I went to the Stadtcafé in Elmshorn. Having a very good slice of raspberry cake and a mug of quite decent filter coffee. It's hard to figure out if one should sit down and wait for a waitress. It causes confusion when one doesn't behave like the locals but perhaps it's best to make it clear from the outset that one doesn't know how things work. I see people going to the counter on the way out to pay so there's no need to sit waiting for a waitress or waving to attract attention thank goodness!
No English spoken here; and no WiFi as far as I can tell.
Still at least when the woman at the counter said I should find a table and she would bring the cake and coffee it sounded close enough to Norwegian that I got the message. I catch odd words of conversation going on around me but not enough to make sense of much of it.
Went to a bank just now to get some cash in case this place was like Herby's, cash only. I wasn't concentrating properly and for no reason that I can think of must have interpreted the numbers on the screen as kroner so I took out three hundred! I hope the café has change for a 50 EUR note!
@meggie It was never the same when they got rid of the old wooden counters and modernised it. As a child I loved Woollies partly because it was so different. Once it became all self service like supermarket it lost what made it special.
I've tried and failed to find a picture of the old style interior as it was when I was growing up. Here's the best I could find but it's from a lot longer ago, I'm not old enough to remember when everything in Woollies was not more than sixpence.
From https://flashbak.com/splendid-20th-century-pictures-of-british-woolworths-383793/
@ninalanyon my grandmother told me how the shopping was a high street with individual shops they visited on their one good frock on a thursday. Everyone knew you and stopped to talk. Theres a very old department store near me called John Sanders that used to have wooden counters until recently and the wooden floors still creek when you walk on them.
@22Michelle It was very good indeed! A layer of plain sponge, one of chocolate sponge, a layer of vanilla confectioner's cream, raspberries in a light jelly on top and crushed nuts around the edge.
@Barefooter25 It was very good! I'm not sure it's good enough to warrant a stay in Elmshorn but I might consider making a small detour next time I'm passing Hamburg.
