Trip to Bonn, Germany

I haven't had time to blog for long time recently. Partly because I have been traveling a lot. Just got back from Bonn, Germany. You can find some pictures here.

Some highlights of the trip,

• Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located about 20 kilometers south of Cologne and 170 kilometer northwest of Frankfurt on the river Rhine. It was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990.
• My hotel was called Hotel Beethoven. Everything in Bonn is something or the other Beethoven. Quite naturally as Bonn is the birth place for him. Beethoven is one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time. As some of you may already know, Beethoven composed some of his best symphonies even after he was completely deaf at the age of 20. Every September Bonn celebrates a Beethoven festival and even when I was there the city square had musical programs going on daily
• Mercedes must be costing a lot less in Germany. Every third car was a Mercedes. 95% taxi cabs were Mercedes! Never seen so many mercs and beemers in the same town. (not even in rich redmond where many micro$ofties have them)
• Every week there is a hindi movie on german TV channel. I got to see "Salam namaste" dubbed in german! :) Apparently Germans are big fans of bollywood movies. This was a total surprise to me.
  
• I got to travel on the cool ICE trains. These trains travel at the whopping speeds of 300 km/hr. That is 80 meters per second! One point I was sitting in the Siegburg station where I saw an ICE train approaching. Before I could take my camera out the train had passed the station. VERY COOL! ICE stands for Intercity express. The brand name "ICE" is among the best-known brands of Germany, with a brand awareness close to 100%, according to DB! Apparently some crazy teenager has already surfed the ICE. You can see that video here.