Category: Germany

Junge, die Bäckerei – an unusual cludgie

Michael MartenLeave a comment

We recently spent time in northern Germany and Poland, and so the next few postings will be recording cludgies from our travels.

The first is unusual only in that it is so very different to cludgies in similar locations in Scotland – because this one was essentially a motorway service station. It was the Pommerndreieck branch of the Junge bakery chain just off the A20 – Junge are present in towns and cities across northern Germany, and are pretty good. This particular branch happens to be near a branch of an American bad food outlet (that one with the Scottish name and the yellow M logo), and you’d want to go straight past that to the Junge bakery on the right!

The cludgie was clean, elegant, and normally unremarkable… but not at all what motorway service stations are like in Scotland, so worthy of a mention here.

A door to the immediate right, with a cludgie cubicle at the back; on the right is a urinalysis with a separating panel before the sink and mirror. The walls are tiled until about half-way up, and then painted green, with white flowers.
Clean and functional…
A cludgie cubicle at the back; on the right is a urinalysis with a separating panel before the sink and mirror. The walls are tiled until about half-way up, and then painted green, with white flowers.
… as all public cludgies should be, as a minimum

Schäfers Café, Bad Staffelstein

Michael MartenLeave a comment

We visited Schäfers Café in Bad Staffelstein with friends we were staying with. The area attracts many tourists, though not so much in the first days of January when we were there. Schäfers is a classic Bäckerei and Konditorei – so a bakery and cake shop – with a few tables for eating in. They cakes were great, and promoted with a lovely sign:

A chalkboard with the following written on it: “Kuchen macht nicht dick! Er zieht nur die Falten glatt ;) Zum Facelifting hier lang” and then with an arrow pointing left, and a sketch of a cake and a coffee below.
The chalkboard inviting you to eat cake.

The translation of this is:

Cake does not make you fat!
It just pulls your lines smooth 😉
This way for your facelift

A sentiment that speaks to all cake-lovers, even if we suspect it’s not quite accurate!

We photographed the men’s cludgies too, because although the decor is not that remarkable – in fact, quite the opposite, it’s really boring – we liked that the urinals are behind doors in a separate cubicle.

An entrance to the cludgies - along the left is a sink and a door leading to a cubicle, in the centre is a window with a radiator below, and then on the right two more doors to further cubicles.
The men’s cludgies, with the urinals behind a door!

This kind of separation is definitely something we would like to see more of!

Gin City, München / Munich

Michael MartenLeave a comment

Gin City is a fabulous bar near the Ostbahnhof, and highly recommended for anyone who wants more than just a standard G&T. We found lots of delightful things to sample from the menu, which offers creative ways to appreciate gins from many different contexts.

The bar itself is a treat for the eyes and ears (changing lighting and cool music), and the cludgies do not disappoint either, from the…

A bright green entrance to the cludgies - the ceiling, walls, and doors are uniformly green, with a light grey tiled floor. On the left, the grey tiles extend about half-way up the wall as the doorway leads into the cludgies.
… spectacularly green entrance…
… to the beautiful – yes, beautiful – sinks …
… which really do appear to be copper (we’re not sure if they are, but they look great).

All in all, a great evening out, and with cludgies that delighted us!