Germany: Mercedes Benz Tour & The Rock

Another bus ride... to Bremen to visit the Mercedes Benz Factory.  I enjoyed viewing the countryside as we rode, it just makes it nearly impossible to take a decent photo of the scenery.  It was like dejavu from my previous trip to Germany.  Mercedes Benz takes such pride in their workmanship.  From the showroom floor:

We had a nice lunch, overlooking a large room where owners were picking up their new vehicle.

We had a factory, and were not permitted to take any pictures.  Our guide was Johnny the Legend (an Irishman) he was full of all sorts of information, a bit too much by the end of the day.

The highlight of the day was getting behind the wheel of one of their SUV's and taking it through their course (nicknamed the Rock!)  Each obstacle really showcased the superiority of the craftsmanship and quality of the vehicle.  Brent was the lead driver for the first round.  There was a gentleman with a walkie talkie and each vehicle had one to communicate.  He would walk us through the terrain.

The most exhilarating part was a very steep hill you climbed up.  Once at the top, you enabled the automatic speed control and made the 80% descent without using your brakes.  We had a lot of fun!  When we asked if the employees were able to buy the demo vehicles at a discounted price, he laughed and told us that the vehicles we drove were used in impact tests once they were finished at the Rock!

Germany: AgriTechnica

After a night's sleep (the quality was quite debatable) we were on the bus headed to Hannover for AgriTechnica.  Brent struggled more with the time change more than I did.  On the iPad, he watched them combine corn back home while I slept.  

We were completely blown away by the scope of this show.  It was 27 huge buildings, 122 acres of indoor displays!  We quickly felt like we were trying to eat an elephant.  We got started and never stopped the entire day.

I got a kick out of the lighting.  Now I imagine that car shows are all about the lights, but even here a combine or tractor looked pretty sexy.  It was fun to feel the excitement and realize that agriculture is universal.  

Brent and Richard enjoyed having each other to share in the excitement.

After a long day of walking, we had dinner at the Haufbrauhaus.  It is an iconic German restaurant chain.  The waiters and waitress wear lederhosen and dirndls.  There was live music including an accordion.

We enjoyed yummy brats, ham, potatoes, on a bed of cooked kale.

Germany: Miniatur Wunderland

There was a lot of preparation that went in to Brent and I going to Germany.  In fact, there were several times that I questioned if it was worth it.  We purchased a Lemken tillage tool, qualifying Brent for a discounted trip.  When Brent first mentioned the opportunity, I blew it off since I had already been to Germany.  It wasn't until Pioneer Equipment would pay for the remainder of his trip in trade for some flying Brent did with his drone that I took it seriously.  I mean, it's not very often that you get a free trip.   If we wouldn't have felt so committed, I'm sure we would have backed out when the corn still was not combined.

We said our goodbyes to the kids and sent them off to school.  We scrambled to leave before they arrived home on the bus.  There always seems to be so many last minute things.  I had Jenny Robinson staying with them during the week and Grandma and Grandpa keeping them on the weekend.  We drove through a blizzard to Smithfield to drop off Delsie before heading to SLC so we would be ready for our early flight.  It was a long day of travel, but not near as bad as I had anticipated.  We got into Hamburg Wednesday morning.  After a brief rest, we were off on our first tour.

We walked along the port to Miniatur Wunderland.  It is a collection of model scenes.  The attention to details is amazing.  At face value it is interesting, but the closer you look, the more interesting it becomes.

One of our guides said the displays sum up German engineering quite well: lots of attention to detail and making it complicated just for fun.  Here is a display in it's beginning stages.

The Swiss alps

Richard's crazy corn at a fair scene

The lighting simulates day and night.  The scenes take on a new dimension at nightfall.

Neuschwanstein Castle

A mine

Sun flower harvest

A harbor

All the components broken down.  I couldn't believe all the electrical wires and circuit boards.

Behind the scenes- engineer and design.  I looked like a craft room on steroids.

We got a kick out of the sign, but the best part was when we had Kord (our German guide) read it and it sounded just like we had thought.  Oh, we had a good laugh over that at dinner when it took Kord a minute to catch on to why we thought it was so funny.

Hotel Hafen Hamburg- same place that I stayed during my Diamler-Benz trip

With Hamburg being a port city, we figured there would be some seafood.  We weren't quite prepared for the fishy stench when we walked in to the Fish Haus restaurant.  After a disgusting seafood soup, it made me leery of trying the fish dish but it was surprisingly good.

Christmas Card Pictures

I knew time was running out to get our family pictures taken in front of the corn.  So on the Sunday before we left for Germany, I drug everyone outside for a few pictures.  There was a lot of trial and error, and a lot of me running back and forth from my camera.

The lighting was tricky.  It cast a beautiful golden light, but created harsh shadows as well.

In the end we got a few that made the cut.  By time we got back from Germany, the bulk of the corn had been cut.  It's a good thing we seized the day!

Reason to Party

Robert Jensen caught me at the ward harvest party and told me he needed my help to plan a surprise party for Heather.  When he told me the date, I thought I was off the hook because we were going to be in Germany.  Robert decided to have it before we left.  So I was trying to get kids situated, packed, and planning a party but it all worked out.  After all, I had a day between it an when we left.

I think she was actually surprised!  Robert had gotten a huge cake.  There was plenty to go around.

We had a lot of people come out to celebrate Heather and support her and Robert.  We had minute to win it style games.  It was men vs. women so it was quite competitive.  

We were stalling before Heather got there, so I snapped pictures of all the couples that came out.

Justin and Alma Morris

Kyle and Kayla Stradling

Bruce and Lori Jolley

Mike and Danielle Jensen

Jacob, Anna, and Lindee Newman

Jay and Marci Fielding

Jake and Heidi Peterson

JeraLin and John Telford

Us