Audi Day!

First of all, I need to rave about how nice the Hilton Munich Airport Hotel was. It was really first class and super convenient, just a short walk from the airport. The bed was super comfortable, and we got a great night's sleep. It was super soundproof; despite its location at the airport, we never heard a plane! Brock loved the pool and sauna. And the breakfast buffet was amazing - everything you could possibly imagine and more. It was included with our room. We really appreciated Audi covering the tab for us.

Here is a photo of the entrance to the Hilton Munich Airport Hotel:

After enjoying the amazing breakfast buffet, we checked out and met our driver, Phon, who drove us to the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt, Germany. This drive took about 40 minutes.

Audi has a large factory complex in Ingolstadt. We were one of about 300 couples taking delivery of our new car today! Of those 300, an average of 4 per day are American, and most of the rest are German. They greeted us in a very nice building which included 3 restaurants and snack bars, an Audi Shop, a museum, and the large area where the cars are received. It was all very professionally done.

In this photo, our car is the convertible to the left of us:

The new car, yet to be named, is an Audi A5 Cabriolet. The color is difficult to see, but it's called "Moonlight Blue" and it's metallic:

We were delighted by it! The salesman spent about an hour with us going over all the features. When we were done, we parked it outside and went back in to check out the Audi Store. Before we knew it, it was time for the Audi Factory tour.

The tour lasted 2 hours and was simply amazing. We had never seen anything like it before. We toured the body shop and the final assembly plant. We watched pieces of unrecognizable metal get shaped, welded, joined, and quickly turned into a car. About 90% of the process is done by robots. Most of the work done by people is at the very end. The process was fascinating to watch. The factory produces about 2,500 cars per day, and during our two hour tour, about 200 high quality cars were produced! The robots were capable of adjusting their work depending upon what car they were working on; we saw an A2 being worked on, followed by an A3. In other words, the line was producing multiple types of cars, each one made to order.

If you ever get a chance to come to Germany, we highly encourage you to take this tour! It will provide you an example of a highly efficient manufacturing facility, and it was fascinating!

After our tour, we had time to go through the Audi museum, which presented examples of Audi vehicles going back from the early 1930's to present. Here is a futuristic looking Audi race car:

We have so much luggage with us that we almost had to carry it like this car is:

I bet you didn't know that Audi used to make motorcycles! We thought these looked pretty cool, suspended from the ceiling:

We were sorry to leave Ingolstadt, but it was time for another adventure. So we fired up our navigation system, which led us to our next destination, the Hotel Filser in Fussen, Germany. Our reason for going here is to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle in Fussen tomorrow. This is a beautiful, small hotel in a quiet part of town. From our balcony, we have a beautiful view of the mountains, and we can even see the Castle! They also have a very nice dining room, where we enjoyed a reasonably priced and delicious dinner!

Here is a view of the front of the hotel:

Here is a view from our balcony - lovely!

OK, it's time for me to sign off now. More tomorrow!