Last Saturday the owners of Schwerin’s Cafe Rothe – a city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by German Chancellor Angela Merkel – were allowed to reopen the doors to visitors after the lifting of restrictions on the coronavirus.
While people liked company and time, the motto at the cafe was: “Keeping the social distance”.
Instead of using signs on the floor and perspex screens to keep people separate, the owners of the bar handed out straw hats with two colorful swimming noodles attached to the top.
For the occasion, the owner Jaqueline Rothe posted a photo on the bar’s Facebook page showing customers sitting at the tables with their new headdress.
“Today it is like this: measuring distance,” he wrote in the caption.
Rothe, 52, told CNN numerous happy customers who flocked to the bar to enjoy a coffee, cake or beer in the sun.
“This was the perfect way to distance customers – and fun,” he explained, explaining that the local television company RTL, which was filming the reopening of cafes and restaurants, had the idea.
“It was a perfect gag and obviously it was fun, our customers were really excited. But what showed us (it was) how difficult it was to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters (4.9 feet),” he said. said Rothe, who claimed to have been surprised by the attention her photo has gained in media around the world.
Coffee and patisserie usually have 36 tables inside and 20 outside in warmer periods, Rothe said.
“But with the new sanitation and social spacing we only have 12 tables inside and only eight tables outside,” he said, adding that before the coronavirus their tables would be about 80 cm (31.5 inches) apart.
During the shutdown the bar remained open but was unable to serve customers inside. It is now using less than half of its capacity.
“We will see what to expect when Germany opens up further, more people will be able to travel and we have more tourists arriving in the coming weeks, we will take it as it comes,” said Rothe.
Germany lifted some restrictions on the coronavirus after Chancellor Merkel said the country was out of phase one of the pandemic.
However, Merkel warned that Germany risks a new spike in infections if people stop adhering to physical removal measures.
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