Bathtubs in Europe
 

Am I being overly critical, or are the bathtubs in Europe the dumbest thing you have ever seen? I think that whoever designed them never took a shower in them. Almost all of them have plenty of space for the water to fall out, because they have curtains which go part way, or glass partitions halfway up. And most have narrow bottoms which make it difficult to stand and turn. I don't find that in the US.

I think you are on to something here. Each night you are on the road, the plumbing in Europe becomes the "mystery-of-the-day." No two sets of plumbing seem the same. You stand there, totally naked, trying to figure how you can keep from being alternately frozen or scalded. And whoever invented those dorky hand-held shower things should have been taken out...and made to use one forever. Worse yet, they were later introduced into these United States as something exotic and/or sophisticated when they really are clumsy and useless. N'est ce pas?

So now you understand why frenchman don't take a bath very often!

In France I usually shower in the bidet.

Europeans only take a shower the day before their birthday and before Christmas. So the quality of the bathroom is not so important here. <BR>

I've got a bathtub story for you - and everytime we're in Europe and confronted with one of those odd sized tubs we think about it and laugh. Back in the 70's this older couple who were friends of my friends parents (I'll call the couple Lucy and Harry) went to France. They had a tub that was extremely high, narrow and deep & no shower attachment of any kind. Harry suffered from arthritis and had trouble getting in and out of the tub, even a low tub was difficult for him, this one was 3 ft high at least. Harry really had to struggle to keep clean and on about the third day in Paris he found he could not get out of the tub, it was simply too high and deep and his arthritis was making it impossible to climb out of the thing. He called for Lucy, she tried lifting him out but lifting him was not easy, Harry weighed 200 lbs & she weighted about 120. Finally she left him in the tub, went to the front desk and tried to explain that her husband was unable to get out of the tub and she needed help. Remember now, this was back in the 70's and not all hotels had English speaking personnel and Lucy spoke minimumal French, certainly not the kind of French that would make this explanation easy! She finally literally grabbed the desk clerk by the arm and dragged him off to their room and into the bathroom where poor Harry was still floundering in the tub. The desk clerk grasped the problem and went off for another hotel employee. Finally, they were able to lift poor Harry out of the tub. When they told us this story at a Christmas dinner in 1985 (and Lucy told it in a hilarious manner) we nearly all died laughing - at poor Harry's expense. He was afraid to attempt the tub the remainder of their time in Paris! <BR> <BR>This lovely couple have since passed away but I never fail to think of their bathtub story whenever I see one of those high/deep tubs that seem so common in Europe.

Having seen at least 700 different variations on the tub/shower thing, I've come to the conclusion that <BR>1) showers are not native to Europe, are, in fact, transplants from the U.S. Consequently, they've lost something in the translation (vis-a-vis, French croissants and Pillsbury Crescent Rolls). <BR>2) Europeans wash by splashing handfuls of water (like washing your face) and use the shower head the same way. Turn on the water splash splash turn off the water soap up turn on the water splash splash Unlike Americans, who require Niagara Falls AND at near-scalding temperatures. <BR>3) The tub design is a throwback to those big tin tubs from the 1600's (the U.S. never had those, we didn't start washing 'til the mid-1800's). <BR>4) plumbing, and the variations thereof, supply more cocktail party stories than just about anything else (except for Uncle Frank's hernia operation, but that's another story...)

During World War II, it was common practice in Britain to paint a line around the inside of bathtubs to conserve fuel in heating very little water. I kid you not when I tell you that we stayed at a smallish hotel in London in 1969--and that painted line was still there in their tubs. And the bottom of the tubs was like sitting on pebbles--very rough, very bumpy, very unclean-feeling. Travelers will be happy to know that this hotel has since become a car park.

Many years ago my teenage sister and I were staying in a rather large hotel in Vienna that had showers in the rooms but no bathtubs. Since we arrived after a visit to Eastern Europe, which at that time meant no hot water, my sister was dying for a hot bath. After many discussions with various people she arranged to go to a "bathing room." I saw her in her robe and gown follow a maid down the hall to some unknown destination. When she hadn't returned after an hour, I grew somewhat concerned. After nearly two hours I knew I had to take action. In my best German I attempted to explain the complex situation to the people at the desk. They assured me that my sister must have ditched me and was out enjoying the city. Since I knew my sister's wardrobe and no clothes were missing, I kept insisting that they go search for her. After endless requests, someone took pity on me and started searching. They found my sparkling clean sister imprisoned in a desolate bath hall. It seems the maids had left and there was no way for her to get out. At first she thought there was some special signal so she tugged and pushed on every piece of equipment in the area. Then she banged on the door, and finally she resigned herself to being at the mercy of her older sister wits... To this day I think the maids revenged her for not tipping them properly.

My response will be contrary to those above. As a person who likes to take long, hot, soaking baths to relax and unwind, the bathtubs are something I very much look forward to when my next European trip is approaching. <BR> <BR>True, you never know what you will get, sometimes a shower so small you can't turn around in, that has been added to a room that never had a shower. But I know I can count on finding very large, deep tubs, which we do not have in the U.S. unless it is a hot tub.

tp

Sjoerd<BR><BR>I am one of those lucky Europeans with a birthday falling in the day before Christmas.

To Al<BR><BR>There are no laws in Europe (afaik) forbidden you to study the plumbing before taking your clothes off.

Warning: Those big beautiful tubs in European hotels can be hazardous. The interior is often a U shape and can be slippery. One morning in Paris I be gan to step in, lost my balance, grabbed the shower curtain (yes it had one), rod and curtain came with me as I did a backward somersault landing on the floor. Fortunately, no bones broken. Moral...step cautiously into foreign tubs.

&gt;1) showers are not native to Europe, &gt;are, in fact, transplants from the &gt;U.S. <BR><BR>The middle class and upper class Victorians in England had elaborate bathrooms with every kind of shower/douche you can imagine. This is when New Yorkers were still throwing their slops into the street.

But the showers in Europe have no american anthrax!