tour around the large production facilities in the KUKA plant. We got to see how the parts of the robots are made, which was cool because they are made by other KUKA robots. We also received a tour of the testing area. We got to see all the different tests the robots are put through in order to make sure that they are in good, working condition before they are sent out. I was impressed by the fact that KUKA claims .01mm repeatability for their robots. After our tour, we got to walk around to different stations where KUKA engineers showed and explained to us some of the things that the robots are capable of. I was most impressed by the technology used to make human-robot interaction safer. It had sensors that move with the robot so that if something comes within a certain distance of the robot, it will stop working. The end of our visit included another short presentation with a question and answer portion. After the visit, my project group and I got together for dinner and began working on the project.

May 6

We kicked off Day 4 with our long bus ride to Nuremburg. Our first activity of the day was a tour of the city. We were able to see and hear some of the many things that the city has to offer including a few castles, the city square and its large church, and others. We also got quick lessons about the famous food that can be found in the city including the sausage and lebkuchen, which is a type of bread with ginger and other spices. We were also lucky enough to see the clock in the city square when the little people were playing their instruments. My favorite thing to see was the view from the first castle we visited. I would say that Nuremburg was my favorite city to visit so far because there are so many cool things to see and it seemed to have many great places to eat. Speaking of places to eat, the next thing on our agenda was lunch. I’m not sure of the name of the restaurant, but it was where I first tried the pig shoulder. It was delicious, but very hard eat to all of it and I had to at least come close, which I finally did about 10 minutes after everyone else was done eating. With a very full stomach I was ready to move on to the tour of Siemens. It was cool to see the advanced medical equipment they had and the incredible things they are able to do with it. After quite a bit of learning, our planned activities were over.

May 5

Day 3 marked the beginning of our company visits with our tour of BMW in Munich. Before we were given a tour of the factory, we were able to visit BMW world and the BMW museum. Looking around at luxury cars, old and new, was definitely a good way to start the day. Although the museum was cool too, I found BMW world more interesting. Perhaps the most interesting was the factory tour. We were able to see the steps BMW takes to make their famous cars. My favorite part of the factory tour would have to be seeing the tasks that the robots were able to perform, I especially liked watching them apply the paint. After close to 3 miles of walking the tour was over and we headed back to Augsburg to visit a BMW dealership. It was cool to see how some of the cars are distributed after we just saw how they are manufactured. It was also interesting to learn that the typical buying process in America is different from that of Germany. Germans tend to prefer to order the car and wait for it to be made exactly how they want it, while Americans usually choose the best car available for purchase off the floor, so they can have it right away. After a long day of learning, we chose to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

May 4

After a good night’s sleep, we were all ready to take on Day 2. After breakfast we headed to the University of Augsburg to meet up with our project groups for the first time and begin our work, which included a small, 5 minute presentation to introduce our companies to the rest of the group. Next, we were given a quick tour of the campus which was surprisingly small, but very nice. Then, we split up into groups which combined American students with German students and went off into the city to complete a scavenger hunt set up by grad students who plan on attending the University of Pittsburgh in the fall. I must admit I had low expectations for the scavenger hunt, but it was surprisingly fun (especially considering my group won). We were able to see some new things in the city that weren’t part of yesterday’s tour and revisit a few. My favorite of these was the view from the top of the Perlach tower. It had a beautiful view of the city and you could even see the Alps way off in the distance, which apparently is not always possible. It was well worth all of the steps we had to climb. After a full day and plenty of walking we stuffed our faces full of delicious food at an Italian restaurant. 

May 3

On our first day in Germany, we arrived in the Munich airport at about 7 in the morning. After getting our luggage, we got to spend our first couple hours or so in the country waiting for the bus to Augsburg which was certainly interesting. After we arrived in Augsburg and got ourselves settled, we journeyed into downtown for a tour of the city. We were able to see some of the best things the city has to offer such as: the Fuggerai, the City Hall and its gold room, a cathedral (not sure of its name), and other areas of the City. The end of the scheduled activities was dinner at Kahnfahrt (could be wrong about the name). The food was great and it was cool to meet the German students for the first time and learn about their culture and different perspectives. I would say that my favorite thing that I saw on the tour of the city was the gold room because it was very fascinating and really catches the eye (even though I feel asleep there). It was interesting to see how different a German city is from an American city. German cities seem much more laid back, have less tall buildings, older-looking, cleaner, and more natural compared to American cities. All in all, I was surprised that I was able to have a good time considering how tired I was.