Author: Steven VanAst

After weeks of waiting we finally took our visit to Mercedes-Benz. As some one who loves cars I was very excited to finally see a car factory in action.

So what did we see? The plant itself was huge, much larger than any factory I’ve been to in the US or Europe. Not only were the building quite large, but were also connected via bridges, which made moving large chassis between locationz easy. The factories aslo use automation in very creative ways. For instance, instead of creating larger square foot floors, the company had a sytem of elevators and conveyors to tske advange of vertical space. Parts of frames would be moved above the assembly lines and dropped down when neaded. In the second plant this same process would be used to move entire chassis around the plant. It was very cool to see the size of the robots and mounting equipment they used while still managing to maintain the tolerance of a single stamp throughout the car. They msnages this by using aeveral different check points, whi CNN were stops on the line thst used lazers to measure the chassis as it was constructed.

A few things bummed me out though. First, the plant did not make the gtr, which is by far the coolest car they make. On a more serious note, they guide they provided was difficult to understand. Normally I wouldn’t think this a big deal, but I was very excited to learn about this plant, and I felt like he had a lot of cool things to say that I just couldn’t hear.

All in all I enjoyed our visit and would reccomend anyone who has a chance to go should.

I miss the netherlands. This is not something that I expected to think on this trip. Don’t get me wrong, it not like I wasn’t excited to go there. I was eager to visit holland because my grandfather lived there until he was ten, and so visiting there provided a unique insight into hus life. Its just that when I signed up for this trip, I most looked forwards to seeing fsmouse monuments like the Eiffel Tower, the Berlin wall, and Notre Dame, along with famouse cities such as Munich, Berlin, Paris and Prague. I thought the Netherlands lack of fame would make it the least memorable or enjoyable place to be.

Looking back now, the Netherlands has serveral things that make it stand out from the rest of Europe. First of all, it by far has had the best churches. Now this may be because they were alos the first churches we went to in europe, but I think that the cathedrals we saw there had the most interesting design of any I’ve seen. If I compare the church we went to in delft to Notre Dame, notre dame wasnt even close. The Dutch church looked better, felt bigger and had a way cooler and cheaper tower climb thab Notre Dame. In Paris you got to the top of the bell tower and were surrounded by fencing, which obstructed your view. In delft, you walked out of the tower snd could see the entire city perfectly. Another perk of Holland was the prevalence of English. Aside from brugse, I don’t think that there is another place I felt more confident I could walk up to anyone on the street, ask them something in English, and they would be able to answer me. The Dutch have also had the most interssting looking cities. Germany and France both have historic looking cities, but the Dutch have the most interesting looking historic cities. They’re also the ones with the best made cobble stone streets, and each city has a unique windmill, some of which still work.

And last but certainly not least, the Netherlands has the most stuff I want to go back and see. I felt like we missed out on so many interesting museums in Amsterdam that I would love to get the chance to come back. I still didn’t get the chance to head into the inland part of the country and see my grandfathers home town. There alot left there to see.

All of this is not to say that Holland has been my favorite place to visit, but after two and a half weeks of travel it’s begun to feel more appealing than ever, and I can’t wait to get back there soon

Windmills

This morning on the way to the airport, Tony and I presented on several topics regarding the Netherlands, one of which was windmills. We discussed how windmills began as a means for pumping water out of flooded plains, allowing the dutch to expand the amount of farmland available. As they moved into the 16th century, windmills were used for more industrial purposes, such as pressing oil, milling flour, and cutting wood ,which allowed the dutch to construct a large fleet in the 17th century. We also delivered a devotional to the group, reminding us that no matter where we travel, God watches over us, granting us traveling mercies like his did for Jacob in the Bible.