25th Anniversary of Sister City Treaty

　　My hometown, Matsuyama City entered into a sister city treaty with the southern German city of Freiburg 25 years ago, so this year is a quarter century anniversary. Several officials, including the mayor and city council members of Matsuyama City, and a few dozen citizens are planning to make official visits to Freiburg to attend the event comemorating the 25th anniversary.
　　Today, citizens of Matsuyama City who had an interest in Germany got together and enjoyed German wines and gorgeous dishes to get to know each other better. Some of them would visit Freiburg in November. Additionally three students from Freiburg were invited to the party. They could speak in Japanese and seemed to enjoy chatting with people who love Germany. So many topics were mentioned. One of them really wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan and recently listed as a World Natural Heritage Site. I'm not sure now, but if several people wanted, I'd arrange the climbing plan next summer. Climbing is one of my hobbies. Freiburg seemingly has a cold climate at this time of the year. I could imagine how cold it is from the latitude of Freiburg, which is no less than 4 degrees in latitude further north than Japan's northern city of Sapporo. For your information Matsuyama City is located in the southern part of Japan and is relatively warm except in January and February. I'm afraid my possessions will become more and more, because of lots of winter clothes.

(Vocabulary)
no less than 〔数詞などを伴って〕～ほども多くの
He speaks no less than five languages.  彼は５種類もの言語を話す。