>>Why do most of the other languages speak only the calendar in such smaller-larger (or in the MDY case, larger-smaller-largest) order of units is beyond me. Ditto for putting the house number before the street.
>>
>>What time is it now? Fourty eight, ten.
>
>The German equivalent of quarter-to-H or 10-past-H is quite alive in rural areas. A programmer from Bavaria used always time-to-H for times 45min or greater after the H minutes and H:min otherwise. If you consider time a vector you are traveling on like a train, makes some kinda sense as to ease of perception...

I wouldn't call whole Nord-Rhine (no idea of Westfalia) as rural ... They always use a-quarter-from or a-quarter-to. The quarter / half / three quarters of the full hours system is completely unkown there.
If you say quarter-2. i.e. 13:15 the will ask: a-quarter-from or a-quarter-to
5-to-three-quarters-of-9 - a therm for 8:40 normal in Saxony - expressed in Cologne is fun.

13:25 is a 5-before-quarter-after-quarter-2 in parts of the Ore Mountains. That's odd.
;)