Day 4

We woke up early to get breakfast. I was in high heaven with the typical European breakfast. It was croissants and rolls with various hams and cheeses. Of course there was Nutella as well. We sat and enjoyed tea. Alan ordered eggs to go with his breakfast. We left on our hour long journey to Stuttgart. I slept some of the way and woke to find myself in Porsche heaven.

We arrive and find our way to the museum. This is a unique building but very beautiful. Every sign in the place was written in the typical Porsche font. We found where we needed to be for the factory tour but had 45minutes to spare. We grabbed a cappuccino from the lobby café and sat amongst the cars.

We wandered the lobby and Alan found the German Annual Report from 2010. He just had to have himself a copy. They were free so why not, I guess? There are 8 other people on our tour and we go across the street to the factory.

We entered into the grounds to stop at the original building built by the company now known by Recaro. It was the building that the beetle, and first Mercedes came out of. Now it is a national Historic landmark. It does not fit in with the remainder of the buildings of the complex but they must work around it as it can’t be torn down. It is now known as the Porsche (parts) grocery store.

We headed inside to the assembly line. They were putting together dashboards where we were. Every car there was electronically tagged as well as had a paper ticket. Each part was pulled for the specific car that had been ordered. The parts are brought to the specific area by robots. The robots worked the elevators, pulled the parts, took engines that were finished to the marrying area all without the aid of human help.

We briefly saw where the workers were putting body work together.  At one point I looked up and was standing under 911 Turbo Cabrio and didn’t even realize it because it was moving slowly on the line above me. It was neat to see that.

We moved onto the marrying facility where the body is put together with the chasis. We then went to the engine room. It takes 4.5 hours to build a Porsche engine. It takes 5 hours to build a Porsche car. So if the engine room messes up, it messes everything else up. Some engines go through cold testing, some through 10 minute hot testing and some go through 10 hour hot testing. You will never know what happened to your engine.

Some random facts about Porsche:

-          Beer is acceptable to drink beer while at work. In fact we saw more beer than water, pop or juice combined.

-          The factory workers have a uniform. That is there entry into the facility because they do not where ID’s as to not scratch cars.

-          The uniform can’t be purchased. I tried to convince the tour guide that I needed the overalls. He didn’t oblige.

-          The workers ride bikes through the factory. They even have bells on them.

-          It is the cleanest shop ever.

-          If you buy a Porsche and accept delivery in Germany, you get free lunch.

-          Did I mention free lunch is at the mid-grade restaurant, not the nice one.

-          Our tour guide lived in Houston, Texas but is German.

-          He is a mechanical engineer but gives tours (and wears a full suit) at a factory. Ironic we thought.

We head back to Baden-Baden. We arrive to have a late lunch at Hirsch’s. Alan had weisswurst and I had frankfurters. Best damn hotdog I have ever had. We went back to the hotel for a nap. After the nap we decide to head to the Baths.

In Baden-Baden there are 2 Roman Baths. One is fully nude. The other is a mix of both nude and clothed. It’s a bit more family friendly. Being the prude that I am, we went to the family friendly one. We head into the big pool at 95*F. It was glorious. There were 3 levels in this one pool to roam (no pun intended) around in. We then hit the thermal plunge- 2 pools, 1 at 100*F and the other at 66*F. Alan of course loved dunking me in the cold bath. I hated him for a moment.

We then try the outdoor pool at 93*F. Even though it was only 70* outside it felt good. This pool had 2 hot tubs and a “lazy river.” We ventured back inside to grab a still water from the bar. We hit the big pool again then tried the other outdoor pool. It was 98*F. It had seats with built in jets and a standing only hot tub. The current on that bad boy almost swept me away, and I was holding on.

Alan has been trying to convince me to go up stairs to the nude area that entire time we were there. I finally decide fine we will. You do not have to go completely nude however you do have to take your suit off. So we enter through the doors, take our suits off and I stay wrapped in a towel, a very small towel. We look at the map and begin to wander. There are showers, heat lamp beds, cold baths, whirlpools, multiple saunas and other sitting areas.

There are a few saunas outside built into the hill. We go in one of them. There was one other man just sprawled out for the world to see. We sit down and I stay covered. I am quite content, despite the eerie quite of the sauna. The man leaves to my relief. We leave and venture around some more. I just can’t take it anymore so we head downstairs to change and go to dinner.

We head to the WeinStube. This place was up on a hill off in an alley. It was quite scenic. I have a salad, something that resembles a pizza. It had a cream cheese-ish sauce with lots of bacon, onion and mushroom.   Alan had a beef bouillon soup with liver dumplings, salad and schnitzel. That was my first (remembered) go at liver. They were quite good. I might try them again. I had wine, Alan had beer to drink. This was the start of an eventful evening.

So Alan said we had to get drunk together on our honeymoon. I was not too keen on the idea but it may have accidentally happened this night. We headed to Lowenbrau for more drinks. We get a bottle of local wine. They were closing soon and we had to finish it. Alan goes into the bar and asks if we can take the bottle with us. They look at him like he is dumb. So he comes out corks the wine and we leave. At this point the streets are empty and Alan is funny. Well, at least I thought he was. At one point I was double over thinking I was going to pee my pants.

We finish the wine in the room before bed.

Mr. & Mrs. Green