Leipzig Hotel Merkur

The Merkur Hotel was 5 stars but definitely not up to par with western standards. Just little touches gave it away as being from the east. We got through the front door with our back packs on and got escorted to our room by a very helpful porter. He mentioned how much he liked Proteus and Paula went into a diatribe on "do you know how they grow?" given in a tone of voice I have come to know as "now let me explain it carefully because you are a foreign idiot". . We only realized after this that he was hanging around for a tip. He even demonstrated how each draw opened and closed. Oh well can't he see we live on 16 marks a day! We had free chocolate, fruit and perfume in the room and after a luxurious bath and putting on our gowns we fell into a stupendous sleep in soft beds made by some one else! Next morning we had one of those beautiful buffet breakfasts. I treated myself to bacon for the first time in ages, along with many other delights. We had dinner in the staff canteen the night before - it was more expensive and not as nice as our staff canteen in the Munich Sheraton.