That's right. When that line is crossed, anything can happen.

As mentioned, this is not just in hotels but in private homes as well. I've always found this "interesting" and actually raised the question with my German friends. Here are some of the responses I got:
-it's easier to launder twin sheets and duvet covers. when you see how small their washing machines are, that does make sense.
- it's significantly less expensive to buy twin size bedding than queen or king, even if you buy far fewer pieces This I don't quite get.
- it's difficult to get king size beds into the apartments and through the bedroom doors. this I also find hard to accept given some of the huge armoires I've seen in Germany.

Now here's my personal theroy: as much as they are more comfortable with nudity (especially in public and semi-public places like parks and saunas), they are not a very sexualized society. As a matter of fact, I see all that comfort with nudity to reflect a "neutering" of the body. Therefore the priority in bed is it's comfort as a personal sleep space. Sex is secondary and will be accomodated as needed.
On a final note, it is kind of funny to enter an upscale hotel room to find these separate beds pushed together. It's hard to imagine those setting the tone for a steamy affair.

I have asked for and rec'd a double or "matrimonial" bed in every hotel we've stayed in, in Paris and throughout Italy. Just because the website shows it doesn't mean you won't have other choices.

I always ask for un letto matrimoniale in Italy but it's still most often twin beds pushed together.

It may be true in Paris or Italy or other places that they have other kinds of beds, but in fact, it often IS the case in some of these countries that do this a lot (Germany, Poland, Czech Rep, etc.) that it is indeed the ONLY kind of double bed available. I know, because I've stayed in all these countries and hate those two twins pushed together or the two twin mattresses in a large frame, and I have encountered hotels where that is all they have--even 4* hotels. It's the custom there, so they seem to think it is fine, and they don't have any reason to have other kinds of beds, although if you cater to a lot of foreign tourists, you would think you might. I don't think it's very sexy, either, and I don't like it at all. Those mattresses are separate in the frame for both, as mentioned, not the kind that are "zipped" together, which can be the case in some hotels or countries to make a "king size" bed.

When I was relating what my German friend told me (as I was curious myself), she said it was because they aren't very romantic or touchy-feely, also. Both sides of my family are of German heritage (emigrated around 1900, I guess), and my grandparents sure weren't very physically affectionate, either. They never hugged or kissed in public, and didn't touch their children much, either (I mean they wouldn't even hug children). They had twin beds themselves, starting at a pretty young age, also, according to my mother--it was just like the 50s on TV where married couples weren't allowed to have a double bed.

Hi Christina,

Nice stories from the past but times have changed. Even in Europe.

Nowadays, teenagers 17+ are allowed to take their boy/girlfriends home to spend the night in the same room. The parents say that if their kids are going to have sex, they might as well do it in their own home.