So the German restaurant business seems to work on reservations. So imagine my disappointment when, having made a reservation 3 days in advance, we were unceremoniously dumped on a crumb-covered table with no nice cutlery and napkins on it. In addition if the woman at the table next to us had wanted to go to the toilet, I would have had to get up to let her go past. Couple that with a waitress who didn't actually appear particularly interested in us and I was forced to (shock-horror) actually register my disappointment with a waiter! He didn't seem phased and started banging on about how many reservations they had had. "Get stuffed", I wanted to shout, "and reseat us at our rightful table!".

Of course I just said sorry and no doubt inferred via some ill-chosen German platitude that he surely must be the hardest worker in the whole of Germany or even Europe.

Wine helped, and in the end we had a lovely meal.