Hi! First of all, bravo on planning a couple of cities solo! I've been traveling alone for years. As to your question, in restaurants I always bring a book to read or a laptop to mess with. I find sometimes I get involved in neat conversations with strangers, but if not, I peacefully read my book. Nobody stares, that's so 1960's! ;-) Really, you can feel comfortable anywhere you want to go. I had the pleasure in Italy of having the owner set his son and daughter with me, he just couldn't stand seeing me eat alone. It was awesome, they were really neat people. Have a great trip!

When I traveled in Germany it was quite a common practice to sit at tables where other people were sitting, actually the expected thing to do, and almost everyone knew some English. I tried using German that I'd studied in my car, but it wasn't so good.