German Customs
By Lothar. Filed in General, Germany |
In The Restaurant : In Germany the man enters first and secures a table, since there is no hostess. It is customary to share a table with other people when a place fills up.
The tip is included in the bill and you only need to round up to the next Euro ( or 2 if you are generous). We had a meal in Prague for the equivalent of 8 Dollars and I gave the waitress about 1 Dollar as a tip, but first she asked me if I made a mistake and started to beam when she realized that I was serious.
When Driving : German drivers are very fast and hectic ! On the famous Autobahn you stick to the right lane and only use the left lane for passing. It is illegal to pass on the right and drivers follow that rule. When you see a car coming from behind cruising at 140 MPH or so, you are expected to move to the right lane ASAP! We did not see any police patrol on the highways in Germany,Czech Republic or Poland during a whole month of travel. There are frequent red light cameras installed at intersections and you get your picture with the ticket in the mail when you run a red light. They also have fixed radar traps that work the same way and no police car is chasing you for a speeding ticket. The Germans do it the more elegant and egalitarian way. Every speeder gets a ticket in the mail!
The mobile radar traps are announced on the traffic radio together with the traffic report every half hour. The car radios are programmed to give you automatically any new traffic alert and detour instructions to avoid tie-ups (Stau); even if you had the radio volume down it comes up by itself. In the cities are unmarked speedbumps in the residential areas which forces you to drive only 20 MPH, since you can not see the bumps from the distance.
In general Germany is too small for its number of cars and we saw double and triple parking on a Saturday in Duesseldorf. I had to brush up on my parallel parking skills
since every inch gets used and Gabi had to guide me from the curb so I would not scratch the rental car. ( The rental car companies check for every little scratch ! )
The ramps in the parking garages are also very tight and the walls aremarked with multiple proofs of drivers with poor spatial vision !
In The Supermarket : The shopping carts are chained together and you have to insert 1 Euro to get your cart. I think this is a great idea, because people return the carts to get their Euros back. The system was probably invented to prevent the cars in the parking lot from being damaged and Germans are very fussy about their cars
( aka ” the holy tin ” ). You have to bag the groceries yourself and Germans are very fast. We do not have the training and Gabi and I have been yelled at for being so slow and holding up the checkout line ! You have to bring your own bags or pay a fairly high price for a new plastic bag everytime you go shopping.
The ladies at the foodstore registers wear M.D.- like white labcoats !
P.S. Germany is the World Champion in baking and there is a huge selection of breads, rolls,baguettes, cakes and pastries. They all taste good and are not as sweet as American cakes. Many do not have preservatives and are baked fresh every day. I am getting hungry now, it is almost time for breakfast.
Thursday, September 16th 2004 at 8:30 am |
haha funny stuff! even after a year in Freiburg, I´m still slow at the supermarket…it must take a lifetime of practice to be able to bag your own groceries and pay at the same time…I always feel like I could use an extra hand!