OK It's F this week I guess then. Today I want to talk to you about the drop tower (Fallturm).
Fallturm Bremen is a drop tower at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen in Bremen. It was built between 1988 and 1990, and includes a 122-metre-high drop tube (actual drop distance is 110 m), in which for 4.74 seconds (with release of the drop capsule), or for over 9 seconds (with the use of a catapult, installed in 2004) weightlessness can be produced. The entire tower, formed out of a reinforced concrete shank, is 146 metres high.
In 2021, German and French scientists at the drop tube managed to produce and record the lowest temperature ever measured. Using quantum gas, they managed to achieve 38 trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.
All of that is very nice, but what makes it special for me is that it was a landmark on the morning walk that me and the wife used to take every day before I started work.
Anyway, I'm not going to post much more about it because it's getting late, but I'm still going to keep going and try to update every week until we get to Z.
Re: Bored in Bremen
Posted: Sat May 02, 2026 3:45 pm
by pappnase
This weekend, we are going back to Böttcherstraße, but this time to a specific building in the street.
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The Glockenspiel House is a house in the street with 30 bells of Meissen porcelain which chime 3 times per day.
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As the bells ring, wooden panels depicting pioneering seafarers and aviators appear on a rotating mechanism inside the tower.
I've included some of the panels below, but if you want to see them all then go take a look at the wiki page.
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960px-BremenHoetgerHdG10.jpg (350.35 KiB) Viewed 944 times
It's a lovely place to stand, I like to go in the winter when there are a lot less tourists.
Re: Bored in Bremen
Posted: Sun May 10, 2026 10:05 am
by pappnase
Another flying update this week because I'm going on vacation today, and won't be back until the end of the month.
H is for ... Well I dunno, nothing usefull, but I'm going to go with "Haus Schütting". Schütting is the home of the Chamber of Commerce, and a truly lovely building on the market square in Bremen..
I'm going to post one picture pf the motto over the door, and link to the wikipedia page because I don't have much time to write something personal.
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Hey All,
So I'm back and I'm bored again, but I'm struggling to find something beginning with I, so I'm going to do another H this time a silly one that is perhaps personal to me.
This is probably my favorite street name in all the world.
pappnase wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2026 10:45 am
This is probably my favorite street name in all the world.
OK, this thread is about Bremen, and I do not want to steal the show, but...
Around 1700, a statue of Jesus (on the cross) was erected on the outskirts of Aachen, facing towards the city centre. As the city grew, some poor people built their homes directly behind that statue.
The city’s inhabitants described this place and the people living there as ‘Behind the lord’s arse’.
Even today, a street in this neighbourhood is still called exactly that (in the Rhineland dialect): "Henger Herjotts Fott".
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Re: Bored in Bremen
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2026 5:38 pm
by pappnase
Franklan wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2026 12:10 pm
OK, this thread is about Bremen, and I do not want to steal the show, but...
Hey don't forget its also about being bored, so these little interventions with funny bits about other places are very much appreciated. Do feel free to share ideas that will get me out of Bremen
