We've all made mistakes when planning that first trip (errors in judgement, planned poorly, over-planned, been hit with something unexpected, or just not known about something.) Since others may learn from our rookie mistakes, what were some of the mistakes you made when planning your first trip to Germany?

I'll bite because I think it is a good question, although I cannot think of anything good at the moment from my own experience.

A friend of mine made a bit of a faux pas when he arrived and had dinner at a nice restaurant:

He asked for a glass of milk with his meal.

It apparently involved several minutes of explanation, including the incredulous response of the waiter "Milch ist fuer Babys!"

I would love to hear other stories...

When eating at a restaurant,and you ask for the check....the waiter will give you the check, and stand there with his pocketbook, ready to make change. He doesn't leave it and come back, giving you a minute or two to look it over, or decide on a tip. So, you feel a bit like you are on the spot, trying to figure out how much tip to leave.
The tipping issue needs to be covered here. The "service charge" is technically included in the tab, but it is felt proper to leave a small tip. Correct me if I am wrong here. You obviously don't want to tip as we do in USA 15-20%, which would be too much. I think the rule of thumb is that if your tab is 20 euro or under, you just round up to the next euro. (ie tab=15.67...give them a 20 euro bill and ask for 4 euro back). If it is over 20 euro, give them 2 or 3 euro tip. (ie tab=31.44 give them 35 euro in paper and ask for, perhaps one or two euro back).
We found ourselves overtipping, but hard to figure it out correctly while the waiter was standing over your shoulder with his billfold open, ready to make change.

Also, in a crowded restaurant....often, strangers will pull up an unused chair at your table to sit down and eat. Common over there, but a bit weird when it first happens to you.
EK

German waiters/waitresses will hate me, but ... I use to round up on the next or maximum second next Euro only. (I am German) And sometimes I do not tip at all.

You often have to pay for each roll or pretzel that you take from the basket on your table (if there is one). We saw a couple of American tourists pay their bill then grab a pretzel to take with and the waiter screamed at them in a restaurant full of people.

I remember years ago in Munich entering a restaurant. One side had dirty, stained table cloths and the other side was pristine. Not knowing that you paid more, for the clean side we naturally opted to eat there. The clean side was considerably more expensive and we immediately moved over reluctantly to the other side. I don't know if this kind of policy still exists in some restaurants, but at that time my husband and I who were on a limited budget learned quickly. We also, learned about the "roll" paying policy when it was explained to us by our table companions at a restaurant. In an ice cream parlor were charged for the tall wafer like cookies standing in a glass on the table. They were not free with our dishes of ice-cream!

No eating while walking, or at least it's seen as somewhat odd. That's why you can't find take away coffee easily etc. Took me a while to figure that out.

Take away coffee has come to Munich! Lots of places have it now.

I've never heard of the clean/expensive vs dirty/cheap thing!

I was always brought up to think that eating while walking in the street, or on public transport, say, was basically bad manners. I don't think this is a specifically German thing, more a generational one, and conservative manners have lasted longer there.

Interesting thread. We found that dining there, like many European conutries, do not be in a hurry. Often when we travel here we eat in a hurry to get on to our next destination, but there the meal is the destnation and can be a long drawn out process, albeit enjoyable.
Oh, the deserts you see in may cases look so decadant(sp) but mostly we found them to not be sweet or rich at all, rahter tasteless in most cases.
I could not find Black Forest cake in The Black Forest.
Beer is cheaper than Coke in some cases.

My first exposure to Germany was in 1963, when my Parisian exchange student brother took me over to Wolfsburg to pick up my new VW.

We crossed the border at Metz, and the road from France didn't hook up directly with the Autobahn. I found a policeman and asked him in my primitive German where to find it, but I didn't know enough about vowel sounds to pronounce it correctly (I said auto the English way).

He drew himself up to his full six feet six and bellowed "OW-TOE-BONN!" Then he pointed down the street and stalked away.

Moral: get your vowels straight or suffer the Prussian consequences.

