05.11.17

The sun shined again in the early morning, as we hoped right onto a bus and headed towards a German breakfast. Inside a secluded white garage in Baindkirch, laid a Thursday morning German tradition: “Weißwurst und Brezen”. This classic white sausage and Bavarian pretzel meal, was a breakfast ritual unlike any other. Even though I did not eat the sausage, sneaking in a few extra pretzels made for a superb breakfast. To my surprise, Kathrin’s uncle (one of my Hirschvogel group partners) owns the restaurant and gave us the history of how it all began, as well as the process of making this traditional food. Later, we took the returning bus to Augsburg and met again for our company visit at KUKA.

The beginning of the KUKA tour was incredible as we were all able to explore its interactive, futuristic showroom. There I was able to actually control the robots through a drawing simulation, discover KUKA’s projects through a VR system, and learn about the company’s locations with its interactive globe. However, the factory tour of the KUKA plant was underwhelming in my eyes. I expected to witness robots welding, manufacturing other robots, and navigating around the facility. Instead, several of the robots happened to be malfunctioning or in the middle of downtime, and although it was fascinating to see the robots up-close I would have liked to observed more “action”.

After returning to Augsburg, we split up for dinner. A small number of us walked around downtown and eventually came across a Doner shop, Augsburg Döner & Pidehaus. The management did not speak much more than authentic Bavarian German, therefore communicating our orders and paying for the meal was an experience within itself. The food did not disappoint, and Thursday concluded on a high, delicious note.