Small earthquake yesterday evening

I felt the house shake a bit yesterday evening. I knew right away that it was an earthquake as our street is pretty quiet (no big trucks passing). It only lasted a few seconds. Here's the news report.

Bonn Gamecocks 44, Dortmund Giants 20!

We just watched a football game. The Bonn Gamecocks play in a municipal stadium just a few kilometers from where we live. We loaded up Arianne in the Burly trailer and rode there in no time. It was neat to watch real football again, and I really liked the low-key community atmosphere.

There were maybe 150 people in the stands, a small kitchen serving bratwurst and pommes (frites; i.e. french fries).  Interstingly, the beer was served in the bottle. Unlike in North America where laws would require plastic cups (if a community sports club could even get a liquor license). Whereas here you are trusted not to smash the bottle, and to return the empty.

This sort of semi-pro football is apparently quite widespread in Germany. There's a whole league and Berlin has at least 4 teams. While not at the level of the CFL or anything, it was still a great time. Arianne clapped when the crowd did, so she's a big fan.

Max Planck

Photo taken on January 8th. Note the lack of snow and the preponderance of dried leaves. Sheesh: and they call this winter. 

Anyways, the sign next to the door indicates that this is the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics. The Max Planck institutes are a collection of a couple of dozen research labs in a range of hard sciences under the common Max Planck banner (he was a German physicist). Although some labs in the Max Planck 'consortium' are more prestigous than others, the organization is one of the major scientific forces in the world. I have read many academic papers written by folks at the Max Planck Instutute for Physics (which is located in a different city). So while it is not really the same thing, it's interesting by affiliation.

Strolling in Bonn on Saturday

Here's us in front of the statue of Beethoven. He was born a few blocks away in 1770. Note the small white thing on the grass at lower-right: that's a flower, happily growing away in January. Today was about +9 degrees and sunny. Lots of folks strolling around.

Typical houses in the market area. Shops on the first floor selling all sorts of stuff. 

Another square: the building has been decorated to look like a giant gingerbread house as part of the Christmas festivities (hence the large Christmas tree as well). I bought a nice shirt at H&M and we went for lunch at a typical German guesthouse/hotel. Thankfully the waiter was from California and we could order food with no surprises. Little Arianne was the centre of attention with her big googly eyes attracting warm smiles from passerby.