Thank you to all of you for the advice you’ve given so far! I’ve learned quite a bit in the past few months, reading books on German culture and history, so thankfully I already knew about shopping hours and personal space. And I’ve been to Australia, so multicolored money and measurements in metric don’t bother me.
constanze, when it comes to this, there is no such thing as “too much” information. I don’t want to spark an international incident out of ignorance!
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
Heh-heh…I harken back to the late 70s when my girlfriends went to Germany to bicycle through the country. My friend’s mother was terrified that she would accidentally bicycle through the gate on The Wall and die under the iron fist of communism. But I guess you don’t have to worry about that.
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Accidentally bike through the gate??? Did your friends mother never see at least one picture or TV shot of the wall and the gates??? 
It’s not something you “accidentally” cross!
[QUOTE=Frelling Tralk]
Thank you to all of you for the advice you’ve given so far! I’ve learned quite a bit in the past few months, reading books on German culture and history, so thankfully I already knew about shopping hours and personal space.
[/quote]
Getting some info on the country you’re visiting is already a big step in not being an “ugly American” - because we dislike tourists who have no idea at all about the country they are in (we consider them ignorant and arrogant = “typically American” 
).
Well, I don’t think you’d be able to do that! Yes, it’s sometimes easy to do things out of ignorance that are offensive in another culture - Wikipedia mentioned in the article on gestures that some Texas football fans were arrested in Rome when showing the “horn” sign - that sign means more like the Devil than a football team there - but that might also be related to being drunk and rowdy, I’d wager.
At the moment, I can’t imagine something you would do - as a normal, nice person, not as jerk - that would cause big trouble. Bush even got away with copping a feel to Angela Merkel…
Of course, there’ll always be some misunderstandings (esp. with language), some things you may consider odd/strange/dumb because they are different from home (maybe some things you’ll find better?) - but that’s part of traveling.
I hope you have fun.
If you do find the time to visit Munich (the Octoberfest starts 2 weeks before Oct.3rd, so you’ll probably miss it, but Munich has lots more to offer!), you could give me a call or something.
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
. If you find yourself on a long train ride sharing a compartment with strangers, don’t expect the kind of personal revelations you sometimes get with Americans.
.
[/QUOTE]
Actually this sort of openness between strangers isn’t strictly an American thing; P.G. Wodehouse mentions the same sort open confession of one’s troubles and dreams to nonce travelling companions, among the English. constanze, the person your fiance met was just a bore, and bores come from all nations.
[QUOTE=constanze]
Accidentally bike through the gate??? Did your friends mother never see at least one picture or TV shot of the wall and the gates??? It’s not something you “accidentally” cross!
[/QUOTE]
I know…the mind boggles, doesn’t it?