I was definitely very tired going into the tour today, but I did my best to pay attention. MANN definitely did a great job of keeping me engaged. The guide was very knowledgeable, and it was interesting to learn about a company I had never heard of before and how it currently operates in 127 countries. Another thing I found fascinating was hearing about their engines, which range from 50 horsepower all the way up to 2,200 horsepower. MANN has an incredibly wide variety of products, from small commercial fishing boats and farm equipment to ambulances, which we saw as we entered the factory.

One engine they discussed was for a large shipping container vessel, and it was described as “the size of this room.” I was so tired that I honestly don’t think I was fully able to process or articulate just how impressive and complex that really is. The factory tour itself was awesome. The factory felt like a mix between BMW and KUKA. There was a significant amount of automation, but also large groups of workers operating together in systems focused on engine components. The guest speaker was excellent as well and provided a lot of valuable insight.

Next, we took a short ride to Nuremberg, a city that was 90% destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. It definitely does not look that way today. The city appears old-fashioned, beautiful, and very well maintained, almost as if nothing had happened. It was great to have time to explore the area. I walked around the local shops and markets, and the castle on the hill was especially cool to see. Castles like that are always symbolic landmarks connected to European and World War II history.

Another interesting fact we learned was how long it actually took to remove all the rubble from the city after the war. At the end of the tour, there was a depiction comparing the Pyramid of Giza to another pyramid that was even larger. The larger pyramid represented the amount of debris that had to be cleared from the city, a process that took many years.  Overall, it was a busy day filled with a lot of interesting facts.