Today we had a very special breakfast. We woke up very early and got on an hour long bus ride to a little village in Bavaria. In this village, we visited a building that housed a very traditional Bavarian food item: Weisswurst. This is a white sausage made of veal and pork. This sausage was served with a special sauce that tasted like a sweet mustard. We also had a tray of different cheeses and old-fashioned German pretzels. The building itself was very cultural and was decorated with many paintings and animal heads. The atmosphere really made me feel like I was at a traditional Bavarian breakfast.

We then took the bus back to our hotel so that we could have time to sleep (we all stayed up very late the previous night). After our refreshing sleep we boarded the bus again to go to our company visit. Today we toured Forvia, which was a automobile part supplier for big OEMs like Porsche and Mercedes. We toured their manufacturing plant and saw their impressive automated line for making their parts and even the manual processes that had to be done at the plant. We then all met together and were briefed on the company’s status and place in the automobile industry. We also learned of their stance on hydrogen fuel cells, which are an emerging type of energy that will most likely be used in electric trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. I had to create a presentation on hydrogen fuel cells earlier in the year at Pitt, so I was already very well versed in this technology and it was refreshing to be able to follow along with the presentation and understand everything completely. This investment in hydrogen technology is also what makes them stand out apart from the other companies. I could very well see them being able to overhaul their production lines to create these hydrogen products once the automotive industry moves away from internal combustion engines, keeping them afloat with the potential to grow with this relatively new technology field. However, they also make parts for commercial vehicles like tractors, meaning that they will be able to keep that pipelines for the foreseeable future since vehicles like these are not going to be turned electric anytime soon. Finally, we went back the Augsburg and ate some amazing food at a fancy restaurant. I ate a steak with egg noodles and a house sauce on top. It was a little pricey but definitely worth it. Tomorrow we tour Audi and I can not wait!