Today is Reformation Day in Germany, celebrating Martin Luther, and closing shops and stores. However, I assumed that cafes and places of entertainment would be open. This turned out to be only partly correct, as I discovered when I took the tram to AugustusPlatz to buy opera tickets to see Mozart's The Magic Flute. The opera is on tonight at 7:30. The box office, however, was not keeping its normal hours. It was closed.
I had checked the website on this and received the impression that the box office would be open. However, it was difficult to be sure because the website is in German, and this is a sample of what Google offered me in its "Translate This Page" function:
TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTION
Please select your idea about the match from.
You can choose divisions or title into the search box to enter. Our subscription offer varied opportunities to our ideas with up to 50% discount to use. Our seating plans show the price at the corresponding seat. Service provides information on travel, parking and opera tickets as a ticket. People with disabilities receive service information accessibility. All questions to the opera go.
I then circled the entire building, looking for an open door that might produce someone to help me. No door, but I did find a musician, splendidly dressed in black tie (why? at 10:30 in the morning?), who explained that the Opera House would open one hour before the performance and perhaps I could get a ticket then. But tonight is the premiere of The Magic Flute for this season, and I didn't want to risk getting all dressed up, going uptown, and then getting no ticket. So the opera must wait.
The fancy cafes in city center were also closed. But my old faithful cafe in BayricherPlatz was open, and I had a "Reformation brötchen." I had eaten most of this splendid confection before I realized why it looked familiar: It was a hot-cross bun, as in the old English nursery rhyme.