The World According to Nils » Germany

Banking Crisis Hits Germany

Nils — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:37:05 +0000

The German Government has approved a 70 billion Euro deal to save Hypo Real Estate bank. The financial crisis has therefore finally reached Europe, and it has done so in full force. I do not know how bad the situation of banks is here in Germany, but I can imagine that the loss of trust in the system is going to cause a great deal of agony in the near future.

I am not really worried, yet. But I do wonder how many hits the financial system can take before it starts to sink. It is important to remember that actual numbers on a balance sheet matter rather little if panic sets in and the dreaded “run on the banks” begins.

I do have the gut feeling that the situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

First Impression of California

Nils — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:06:22 +0000

Got out of the plane and this is what I saw:

San Francisco

It’s like 9°C here at night. Unbelievable – California is colder in June than Germany is in January.

English Garden

Nils — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:54:21 +0000

Today a friend of mine from Frankfurt visited, and so I actually went downtown a bit. The English Garden is actually quite nice, and we walked until our feet hurt. Didn’t take nearly enough photos – I am always shy of being “the tourist”.

I fell asleep for a few hours after I got home. What can I say; I am just an aging geek.

View of the Alps

Nils — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:47:39 +0000

It turns out you can actually see the alps from my apartment… sort of:

View of the Alps

I hadn’t noticed this before. As you can see it’s just a little gap in between the buildings, but hey, it’s still kind of nice.

Traffic Jam

Nils — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:52:52 +0000

On our way back from Schloss Neuschwanstein we got stuck in a pretty bad traffic jam, that delayed us for about 1.5 hours. Donnie and Andreas took some photos of it:

What had happened? Two cars collided with the barrier between the lanes, and it seems a third one crashed into them. We saw the cars when they got towed away, they were completely totaled, and the central barrier had actually been ripped out of the ground. The passengers and drivers were brought to the hospital by emergency ambulance. There’s a German news article about the accident; it seems the injuries were not so bad, but there’s an impressive photo of the damaged car.

Neuschwanstein

Nils — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:29:47 +0000

Today, I undertook a road trip with two of my co-workers to see Ludwig II’s famous castle.

Arabellapark at Night

Nils — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:06:37 +0000

Some night views from my new apartment.

Day and Night

Nils — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:02:09 +0000

To show off the new image layout, as well as to give you an impression of where / how I live:

Munich

Nils — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:34:58 +0000

I’ve arrived in Munich. It’s good to finally be “home”, especially if it’s a new one. My move’s mostly complete, with a few odds and ends left. It went pretty well. I already unpacked most – but by far not all – of my stuff and the only thing I actually seem to have lost – so far – is one cup. Not even a very special one. Life continues.

My first day on the new job went pretty well; I like the new company a lot. Got a shiny new notebook to play work with, too. And did I mention I get to battle spammers on the actual front lines?

I haven’t really seen much of Munich yet. My feet are killing me because of all the walking I did last week, so I am not even sure if I will go out on a discovery tour this weekend or not.

A New Job

Nils — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:05:45 +0000

I thought it was time to make it “official”: As many of you already know, I will be moving to Munich before the end of the month, to begin a new job in Munich on April 1st. I’ll leave Frankfurt behind and move further south. Go ahead, make the jokes about a Hamburgian in Bavaria. I’ve heard them all by now!

It also means that my nearly six years working for Lufthansa Systems are ending. My new job will be with Ironport, and I’m looking forward to it very much. I didn’t decide to move to Munich because I dislike Frankfurt (Frankfurt, despite rumors to the contrary, isn’t really all that bad) nor Lufthansa, nor “for the money”, but simply because Ironport offered me an interesting job, and I feel that it’s a cool company full of nice people. (I realize this may sound like a bit of boot licking, but whatever, those are the reasons, and I don’t care what you think.)

I’ll send around an email with my new contact information in early April; but you can always reach me at my known email address, or via jabber, icq, and so on.