Weather & Time Zone

End of October - autumn at the Rhine valley, between the low mountain ranges - usually temperatures around 12 °C.

Please find a weather forecast here: www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Bonn/forecasts/latest

Germany is located in the CET/CEST time zone (UTC+1/+2). This means in the week of ISWC  2011 we will have UTC/GMT +2 hours. For more information, look at timeanddate.com.

Money

The German currency is Euro (EUR). Currency exchange desks can be found at all international airports. Lokal bank offices offer currency exchange as well (for safety reasons, they reluctantly exchange big amounts of cash). ATM machines offer cash withdawal by credit cards and Maestro (in almost the cases this service is not free of charge, you should ask your bank about cash withdrawal fees). To estimate exchange rates, play around with Yahoo! currency converter. An ATM is located at the lobby of the MAritim hotel.

Larger shops and restaurants accept all major credit cards and Maestro as well. Common supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Norma, Plus) accept Maestro but NOT credit cards. Small shops and pubs may have no electronic payment facilities on site. Tip is accepted but not mandatory, 10% is the common value. Travel cheques are not really common and not widely accepted. Visitors from non-EC countries can benefit from Tax-Free Shopping in Germany.

Electricity

German mains power system offers 230 V 50 Hz AC, common outlets (i.e. plugs and sockets) are SchuKo (symmetrical plug with side grounding contacts), sometimes also the simpler Europlug (2-pin plug without grounding contacts). Travel stores at all airports offer a broad range of adapters at reasonable prices. Devices designed for lower voltage levels (e.g. 110V hairdryers) also require a suitable upstream transformer!

You can find more information on powercords.co.uk

Communication

Major telecommunication providers in Germany are German Telekom and Vodafone (900 MHz) as well as O2 and E-Plus (1800 MHz). It is recommended to check in advance the roaming conditions for in/out mobile calls. Possible alternatives are Skype/VoIP and callback services (e.g. Bellshare, flat2flat, Flexsys, Sparruf, to name a few). In parallel, the n - at the moment, there is no public telephone box on the Campus.

Mobile internet via UMTS (WWAN aka 3G) has already reasonably good support in Bonn. It is recommended to check in advance your data roaming conditions, many providers do not support roaming at high HSDPA speeds, and volume prices are also quite different.

Handicapped Access

The ISWC 2011 offers full access for disabled attendees.