Interesting comment about eating and walking. I see more people eating (ice cream, pretzels, sausages) and walking in Germany than I have ever noticed anywhere!

do not give tip in ermany just round up in bars, in restaurant max. 10% if the service was outstanding (very rare).
public trains, busses in city are on time and frequently and safe and propper. Use it. Traffic jam in cities are common, avoid rental cars if you have a dense program. Use instead the
high speed trains (ICE). Frequently and mostly on time.
shops are usually open until 6pm out of cities until 8pm within cities.
Be prepared to have warm clothing, in north of germany is until april wet, cold and windy, in eastern parts more dry but much colder, in the west and south west milder and wet and south of munich or east dry, colder and sometimes heavy snowfall.
rhenish people (cologne/bonn/dusseldorf/frankfurt/mainz are mostly open minded and funny - berliners', hambur gers are straight correct germans and the south (nürnberg, munich stuttgart) are introverted but can be friendly too.
more info needed ?

My mistake in Germany, specifically Munich, was not being aware of bicycles. They are everywhere!! You cannot just approach a crosswalk and stand on the street corner in US waiting for the traffic light to change. Oh NO, you must stand back (once I figured this out, I was mostly on the grass behind the sidewalk) and beware the fast moving bicycles who have free rein of the sidewalks. This took a lot to get accustomed to and nearly had me knocked to the ground a few times, not to mention the Germans hollering who knows what at me!!

To Dee Dee:
you never have been to the netherlands & belgium!!! Everyone cycles and they have much more rights than in germany

Around Munich there are bike lanes everywhere. When you go out walking around, try to see where the sidewalk is and where the bike lane is and stay out of the bike lane.

Another thing is that Germans take their rules very seriously. If you cross the street on red, someone may tell you off (you're setting a bad example for kids).


Is any of this what you were looking for?

To continue with the tipping discussion:

It is normal, if you are happy with the service, and the food, to add a small amount to the bill by way of rounding up. But this is NOT done by asking for something back, as ekellyga
suggested.

What you do is to name the amount you are paying. So, to take her examples, you will not give 20E and ask for 3E back - if the bill is 15.67 and you want to round up, you simply say "sechzehn" or "siebzehn". In the second case where the tab is 31.44 say "dreiunddreissig" or "vierunddreissig" or whatever.

It might be a good idea in restaurants to try to use the cutlery in the German way, rather than the American way. Also, when eating soup you rest the spare hand, in the form of a fist, on the table.

And, if you feel up to it, it is customary, as a way of announcing your arrival in a restaurant (or any small shop or business), to say "Guten Morgen" (up to about 11am) "Guten Tag" up to dusk) or "Guten Abend" quite audibly to the diners/customers already present; and, correspondingly, "Auf Wiedersehen" as you leave. This will create a very good impression.

I don't agree at all with Confidential's estimate of the German character by city. The Hamburger does come across as reserved; but the Berliners are the Cockneys of Germany, the Bavarians are the Scouse and the Swabians are the Scotch.

Harzer

Harzer, I think you are doing people a disservice by suggesting they need to use their cutlery a different way than they've been doing all their lives. A tourist will look like a tourist, and surely having the fork in the "wrong" hand isn't going to brand someone as rude in the same way that not saying "hello" and "thank you" are. I broke my right hand once and tried to eat with my left--food all over the table. I did better with the casted hand. So I know I for one would fail if I tried to eat the German way.

I think Fodors is acting up again (and they will do maintenance starting tomorrow).

I say that because I have noticed on a couple of other threads there are references to post that do not show up.

And on this thread there is only one post that I can see that is written by Harzer that starts out "and to continue". But I do not see any other post by Harzer and I have looked 3 times.

Would imagine that Harzer talked about in the post that does not show up (at least on my screen) about the European way of holding utensils while eating. Quite different then the American way.

Anyway, maybe we should all be aware for the rest of this weekend Fodors is not working as well as it should.

Happy weekend everyone!

LoveItaly,
I think you misread Harzer's post. He was referring to continuing the tipping discussion which had been the topic of this post before I posted my reply about the bicycles. Harzer was simply going back to the earlier discussion, nothing was omitted.