Tip Top, Top Tips

It struck me today how it's not just the language barrier you have to overcome in a new country but the foreign culture as well. For example how does one tip in Germany? This may seem like a simple thing, but not so. Do you add it on the receipt? Is it already added? Should you leave it on the table and hope they'll realise it's for them and not just money that the stupid Brits have left behind? Should you give them the tip in cash when paying the bill, then run out so they don't think you want change? Or should you just not tip at all? All of these, plus a few randoms others, were suggested at dinner tonight in Cologne when, between 6 of us, we couldn't decide how it was done. I'd never thought that there would be such a worry about "doing the wrong thing". Eventually the boys took an executive decision to leave it on the table and run!