Rathaus Apotheke! Saves the day!…read more Despite my best wishes and most humble efforts to rid myself of the cold I picked up somewhere between Newark Liberty Airport and MUC, the cold was sticking. Boxes of tissue, cough drops, gallons of healing tea (or I hope so, all the labels were in German). Coupled with jetlag, well...things were starting to get ugly. I was pointed in the direction of the International Pharmacy near Marineplatz. It, like other German pharmacies, is very clean and orderly. And ONLY sells medicine. This is not like in the States where you can buy anything from pantyhose to hairdryers to whatever else you might dream up. MEDICINE things only. And face creams...haven't quite figured that out. I'll report back. But, my research leads me to this advice for foreign travelers unaware of German pharmacies... Protocol: 1. Enter pharmacy. 2. Wait in line. 3. Speak with assistant or pharmacist, describe your ailment. 4. They will pick something out for you. 5. They will ask you several health questions as required by law. (do you take such and such, which will react conversely with this, etc) 6. They sell you the drugs. Then you go home, you down that Nyquil with your last bit of effort, watch The Notebook through half-glazed eyes, fall asleep for 10.5 hours and wake up a new woman! Ok, well that part is not in the typical protocol, but there you have it. I finally got down on my knees and begged the sleep-inducing gods to bless me, and they did so here. At Rathaus-Apotheke.

Ok, I was visiting Germany. However, I needed to buy some homeopathic medicine that is no longer…read moreavailable for sale in the US. Rathaus Apotheke had only one bottle. They order more for me and said it would be ready by 16:00. It was there on time. The salesperson (very nice lady) also had all my tax free paperwork for Global Blue ready. She even improved the date code of the bottles by checking around for other suppliers in the area. Not many people would take these extra steps after I agreed to buy an earlier date code and paid and left to shop until I returned at 16:00 for the pickup.

I like the German pharmacies, they only have medicine not other stuff and staff understood my…read morebroken German with charades. Some food was too strong and they immediately found I needed sleepy pills and stomach medicine. Now only if they had small pharmacy in CA, USA!

Such a wonderful apothecary. I had a cold while traveling and got some medicine in Switzerland. It…read moreworked so well that I decided to get more. I took the bottle in and the woman behind the counter informed me that they did not have the same medicine brand but had one with the same active ingredient. The cost was great, the service was great and she even gave me a free travel pack of tissues. I would definitely recommend this apothecary if you are sick and in Munich.

Your neighborhood pharmacy. They are always smiling, great customer service. Good to know for…read moreforeigners; English is not a problem for them.