Stealing breakfast in Germany

Ordering food in other languages is complicated. While in many tourist towns there are menus in English as well as the native language, that's not a given.

While waiting for our motorhome to be ready, we took to the streets of Freidberg, Germany in order to buy some lunch. It's very hot in Germany and we had just had a terrifying experience on the Autobahn, so we were keen for some comfort food.

Entering the only open shop we could find (we had no map of Friedberg and had no idea where the main street was… or where we were) we scanned the menu looking for familiar words. Apart from steak (which we weren't game to buy from this particular establishment) there were no recognisable foods… so Rachel took a stab at buying "zwei pommes fritte, bitte", which happily was two serves of chips.

We bought coke to drink, along with something called "Schwip Schwap", which was too exciting not to try…

The following morning we woke very early and decided to drive to the Rhine for breakfast. After getting lost in Koblenz for a little while, we came across a small hotel on the bank of the river.

Seeing people inside eating, we decided it was as good a place as any for breakfast.

We entered, asked the lady inside if we could have two places for breakfast, and were ushered to a table. A buffet breakfast was on offer (no awkward ordering required), so we ate, drank and were merry.

When we went to the bar to pay, we couldn't find the lady. Rachel called "Hallo?" and she came out from behind the bar. In a scene straight out of a German version of Fawlty Towers, we discovered that breakfast was in fact only for hotel guests… which we were not… and there was no set price for the buffet.

There was a moment when we could have said "Oh! Of course! You'll add it to our bill" and been on our way, but out of guilt and shock we proffered her 20 euros for our cereal and bread rolls.

On Wednesday we bought breakfast supplies from Aldi, so as to avoid more confusion. It was much, much, much cheaper too.