October 9th
October 9th, 2006 at 1:45pm
| We got up early and headed off on our 700 km drive to Amsterdam, we planned a stop along the way at Wolfsburg which was about 200 k out of Berlin. We thought we would need about an hour but we stayed nearly six making it a long day.
Wolfsburg is home to Autostadt which was basically a Volkswagen “Disney Epcot centre” The place was auto theme park with different pavilions for each of the VW brands with simulator rides, 360 degree projections, kiddie activities and cars. the centrepiece of the complex were 2 20 odd storey glass silos floating on water full of brand new cars. it was said one in 3 golfs sold in Germany are picked up by the customers there. |
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| We had some little guy in the Seat pavilion guide us around showing us how good his product was, we couldn’t get away. he didn’t care we couldn’t buy one in Australia he was just so proud of here features, got to admit they weren’t bad.
There were 11 little buses, which cost over 1million euro each and took visitors into the golf plant for a tour. they showed a lot of there welding and assembly process with robots doing just about everything. people were really only used in the 11 lane inspection lines. over 3000 cars leave the line each day. |
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| For those listeners to the Pulse FM Motor Show you might remember our weird story of the week, about the millionth curry wurst sausage being eaten at the plant, well we are here to tell you they were delicious with the cup of tomato sauce which was pored over it and the beer we washed it down with. The Autostat complex was over staffed but the hr department did a fine job as most of them were hot. |
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| We got into Amsterdam about 10 and checked in. went for a walk to find food, with little luck so ended up at the servo for a sandwich. Back to the hotel for a few frothy beverages and called it a night Hotel probably best so far, beds ok, clean, shower worked, didn’t smell to bad (although Gary soon fixed that) and free internet, parking, breaky and a fridge for the beer we brought from Tokyo. |
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