Miscellaneous
Business Hours – Electricity – Festivals & Events – Health – Holidays – Measure – Money/Exchange Rates – Safety – Telephone – Time – Tips – Tourist Information
Business Hours
Official shop trading hours in Germany have become more relaxed in recent years, with shops now allowed to keep doors open until 8 pm Monday to Saturday. In rural areas and city suburbs, shops close sometimes earlier, at 6 pm or 6.30 pm Monday to Friday and at 2 pm or 4 pm on Saturday. Some also have a short lunch break. After hours you can receive the basics you need at train station shops and petrol stations, but both at inflated prices.
Money exchanges at airports and border-crossing points are generally open daily from 6 am to 10 pm. Exchanges at border railroad stations are kept open for arrivals of all international trains.
Bank hours are from 8.30 am to 4 pm or even to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday, with smaller branches closing for lunch from around 1 pm to 2.30 pm.
The post office timetable is handled in the same way. Furthermore, the main branches usually offer extended weekday and Saturday hours.
Service oriented businesses (e.g. travel agencies) usually open from 9 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday and until 1 pm or 2 pm on Saturday.
Supermarkets and larger shops generally are open from Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 8 pm. Sometimes this can vary depending on its size and place.
Restaurant hours vary extremely, but many rural or smaller ones still close in the afternoon, open again at 5 pm or 6 pm and stop serving food at 9.30 pm. Some even observe a closing day (Ruhetag).
Bars normally tend to open around 6 pm or after regular working time to offer sometimes an after work happy hour starting at 4 pm. Typical closing time is 1 am or 2 am, but if business is good, bars in bigger cities often stay open till sunrise.
Pharmacies (Apotheken) close during lunch time, but are generally open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6.30 pm and Saturday from 9 am to noon or to 1 pm. They take turns staying open nights, on Sundays and on holidays, and each ‘Apotheke’ posts a list of those that are open off-hours.
Please remember that all banks, post offices, shops and government departments are closed on public holidays.
Electricity
In most places the electricity is 220V AC (50 Hz). Depending on which country you come from, you need a transformer and plug that fits the German socket for your appliances. Some of the hotels may supply those.
Festivals & Events
Germany has an extensive and packed schedule of annual festivals and special events that take place in different places. The following ones are the most interesting during early spring and summer time.
February - March
Karneval/ Fasching (Carnival) - the season before Lent is celebrated with costumed street partying, parades and general revelry. Especially the cities along the Rhine (Cologne, Mainz, Dusseldorf) are attractive places for this event.
March – April
April Fool’s Day - Watch out or you may become target of an ‘Aprilscherz’ (joke) on April 1st
Walpurgisnacht - (April 30th) Young and old dress up as witches and warlocks and parade through the streets singing, roaring for life and dancing in the region of Harz. This festival has pagan origin.
May
Maifest - Germans celebrate the end of winter, chopping down a birch-tree, decorating it with guild signs and ribbons and staging a merry revelry with traditional costumes, singing and dancing, usually on the eve of May 1st (Tanz in den Mai)
Muttertag (Mother’s Day) - Mothers are honoured on the 2nd Sunday of May. Flowers, sweets and greeting cards are small presents given to them.
June
Vatertag (Father’s Day) - Celebrated since the 1930s on Ascension Day. Fathers head out together into the countryside or pubs together.
Christopher Street Day - Major gay celebration with wild street parades in Berlin and Cologne…
July – August
Schützenfeste (Marksmen’s Festival) - Over a million Germans belong to shooting clubs spread all over the country. One time a year they show off their skills on this festival and crowning their best one king (Schützenkönig). The biggest one takes place in Hanover in July, the oldest one in Dusseldorf.
Weinfeste - As soon as the grapes have been harvest, the wine festival season starts with wine tasting, folkloric parades, fireworks and the election of local and regional “wine queens”.
