Everything closes on Sunday - shops, supermarkets, pharmacies - with stations and airports the only exception. Type and sockets at 230V, and English is common but thins out fast outside tourist settings.
- Sunday is closed - retail, supermarkets and pharmacies all day, countrywide. The legal exceptions are shops inside main stations, airports and motorway services.
- Plan Saturday accordingly: supermarkets run 07:00 or 08:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday, later in Berlin.
- Sockets are type and at 230V, 50Hz, so UK, US and Australian plugs need an adapter.
- Corpus Christi and All Saints' Day close business only in Catholic states such as Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, which catches people travelling between regions.
- Quiet hours apply in residential buildings, generally 22:00 to 06:00 and all day Sunday, and neighbours do complain.
Sunday is closed. Plan Saturday accordingly.
- The Shop Closing Act keeps retail, supermarkets and pharmacies shut all day Sunday across the country. The legal exceptions are shops inside main stations (Hauptbahnhof), airports and motorway services - which is why the station supermarket is packed on a Sunday afternoon.
- Normal hours: supermarkets 07:00 or 08:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday, up to 22:00 in Berlin. Department stores 10:00 to 20:00.
- Power: Type and sockets, 230V, 50Hz. UK, US and Australian plugs need an adapter.
- Time: CET (UTC+1) in winter, CEST (UTC+2) from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
- Tap water is safe everywhere and free.
- Language: English is widely spoken by younger people, hotel and airport staff and in tourist venues, and much less so in bakeries, small towns, government offices and among older people. Guten Tag and bitte go a long way.
Public holidays that close everything
New Year's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day and Whit Monday, 3 October (Day of German Unity), and 25 and 26 December. Transport runs a Sunday timetable. Corpus Christi and All Saints' Day (1 November) close business only in Catholic states such as Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, which catches people travelling between regions.
Small things that matter
- Pfand: bottles and cans carry a EUR 0.25 deposit, refunded by machines in supermarkets.
- Recycling is taken seriously and bins are separated by colour in every building.
- Quiet hours (Ruhezeit) apply in residential buildings, generally 22:00 to 06:00 and all day Sunday. Neighbours do complain.
- Public toilets usually cost EUR 0.50 to EUR 1.00, often coin-only.
- Cash for the bakery. It bears repeating.
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