You wake on a Sunday morning with a hankering for the perfect home-cooked German breakfast, but when you go to the kitchen you realise you're out of eggs, cheese and – worst of all – bread!
Then the devastating reality hits you like a tonne of bricks: It's Sunday, a day of rest (Ruhetag) in Germany when just about all the shops are closed.
Most foreigners who move to Germany will find themselves unexpectedly confronted by closed doors on a Sunday at least once. For those of us who come from countries where shopping isn't strictly limited by the calendar, it's a lesson we have to learn the hard way (maybe several times) before the German habit of stocking up ahead of Sundays and holidays sticks.
In fact, Germany has some of the strictest laws for opening hours in Europe.
For comparison, shops in the Netherlands stay open on Sundays, often just closing at earlier hours than on other days.
In the UK, shops are generally open for up to seven hours on a Sunday. In Poland, Portugal and Russia there are no restrictions on Sunday opening hours.
Germany's shop closing laws date back to the early 1900s, and were originally brought in for reasons connected to religion – a good Christian should have time for church on "the Lord's day" after all.
But the tradition has since come to be embraced for secular reasons as well, namely ensuring that everyone has at least one day off work for family time and rest.
If you stay in Germany long enough to adapt to the Ruhetag tradition, you just may find that you like it. But in the meantime, it can be quite annoying when you run out of a couple key ingredients on a Sunday morning.
So which grocery stores are open on Sundays?
Germany's strict shop closing rules do come with a number of exceptions, including for; pharmacies, gas stations, kiosks and shops in tourist areas.
But if you need a proper supermarket on a Sunday, there's really just one place to look – at the transit hubs.
Supermarkets in train stations, bus stations, ports, airports, and at motorway service stations are allowed to open their doors on Sundays and holidays. The justification being that travellers, who may be passing through on a day-long or multi-day journey, should be able to find sustenence.
In larger cities this means that you will often find one or two of your standard German supermarkets or discounters in the bigger stations. These would include the central station (Hauptbahnhof) as well as some of the hubs where a number of lines connect. Markets are also often at airports or major bus stations.
READ ALSO: What your choice of German supermarket says about you
In mid-sized cities it may be that the supermarket at the Hauptbahnhof is your only option, and in small cities there isn't always an option at all.
A handy tool is the SupermarktCheck website where you can enter your post code or city name and search for a list of open grocery stores in your area. You can also filter the results for those which are open on Sundays (or after 8- or 10pm).Â
It's not a comprehensive list, but it's useful for finding stores nearby that you might not have come across.
Below are just a some of the options in Germany's most populous cities, to give an idea.
Berlin
There are at least 31 grocery stores in Berlin that list opening hours for Sundays, according to SupermarktCheck.
Many of the main connecting stations around the city's ringbahn, or on the central lines, have supermarkets in them that stay open on Sundays and holidays.
On the ringbahn you'll find open markets at Gesundbrunnen, Ostkreuz, and SĂĽdkreuz, for example.Â
You'll also find open markets at Hauptbahnhof, Friedrichstrasse, Ostbahnhof, Potsdamer Platz and Zoologischer Garden stations, just to name a few. And if you're further to the east, there are shops at Lichtenberg station and the airport.
Dong Xuan centre, a shopping centre with a large collection of small ethnic Asian markets, can also be an interesting place to do your shopping and is bustling on a Sunday.
READ ALSO: Where to buy groceries on a Sunday in Berlin
The Berlin city website also has a short list of supermarkets that are open on Sundays. But again the SupermarktCheck website linked above is best for finding the options that are closest to you.
Hamburg
In Hamburg, you've got at least 11 options for grocery shopping.
Paul-Nevermann-Platz (Hauptbahnhof) has an Edeka, a Lidl and a Rossmann. So it's definitely the place to go if you're near the centre or if you want more options.
Munich
Bavaria has a reputation for taking its shops closing rules very seriously, but in "the village of a million people" you can find Edeka locations open on a Sunday at the central station as well as at Munich's Ostbahnhof.Â
There is also a DM at the Ostbahnhof.
EXPLAINED: Bavaria's complicated rules for when you can buy certain things
There are a few Tegut teo branches in Munich, which are self-service mini-supermarkets. Because they don't require regularly employed staff to be open, these shops can theoretically operate around the clock, including on Sundays.
However, opening hours on google suggest that many of the branches are closed on Sundays. One branch in the north of the city, at WeitlstraĂźe 66, is open on Sundays according to SupermarktCheck.
Cologne
In most parts of Cologne kiosks and small to-go selections at gas stations are the primary options on a Sunday.
There is a Rossmann Express that stays open at the central station.Â
Frankfurt am Main
In the German business capital, the main options are found around the airport, where there is a Rewe, a Rossmann and a Tegut.
In the central station there is a Travelshop that stays open, which is a far cry from a grocery store but can get you by if you're in need of coffee or a simple snack.
Do you have a favourite place to shop on a Sunday, or a helpful tip for surviving the Sunday shutdown? Let us know in the comments below.
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