When he was finally done, he approached us and I said “Hi how are you?” with a smile.
There’s probably the problem. Don’t ask a german “how are you”, they will interpret it as the start of a conversation, not a greeting. You might either get weird looks or a detailled personal and medical history of that person. In food service, you get to the point. A “Excuse me” or “Can we order please” is a way better way to initiate an order.
Weird. Never thought it to be real. In Warhammer 40k, only a populace of a specific planet has those purple eyes. Kinda neat to know that this might have been a super-specific random event (first human settlers of that planet having purple eyes).