Today was amazing easily my favorite day so far! We had to wake up and leave really early for Neuschwanstein around 6:30 AM but it was worth it. When we got there we were given some free time to explore the lake and take pictures. It is hard to describe just how beautiful this area was, but between the alps, the crystal clear blue water, and the castles I felt like I was in a fairy tale. After a little walking around the area and some snack and bathroom breaks we finally began our ascent. We split up between some taking a horse ride and walking and I did the latter. The hike was not bad at all and we arrived way before the other group. This gave us time to take many pictures of the castle and the beautiful landscape around while the others caught up. Once they arrived we began our tour of the castle which I really enjoyed. During our classes I thought I gained a good understanding of Ludwig II and the history, but the tour really expanded upon it. Something that stuck out was the big hall of the castle with stunning art on the walls and the well carved wood. You would expect for it to be used for party’s and balls, but in reality in was a place only for the king and that really surprised me. After the tour we were given plenty of time to take some more pictures on the balcony, take a break, and shop before we finally headed to lunch.
After lunch, we quickly began our descent and headed for the bus as we had a guest lecture around 4 PM. The lecture was from the head of the MAN plant we saw a few days ago and given it was my company for our presentation I was really engaged. I learned a lot about there branch and MAN as a whole seeing just how progressive of a company they are. They like many others are transitioning completely to electric vehicles and something that really impressed me was their electric trucks. They are very competitive in the market as they can make electric trucks with anywhere from 3 – 7 batteries that linearly increases with distance able to travel per charge. This makes them able to market their trucks to most customers all with different requirements and gives them a edge over their competitors. It also is something that is very different from electric cars which have usually just one battery and thus have different requirements when it comes to charge needs and customer wants. He ended by answering some our questions which was really helpful for our group to tackle our upcoming presentation and our day was about done. My group met quickly after to discuss who is going to tackle what parts of the project and then we finally headed back to the hotel.