September
Erntedankfest - Thanking God for the harvest with fruit-, vegetables- and grain-decorated church altars and folkloric processions that are staged in some communities (Erntedankprozession)
Health
While Germany has excellent health care, a little planning before travelling, particularly for pre-existing illness, will save trouble later. But nevertheless in all places of Germany you can find a pharmacy where you can receive antibiotics, steroid cream or cortisone, bandages, gauze (rolls), adhesive or paper tape etc. Sun block and insect spray you can buy in drugstores.
Pack prescription medications in your carry-on luggage and carry prescription medications in their original containers, with pharmacy labels – otherwise they won’t make it through airport security. Also bring copies of your prescriptions in case you lose your pills or run out. Carry the generic name of prescription medicines, in case a local pharmacist is unfamiliar with the brand name.
Insurance
The E111 form (available from health centers or, in the UK, post offices) covers EU citizens for most medical care. It does not cover for no emergencies or emergency repatriation home. Citizens from other countries should find out if there does exist any arrangement between their country and Germany referring to free medical care. If a health insurance is needed please make sure you get a policy covering you for the worst possible case of e.g. an emergency flight home.
We offer you an advantageous insurance package of the “Europäische Reiseversicherung AG” which is called “Wikinger-Reiseschutz-Paket”. It includes travel health insurance, emergency assistance and travel cancellation costs insurance. For further details please read more in our chapter “Service”.
Jet lag & motion sickness
To avoid jet lag, if you’re arriving from overseas, it is recommendable to drink plenty of non-alcoholic beverages and eat light food. After arriving, get exposed to natural sunlight and readjust your schedule as soon as possible.
Holidays
Public Holidays
All in all nine religious and two secular holidays cover the public holiday list nationwide. Catholic populations celebrate even some more days. The common public holidays in spring and summer are Easter (Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday), Ascension Day (40 days after Easter), Labour Day (1st May), Whit/Pentecost Sunday and Monday (May/June) and Day of German Reunification (3rd October), ignoring Christmas holidays and New Year’s Day.
School Holidays
There is a small variation in the exact dates and lengths, but in general kids get six weeks off in summer and two weeks each around Christmas and Easter and in October.
Measure
Germany uses the metric system. The most important measures are
1 km = 0,62 mile 1 mile = 1,61 km (Kilometer)
1 cm = 0,02 yard 1 yard = 91,40 cm (Zentimeter)
1 cm = 0,03 foot 1 foot = 30,48 cm
1 cm = 0,39 inch 1 inch = 2,54 cm
1 kg = 2,20 pound 1 pound = 435,60 g (Gramm)
1 l = 1,76 pint 1 pint = 0,57 l (Liter)
10 l = 2,20 gallon 1 gallon = 4,55 l
A German woman’s clothing size of 36 equals size 8 in the US and size 10 in the UK, then increments of two, making size 38, a US 10 and a UK 12.
Money/Exchange Rates
Since 1st January 1999 the Euro (€) is the official currency of Germany and 11 other European countries. There are seven Euro notes (five, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500) and eight coins (one and two Euro coins, and one, two, five, 10, 20 and 50 Euro cents). Exchanging money is possible at banks, post offices, foreign-exchange counters (airport and train stations) and at American Express branches.
Money exchanges at airports and border-crossing points are generally open daily from 6 am to 10 pm. Exchanges at border railroad stations are kept open for arrivals of all international trains.
In Germany you can get and pay money by the means of automated teller machines (ATMs) or dispenser machines, cash, credit cards (MasterCard is the most common one), international transfers and travellers cheques.
For current exchange rates please contact your home bank or check online on the currency converter at Reisebank (www.reisebank.de).
Safety
All in all it can be truly said that Germany is a very safe country to live as well as to travel to. Crime rates are low by international standards. Crimes against travellers, such as theft, are extremely rare, although it is wise keeping always an eye out for pickpockets in crowded places (like main stations and shopping areas) or big cities.
