Two vocational days, all together :)

Today was busy in Cloppenburg with a full day of touring and sightseeing.
We started with a tour of Derby Cycles which is the largest producer of bikes in Germany and the 3rd largest in Europe. You may know Diamond Back, Force and/or Univega which are all Derby Cycles. The tour was given by Herr Seiler the Managing Director and was very informative. He told us that there were several processes of paint that the bike goes through with a plastic coating of color rather than any solvent based paint. It helps the metal when punctured to not oxidize. Try to remember when you were a child and that the paint on your bike began to peel. It never got better; right...it just peeled further and further. It was because the paint was solvent based and when the metal of the bike was exposed to the air it began to rust and spread under the paint, chipping it further. This new plastic paint allows for greater damage with less visible marks. Anyway the factory was intense with a lot of repetitive work, which I would absolutely hate. Even working in a office would be better, but Herr Seiler said that these workers stay at their jobs for 20-30 years steady with no wish to move. Maybe it is the American working environment that cultivates that atmosphere, I don’t know. Herr Seiler communicated that these jobs, though menial were still of value to the company as it actually saved them money rather than making all the assembly work manchine generated.



After Derby Cycle we were shown the law offices of Mahlmayer, Dr. Weber and ? (my host is Dr. Weber who is now retired). Simone, one of the firms lawyers explained a little of the difference between American law and German law. Her English was excellent, but I fear my understanding even of the American system is so woefully inadequate that I only understood a little of what she said. After the office tour it was off to lunch at home, where Monica cooked fish with some veggies and excellent salad.

We had to hurry and leave the house by 2 so it was a quick lunch and then out the door to IHR, Ideal Home Range (or as we found out Ingrid, Hanjo Rick) a locally owned and family run international napkin and linen printing company. Originally the name came from the initials of the owners, but as they expanded it became too difficult to explain and the initials then stood for Ideal Home Range as their product base also expanded. Frau and Herr Rick walked us through each step from the creation of the idea to final production days and packaging. It is an intriguing process with much I didn’t know about, including the manual manipulation of color and where they draw the most inspiration (nature!). they even had a full line of Obama napkins, YES WE CAN!!

After the napkin factory is was home for a brief two hours and then off to Herr Moeller’s house for dinner. Frau Moeller set an excellent table with a lovely asparagus soup to start and strawberries with a sweet yogurt sauce to finish :) Scrumptious! Thank you Moellers’ and Cloppenburg Rotary our first full day was wonderful!