The past two nights I had carefully watched the other patrons to see if they tipped. It did not appear that they did. I know that in Korea is was insulting to the waitresses to be tipped, so I thought maybe they don’t tip in Germany either and I didn’t tip. Then I watched the first couple last night pay, the barmaid told them what they owed and the man handed her some money and said a number. I asked him if it was important to tip and he amazingly understood me and said it was usually good to tip. I asked him how and how much. The answer to how much: 5-10% unless you only drank beer in which case only € 0,50 – 1,00 – they use commas instead of periods as decimal points (which is quite shocking the first time you get money from a Geldautomat, the comma registers the whole number in thousands in the American brain, or at least in this American brain.). The answer to how is interesting: The waitress says you owe €7, you hand her a €10 note and say “8 Euro”, she gives you back €2, danke. They said you can leave it on the table, but that’s not the usual way. I double tipped when I got ready to leave so at least I’m now square with the barmaid at Schlenkerla, which I expect to visit regularly.
Interestingly, the second couple last night, the ones from Nurenburg, were the first to ask me my name. They didn’t offer theirs back, so I asked, they were Wolfgang and Castine. I thought this was particularly intersting because I’ve only known, or even heard of, one other person with the name Castine.