Recently I took a tour Rhine River day cruise that included lunch at Restaurant Zum Anker in Assmanshausen. The waitress was the rudest I have ever seen in the world. When the some diners stood to pay for their extra items, they were ordered sit back down. When one woman drank water from her own bottle, she was roundly scolded for drinking it in the restaurant.
After the river tour we had the unfortunate experience of wine tasting at the same restaurant with the same waitress.
Since this was my first trip to the area, I was wondering if anyone has had this kind of experience or is this the way it is in Germany?

Yikes .. Wow that was very rude .. OK... our son lives in Germany , out side Frankfort and we visit 3 times a year and we eat out and have taken the same cruise ...Do think that waitress was having some sort of a bad day ..
So sorry you had that experience .
The locals are always very kind and helpful ..

Moe

On the other hand, I have to say that if you bring your own water to any restaurant here in Belgium, and start drinking it, you may be shown the door! They do not consider themselves to be picnic establishments, and quite often when lunch is included in tours like this, drinks are not, the restaurant expects to sell these to people. The fact that you mention people needing to pay for their "extra items" seems to demonstrate that this was also the case here.
Perhaps bringing your own food/drink to restaurants is acceptable where you come from, but in this respect at least, the attitude you encountered in Germany is "the way it is" throughout most if not all of Europe.
I can't say anything about people being told to sit down when they stood to pay, but it is also true that normally in restaurants they bring the bill to the table. Of course this does not excuse the manner in which people are asked to conform to expected behaviour (but I don't know in what respect the wine tasting was an unfortunate experience).

Assmannshausen is a major tourist spot. I'm sorry to say that employees at these main tourist attractions are not particularly friendly, because
1. they are usually overworked and
2. they know there will be some other tourists, so they don't have to make a special effort. I've noticed the same attitude in Heidelberg Castle,not in all staff members,but in some.

I don't understand what you mean by standing up to pay for extras. Had the lunch been included in the tour price? And these extras had to be paid addionally? You get the bill brought to your table, you don't have to stand up.

As for drinking your own water in a restaurant: Unless it's for some medical reasons and you explain it to the waitress before ordering your food, this is considered to be really rude. It's just not done. Someone in my group did it a few days ago and this behaviour put a damper on an otherwise very nice tour. This happened in a small restaurant and even though the waitress didn't say anything, we were all embarrassed.

Bringing and having your own food or drink in a restaurant is simply a no-no. That scolding is justified.

No doubt that the waitress could have handled the situations most likely in a better and more polite way. But

> then the some diners stood to pay for their extra items, they were ordered sit back down.
It's rather common to pay while seated. And depending on the kind of method (to remember the orders) the restaurant/waitress is using it may not even work otherwise. Or that e.g. serving the meals to table X (or chat with colleagues) has at the moment a higher priority than making the bills for you.

> When one woman drank water from her own bottle, she was roundly scolded for drinking it in the restaurant.
The restaurants in Germany make their money with the beverages. Not the served meals. Maybe apart from a few Michelin star restaurants. It's extremely rude to bring your own bottles. And it's not very German at all just to ignore such an affront.

While I can't comment on your experience, I have been to Germany three times and never had a bad experience dining out. There are some differences from dining in the US(and I'm not even sure where you are from)but once one understands them it's no big deal.