Braunschweig & Hannover

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So, yesterday I gave my first talk at TU Braunschweig and it went very well. Everyone was really nice and they really liked my work. I went to dinner with most of the students from the graphics lab. The city is really clean and friendly. I only took a couple photos, so I'll attach them on here (the first 2 on the page).

This morning I got up and took 2 trains to get to Hannover. At first, I wasn't impressed with the city since it seemed dirtier than Braunschweig. For example, around the University EVERY single building had graffiti all over it. Also, the building(s) that contain the institute I visited today were kind of older and run down (not "old" in the cool European, many hundreds of years old sense...but old like 1960's old). But after I saw some demos of the work they do here, and then gave my talk again, I went out to the city center and it was much nicer. I went to dinner with 2 students who were really nice. My talk today also went well and I got some positive feedback.

The weather has been much like Vancouver so far. I have rarely seen the sun and it has been raining/snowing a lot. They say the snow is unnatural for this time of year, usually its just rain. The temperature is between 2-8 degrees Celsius.

A couple more interesting facts:
- they seem to drink 3.5% milk here! I told them about our 2%, 1% and skim milk at home and they were astonished that anyone could drink milk that is so close to water.
- Germany seems to have less *really old* buildings than the other places I've been to in Europe, and everyone keeps saying "there was a nice old building or castle there, but it got destroyed in the war". I think all the places I'm visiting were often targets for bombs...which is just interesting to imagine.

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Photos

A mall in Braunschweig
This is one of the buildings that looks nice and old, but was actually reconstructed after being destroyed in the war.

Braunschweig horse
A closer look at the horse out front of the mall.

Hannover downtown
This is right after I got off the train in Hannover.

Hannover
View of Hannover from the institute I visited. Its the only tall building around there.

Church in Hannover
This is what a typical street looks like.