Today was our first day this week where we did not have to wake up at a time starting with 5. Even though we still had to leave at 8:30, it was a nice change of pace. The day felt a little bittersweet since it was our last company visit. We did not have a guest speaker today because Patrick Will had already spoken to us from Audi earlier last week.
We ended up getting to Audi a little early, which gave us some time to look around the gift shop before the tour started. Before coming on this trip, my friends had tasked me with finding a mini model or something related to the Audi R8, so that became my mission for the day. The Audi gift shop felt very different from the one at BMW. I felt like the BMW store was more directed toward children because it had a lot more fun knick-knack items. The Audi shop, on the other hand, felt much more high-end and sophisticated. I actually felt a little out of place walking around in there. However, I did end up finding a cool LEGO set that I purchased.
There was also a cute coffee bar right next to the gift shop. They were selling pasta shaped like the Audi logo, which was one of the coolest things I had ever seen, so of course I had to buy a bag. They also had Kit-Kats shaped like little cars, so I picked those up too. Unfortunately, there was nothing related to the R8 in that shop.
After about 30 minutes in the gift shop, it was finally time for our factory tour. I am still amazed every time I go on one of these tours. In the body shop, it was mainly robots doing all of the work. I think I only saw one or two employees walking around making sure everything was running smoothly. The farther we moved through the production process, the more employees we started to see. You could really tell that Audi is constantly striving for perfection. One thing that stood out to me was that at the end of the paint process, there is a specialist who runs their hand over every inch of the car to make sure the paint job is flawless.
My favorite part of the tour was seeing the cars flying over our heads. They have these huge machines that move the cars from one location to another. The machines pick the cars up and carry them high in the air so employees can walk underneath them, which creates more space throughout the factory. It was honestly so cool to watch.
Once the tour finished, we stopped in the cafeteria for lunch. I had turkey schnitzel with a sweet chili sauce, which was actually really good. After lunch, we made our way over to the museum. It was much smaller than BMW’s museum, but you could tell it was intentionally designed to show the progression of cars throughout the years. I thought the museum did a really good job telling that story.
It turns out there was another gift shop at the exit of the museum. Luckily for me, I was finally able to find a little figurine of the Audi R8. I was so excited to be able to bring home a small part of Germany connected to something my friends loved so much.
