"Theme Park Germany", minus Leiderhosen.

Germany won [in the Euro-cup] against Turkey yesterday, and there were loud, drunken, flag-draped Germans running around singing and yelling "DEUTSCH-LAND!" when we stopped by the bus station for the last bus to the youth hostel. One of the other UIUC math grads said that he felt he was seeing "the real Germany". Then again, he also expressed the same sentiment when we went to Linz.

Linz is kind of like the German version of a quaint German town. I think I called it "Theme Park Germany". It is everything that people think of when they think of stereotypical Germany, minus the Leiderhosen. The Rhine (Rhein) floods every year, and there are labels on their main gate/tower where the worst floods in their town's history have been. Several hundred years ago, it flooded up the first story of the shops, and in 1995 it was pretty close to that.

The castle in Linz (Burg Linz) is really more of a fortified building than castle, all whitewash and wooden frames. They had a cellar that supposedly was used for torture, and several displays of old torture devices and a door with a motion sensor that would rattle at you when you walked by. Our tour guide said that the people of Linz used to live making wine and mining the volcanic stone nearby (which they sold to Holland to build dikes) and then that wasn't working so well and they discovered tourism.

The point of going to Linz (via boat -- very nice) was that this conference is in honor of the 60th birthday of a very influential topologist. Dinner included a lot of toasts and speeches and funny stories. A very very famous mathematician basically said that Haynes (the birthday mathematician) was the only mathematician who ever made him feel good about his work.

What I have learned about mathematicians on this trip is that the vast majority are insecure about their own work and how they appear in the eyes of other mathematicians. Also, that just because someone is dismissive or answers quickly  does not mean that they are a) right or b) all that much smarter or c) as fast on their feet as they appear.

As I've said to other people, I've discovered that the famous people "are real people too".

Today I'll be going on the "Beethoven walk" of Bonn. He was apparently born here.