It’s sunday afternoon and the snow has diminished to 3-4 inches. I have been told countless times how Osnabrück (and most of Europe for that matter) hardly ever gets snow, and when it does, it melts quickly. Well I am currently witnessing the latter, but the former doesn’t seem so credible. On friday I took a bus east to Wolfsburg to tour VW’s Autostadt there. It had snowed most of thursday night so there were a couple inches already by the time we left. By the time we returned (a 3 hour bus ride turned into 4.5 on the way home) there were 6-8 inches of the stuff. Lord knows I’m no stranger to the white stuff, but apparently the Germans are. Three days later our road still hasn’t been plowed. Apparently their only defense is salt, and lots of it.

About the Autostadt…what I got out of this was a grandiose attempt by VW to sell more of their cars, and their subdivisions’ cars. I did thoroughly enjoy everything, though, and will post pics soon. The Autostadt is this large complex with dozens of different “pavilions” (some built half-underground and covered by a mound of earth), towers, museums, and restaraunts. Each of VW’s subdivisions (Seat, Lamborghini, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti) had their own pavilion to show off their cars. Think a lot of snazzy architecture, dim lights, lasers, fog machines, and shiny spinning prototype cars. Some were more interesting (Bentley) while others were just downright weird (Audi). I am partial to Audis but was a little disappointed by their presentation. All glitz, little substance.

The most interesting building of the complex was the auto museum. It’s this skinny, 4-5 story glass building showing off both VW and other autos throughout the 20th century. I could have spent all day in there reading about the history, and there were probably 100+ models to guide you through the museum. Naturally, this is where I took most of my photos 🙂

All in all a fairly interesting weekend…stay posted