Volkswagen Revisited

Just was sent this photo. This is the group after the absolutely brilliant lecture by Dr. Antonios Goros, who is part of Volkswagen's Brand Management team and part of the team that launched the newest branding that VW is now executing. The lecture was both informative and entertaining. Dr. Goros was presented with a WMU Bronco Polo Shirt and promised to wear it with pride

Hamburg

Day one in Hamburg has been great. As a gruppe (Group) we slept in after our 14 hour travel & tour day yesterday. Mike McCardle and I got group subway tickets for everyone and delivered these with a treat from a local bakery to each student. About noon we had our "Hamburg" group give its presentation and then we ventured off into the city.

We took the U bahn mainly to familarize everyone with the stop a block from the hotel and as a way to visit the Hauptbahnhof once again. The photo below is the group in the Hamburger Hauptbahnhof or Hamburg's Main Train Station.

We walked thru the "Fussgaengerzone" which is the pedestrian only shopping area. and made our way to the Rathaus stopping a few times to point out the differences between a German shopping experience and an American one. The photo below is the group infront of the Rathaus - or city hall. If we weren't having typical grey and rainy German weather the beauty of this building would stand out even more.

After lunch at an Italian cafe in the shopping district students went their own way and did some shopping or sightseeing. We regrouped at the hotel proving that the WMU students have become subway literate!

Tonight we went to a great German specialty restaurant that is a "Privatbrauerei" or what we might call a brew-pub. We ate the largest platters of food most of us had ever seen (mainly sausages, pork, kraut and potato salad) and enjoyed their "hausbier" tapped from a keg they brought right to the table. A great deal of fun was had by all.

The night concluded (at least for this old professor) with our first visit to the Hafenfest or Harbor Festival where we walked by hundreds of food booth, 4-5 musical stages and over 100 ships docked, moored and anchored in the harbor. At last count the students were headed to the Ferris Wheel to catch a ride.

Laundry in the morning and hopefully a rain free day at the Hafenfest. If it would break 50 degrees also I will be thrilled!

Leave Berlin and Visit VW in Wolfsburg

We left Berlin today - quite the crew of people and luggage navigating a tram, a S-Bahn and then an ICE Train to Wolfsburg. We made it without issue even if there was some close up and personal time with all the Berlin commuters on the S-Bahn!

The VW tour was very cool. Ways you knew we were in Germany and not the US.... (1) no safety glasses (first time I have ever toured without them) and (2) the driver of our little "VW Golf" train floored it a couple of times and we zipped thru the plant - all done just for fun. US lawyers would never have let either of these happen.

We have more to tell but it is late and I have limited internet connection. So we will update things tomorrow.

Freie Universitaet Berlin

Today we had a great lecture on Enviromental Industrial Policy by Dr. Klaus Jacob at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. The Uni was founded by a grant from the US in the 40's in order to set up a Uni that would compete with Humboldt Uni which found itself on the East German side of Berlin. It even has a Henry Ford Hall. The Uni has a broad range of programs and is home to about 35,000 students. It also has a really cool library building that was designed by the same British architect that designed the dome on the roof of the Reichtag building. The library looks like a giant brain from the outside and has some very cool interior architecture as well.

Our Berlin group also took a little time to make their presentation on Berlin. Next up will be our Hamburg group.

The group had the afternoon off and many headed out to explore parts of Berlin. Dr. McCardle and I went back to the Brandenburger Tor and Reichtag area and here are a couple of the cool photos.

Bike Tour of Berlin

We did a great bike tour of Berlin today. Our tour left from the famous TV Tower in what was formerly East Berlin and we saw many of the East German sights including Neptune's Fountain, the Museum Island area and the last park built by the DDR govt. in East Berlin. This has a statue of Marx and Engels - it makes for a great picture: a group of capitalistic US Business students with two of the biggest proponents of communism and socialism. Ironic fun!





We then moved to the area of Berlin made famous by the Berlin Wall. We some of those sites and learned more about the history the Berlin Wall and the 1989 "coming down" of the wall. The group photo is at Check Point Charlie, which was the famous border crossing between East and West Berlin.

also visited an area that has the wall and was the central of Nazi Germany with some of the key building of the Nazi Govt (e.g. the SS building). This photo is the students along the wall, or actually along a wire fence in front of the wall designed to keep "wall peckers" from chipping away the rest of the wall. Kind of ironic that the Wall is now protected by a fence!

No trip to Berlin would be complete without seeing the BRandenburger Tor, of Brandenburg Gate. The statue on the top was taken by Nepoleon to France (a gift for his girlfriend) and then the Germans took it back later. gate was a focal point during the Cold War with each side staging events at it to show the other side how great life was on their side.

We visited the area of the German National Govt with a stop at the Reichstag, which is the German Parliment building. It has a long history as its burning was a major contributor to Hitler's rise to power (the communists were blamed for the fire and Hitler used this to oust and kill the 80 communist legislators and then take power). It now has a large glass dome on it that allows people to see the inner workings of the legislative meeting room and thus symbolizes a transparent government.

We are off to dinner tonight to the Zillemarkt, a German Speciality restaurant in the Savignyplatz area of Berlin.

But before we sign off we want to thank Fat Tire Bike Tours (highly recommend the experience) for a great tour and especially thank Tom our great guide!

Opening Dinner

We all had dinner tonight at the Alte Fritz a German specialty restaurant near the hotel. It was good and fun and we discussed some of the mealtime differences between out "normal" and German "normal". These include how people hold their utensils, the use of the "Guten Appetit" toast before beginning and the much quieter atmosphere in a German restaurant.

Arrival In Berlin

Some of us are here, and the rest are in transit. We are greeted by cool and wet weather, not a big surprise. Some of us are waiting on luggage that is on a flight from Amsterdam still, but will be delivered later today. Either that or the group is going to be really sick of my current outfit! We have a group dinner planned for tonight and I look forward to that being the real kickoff for the experience.