Today was a long one, but nonetheless, pretty interesting. We headed off to Nuremberg to visit MAN headquarters and get another factory tour. This one was a bit of a mixture of the KUKA and BMW tour style, being guided both above the work floor and on it.

To get started, they geared us up with neon safety vests and earpieces so that we could hear our tour guide, effectively making us all look like giant highlighters. As we paraded through the factory in our bright new vests, we got to hear about how powerful these engines really are. 

Frankly, while MAN was still cool, I did find it to be the least interesting of the factory tours thus far. Something about the luxury of BMW and the niche of KUKA really made them stand out, but I didn’t get that same feeling at MAN.

After our factory tour, we had a short info session with some MAN executives, where we learned more about the business side of the company, which I did end up finding more interesting than the factory tour itself. One thing I’ve been particularly drawn to learning more about across this whole trip has been the sustainability practices of each company, all of which have impressed me in one way or another. Commonly, we have heard about strategic, carbon-efficient partnerships, as well as responsible material sourcing – both of which were exhibited by MAN.

After our information session was over, we headed off to the heart of Nuremberg, where we toured an old bunker that housed precious artwork during the bombings of WWII. While it was super interesting to learn more about what was housed in this bunker, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of actual artwork therein. This made sense, however, as the bunker itself wasn’t exactly the best place to house art, even though it wasn’t absolutely necessary. This difficulty was due to the low temperatures in the bunker, dropping more and more as we went further in; I was grateful I brought my jacket!

After our short tour was over, we had some free time to walk around and appreciate the beauty of yet another German city, and appreciate we did. We walked, grabbed coffee (again), and just took in all the sights that we could. The tour gave us context into how the city was rebuilt following WWII, and it was quite interesting to see everything in that context. After about an hour of strolling, we regrouped and headed back to the hotel.