May 12, 2016 Day 6:
Today was an incredibly early start for us. We had to be in the lobby at 6:50 and leave by 7. We went to LEAR, what I thought was a car seating company. When we got there, a gentleman gave a presentation on who LEAR distributes to and some economics of the company. What I noticed was the two men presenting mostly talked about the technological components of the company and innovating in that. They didn't seem to talk about seating at all, and that confused me.
Next we went to different parts of the factory to see how they did things. We started at the final production line, where we saw how they finish up some of the circuit boards before they ship them to the auto companies. Again, I saw no seating, but what we saw was pretty neat. They have to have workers put together the parts; robots can't do everything.
We next went around the sound testing facilities. This turned out to be one of my favorite, if not my favorite, part of the tour. We sat in a room of speakers where they played "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble, and it sounded incredible. The guy there said what we were hearing was what it was supposed to sound like in the car. They do many tests in order to ensure the audio quality in the car was the best. He then showed us a car they were testing, which had interesting patterns on it. We then got to the best part. Our guide let us sit in a Mercedes-Benz and listen to the acoustics. It was so incredibly comfortable and luxurious, it's easy to see why it's produced at $100K starting price. Though the business side was not that interesting to me, the technical side fascinated me and I wish I could have looked at the machines longer.
We got back on the bus to go to Nurnberg. I wasn't sure how I would like it, since we were doing another tour, but I ended up loving it. I love the buildings and bridges, the styles of architecture go so well together. Again, the culture of the city astounds me, and its history is even better. To think that some of the buildings there survived the bombing in world war II fascinated me. It is truly a fantastic feat.
After our tour we got to go to a restaurant that has Nurnberg sausages. Once again, I ate a meal I wouldn't usually like and it turned out to be delicious. I had Spezi for the first time also, and it too was delicious. It was a mix of Coke and Tanta, which is a strange combination but really good. I am very happy I am eating and trying more foods to further broaden my spectrum of food to eat.
Nurnberg is definitely a place I want to go back to one day. I would like to see the shops and street market when it is in full season, because I think it would be a great sight to see. So far, this has been my favorite sight on the trip, and I hope I can post pictures soon.