Audi Manufacturing Plant & Arrive In Munich

Once again this morning we packed up the coaches and headed off for a new destination. However, today was different because we were to be dressed in business casual dress for our Audi manufacturing plant tour on the way to Munich. Somehow we completely overestimated on time and got to Audi and Ingolstadt a full 2 hours before our tour. That gave us plenty of time to eat lunch, look around their gift shop, and just relax.

Then it was time for the tour. We actually were able to walk through the entire production facility to where we could see all of the main steps that a car goes through when being made. The Ingolstadt plant is more like a city within itself employing more than 33,000 workers that produced an average of 2,300 cars per day! It was amazing to walk through the facility and see how far technology has progressed these days. Robots were doing nearly all of the work of assembling and manufacturing parts for the car. To me who had never seen such a thing before, it looked like something straight out of the Iron Man or Transformers movies. Audi is so efficient, so precise, and so automated. It’s crazy how that can achieve that mix and make it successful. I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for my own car now. Sometimes I think we as consumers forget that everything we buy goes through a unique and timely creation process before it seemingly magically appears on store shelves. I have come to appreciate that hard work during the Riedel and Audi visits recently.

After we left Ingolstadt, we drove about another hour until we arrived in Munich. Here we are staying in a Holiday Inn again, similar to our accommodations in London. It’s probably been my least favorite chain of the hotels thus far (Marriott and Hilton are in the lead). The rooms are small and there is no safe. I suppose I shouldn’t complain much though considered we could be staying in hostels and really roughing it the European way, haha.

Once we had a rather long segment of presentations for Munich, Dachau Concentration Camp, BMW Welt, and King Ludwig’s Castle we set off via the S-bahn (subway system in Munich) to find something to eat for a late dinner. We strolled on through the rain and stumbled across this cute little restaurant off a side street near Marionplatz, the city’s center. I had wonderful weinerschintzel and sautéed potatoes there! It was a giant portion as well, so large in fact that I only ate about half! It wasn’t overly expensive either, only 9,50 Euros.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks over to the Hofbrauhaus, one of the world’s most famous beer halls. The place was HUGE! So much bigger than I would ever have imagined it to be! All of the many tables downstairs were jam-packed so we wandered upstairs where there was almost no one. A band was playing German folk tunes, so we sat down listened, and ordered up a round of liters (yes, a WHOLE liter, that’s what they serve over here). Laura and I, although we don’t like beer, ordered up a Rattler which is a mix of lemonade and beer just so we could say we’ve had a beer from the Hofbrauhaus in Germany. I had just a few sips before I was finished. It wasn’t that bad in all honesty, however beer just isn’t my cup of tea. We also managed to get our interview done and out of the way while we were there as well. We interviewed on the senior members of the band that was playing on stage. It was a fun time!


We didn’t stay there too long, and we headed back to the S-bahn which took us straight back into the basement of our hotel. Isn’t that nice?! I showered, journaled, and settled into bed. Tomorrow, we tour Dachau Concentration Camp in the morning and then will most likely have a free afternoon to explore Munich due to our bike tour being pushed to Friday because of rainy weather.