Dresden

This past weekend I went on a trip to Dresden and Liepzig, Germany with my CIEE program. Both cities are in eastern Germany and had a lot more Soviet influence than Berlin. Our first stop was for the trip was Dresden. All of the students had to prepare a short presentation on a designated spot. My favorite two places were Frauenkirche and the Volkswagon factory.

Frauenkirche is a church that was originally destroyed due to bombing during WWII. It has since been restored (for the most part) and we had the opportunity to climb all the way up to the top of its tower. Despite the cold weather and rain, the view was incredible and we had a 360 degree view of the entire city.



At night we went to the VW Factory. This is one of Volkswagen's main factories where they hand assemble a popular luxery car in Europe called the Phaeton. Unfortuneatly we werent allowed to take pictures, but I found some online for your viewing pleasure!



The factory does not actually make parts, but rather just assembles the cars. There are three assembly floors that are complete with automatic robot/cars that deliver the parts for each specific car on time as it goes through the assembly line. Another cool thing was that the floor could wirelessly charge all of the workers tools (similar to how you can now charge your iPhone wirelessly nowadays).



What is interesting about the Phaeton is that it is highly customizable and the company focuses on meeting all of the customers needs. For example, a customer can come in and fully customize their car (which can take hours). Once the car finish production (the current waiting list is 5 months) the customer can come in and pick up their car in a private room with a private ceramony in which the keys are handed over to the owner.