Telephone
Public Phones
Most public phones today do not accept coins any longer. You should buy a phone card of “Deutsche Telekom” (credits: EUR 5, EUR 10 and EUR 20) available in post offices, some tourist offices, kiosks and public transport offices. They are quiet cheap for local calls, but not recommended for long-distance within Germany or internationally. For this kind of calls you usually will get better rates with prepaid cards, sold at news kiosks and discount telephone call shops. Using is possible from any phone, dialing a toll free access number first, followed by a PIN (both listed on the card itself) followed by the number.
German phone numbers are not standard. In some places, numbers have as few as three digits. In cities, one number might have five digits, whereas the phone next door might have nine. Germans also often hyphenate their numbers differently. But since all the area codes are the same, these various configurations should have little effect on your phone usage once you get used to the fact that numbers vary from place to place. If you are calling from a public pay phone in Germany, you must deposit the basic local rate.
Mobile Phone
Compatible with the rest of Europe and Australia, Germany uses GSM 900/1800, but not with the North American GSM 1900. The simplest solution to get the convenience of a mobile in Germany is to go to any telecom shop (T-Online or Debitel), buy the cheapest phone you can find and load it up with a prepaid chip for airtime which can be recharged as needed without any contracts or billing hassles.
Phone Codes
To call Germany from abroad dial your country’s international access code, then 49 (Germany’s country code), then the area code (dropping the initial 0) followed by the phone number.
The international access code from Germany is 00. To call Germany from the United States, dial the international access code 011.
On the one hand, 0800-starting numbers are toll free, but on the other hand some numbers are charged per minute. Hotels often also charge calls from the direct dial phone at a special rate which can be expensive. Avoid any “0190”-numbers. They are extremely expensive.
Time
Clocks are set to Central European time (CET). That means that the country is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST) in the United States and one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). When it’s noon in Germany, it’s 11 am in London, 6 am in New York and 11 pm in Auckland.
Summer daylight saving time comes into effect at 2 am, on the last Sunday in March, when clocks are set forward one hour, and ends on the last Sunday in October.
Always check if you are traveling during this periods – especially if you need to catch a plane.
Official times, like shop hours, train schedules, film screenings etc are usually indicated by the 24-hour clock, e.g. 6.30 pm is 18.30 h.
Tips
If a restaurant or bar bill says “Bedienung inklusive”, that means a service charge has already been added, so just round up to the nearest euro. If not, add 10% to 15%.
Also round up to the nearest euro for taxis. Bellboys get € 1 per bag, as does the doorperson at your hotel, restaurant or nightclub. Room-cleaning staffs get small tips in Germany, as do receptionists or concierges who perform special favours such as obtaining hard-to-get theatre or opera tickets or restaurant confirmation.
Tourist Information
Tourist Offices in Germany
Tourist offices, that provide information and maps (usually also in English), you can find in just about every city and town in Germany. They can also be called ’Verkehrsverein’, ’Fremdenverkehrsverein’, or ’Fremdenverkehrsamt’.
German Tourist Offices Abroad
For further questions or printed material about Germany contact the GNTO (German National Tourist Office) branch in or close to your home country.
Canada
tel. 877-315 6237 within Canada, 212-661 7200 outside Canada, fax 416-968 1986
www.cometogermany.com
480 University Ave, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1V2
Ireland
tel. 020-731 70908, fax 020-495 6129
www.germany-tourism.ie
PO Box 2695 London W1A 3TN
Netherlands
tel. 020-697 8066, fax 020-691 29 72
www.duitsverkeersbureau.nl
Hoogoorddreef 76, 1101 BG Amsterdam Z0
UK + Irelandtel. 020-731 70908, fax 020-495 6129
www.germany-tourism.co.uk or www.germany-tourism.ie
PO Box 2695 London W1A 3TN
USA
tel. 212-661 7200, fax 212-661 7174
www.cometogermany.com
Chanin Bldg, 122 East 42nd St, 52nd Floor, New York, NY 10168-0071
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