<BR>If there's a prize for the most different ways to flush a toilet, I would have to give it to England. Handles, pulleys, buttons, a tile in the wall, & even a plunger in the water tank similar to setting off dynamite! Any other types not mentioned here??

We encountered a wonderful "advanced" toilet in a Swiss restaurant loo. When you ran your hand over a sensor, it not only flushed, but a sanitising arm moved out, and the seat rotated 180 degrees while the device sprayed disinfectant over the surface. <BR> <BR>It was quite a conversation piece, in three languages, with the ladies waiting in line!

My first encounter with one of those "smart" toilets was in a café in Aix-en-Provence in 1994. You didn't even need to run your hand over a sensor; the sensor just detected when you got up and everything was automatically taken care of. <BR> <BR>I haven't been to England since 1980, but I do recall all the handles and pulleys and whatnot. Thanks for bringing back some funny memories.

Even modern toilets can be confusing! Just back from a one-night (layover) stay in Osaka. The toilet in the hotel had a LCD control panel and all sorts of gizmos. Managed to wash down the bathroom door with a jet of water spraying out of the toliet. Apparently that was the built in 'bidet' function and we had turned up the water pressure (apparently adjustable) while randomly pushing buttons. Got quite a laugh from the whole affair. We did figure out the 'flush' function, which fortunatly was straight forward.

scigirl, <BR> <BR>I know what you mean. Same thing happened to me the first time I used it.. Like the buttons though for making the seat nice and toasty. Better then the squat toilets there with the grooves for your feet.

hi, wow, Your on the way to be Troll Number one this year. Carry on.

Maybe it's just me, but I found both hotel and public toilets working "differently" in London. There was a "traditional" lever, pulling which produced... nothing. Well, maybe a little noice. I had to move it down and force it up - repeating this several times in "pumping" motion took desired effect. I complained to the hotel staff, and the have sent a technitian, who determined that everything works as it should. At the end I just wodered if the Queen has a special person assigned to... Maybe that where the term "royal flush" comes from?

How about the full/flush and half/flush <BR>buttons in Australia? We spent 5 wonderful weeks in Adelaide in 1996 and we thought they were a great way to conserve water! <BR>Patti

I haven't had problems flushing toilets but I have an encountered the coolest toilet in Innsbruck, Austria at a thai restaurant (austria being known for their thai cuisine) in anycase you flush and a little brush comes out over the seat sprays some disenfectant and the toilet seat actually rotates and then there is a drying mechanism..the coolest thing, I even took a picture of it!

One of the first questions when I get off a plane after a 7-10 hour flight is "will I be able, in my sleep-deprived state, to figure out how to flush the %$*^%$ toilet" in the airport. In Zurich, for example, it's a pedal on the floor. <BR> <BR>The highpoint [???] of my porcelain perigrinations was in Sydney, Australia -- turns out that the bathroom fixtures in the airport were made by a company named FOWLER -- this can be a surreal experience to find that you have flown 18 hours total to learn that they've named the toilets after you!

"Some time ago, an English Lady was looking for rooms in a little village called Lortz in Germany. The local schoolmaster took her to see several delightful homes, and she eventually decided on one. On her way home however, it occurred to her that she had not noticed a W.C. She immediately wrote and asked if there was one near the house. The schoolmaster on receiving the letter, was much troubled, for his English, being limited, he did not understand the abbreviation W.C. Finally, he asked the Parish Priest to help him, and together they tried to think what the Lady must mean by W.C. At last they came to the conclusion that the Lady meant Wesleyan Church. So the schoolmaster replied - <BR> <BR>"Your Ladyship, <BR>I have much pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated about nine miles from the house in the centre of a grove of beautiful scenery. It is capable of holding 250 people. It opens on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday of each week and as there are so many visitors in the summer months, I would advise you to go early, although there is plenty of standing room. This is an unfortunate position for you if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be glad to know that quite a number take their lunch and make a day of it, while others who cannot spare the time, travel by car and arrive just in time. I should especially recommend your Ladyship to pay a visit on Tuesday as there is an organ accompaniment. The acoustics are excellent and even the most delicate sounds are audible. <BR>It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in our W.C. and it was there that she first met her husband. I remember the barrage quite well on the account of the rush for seats. There were ten on the seat I usually occupy and it was wonderful to watch the expressions on their faces. My father has been a regular since the day he was christened in its waters. <BR>A wealthy resident of the district erected a bell which rings every time a member enters. A bazaar is to be held soon and the proceeds will go towards helping to furnish plush seats as every member feels that it is a long felt want. My wife is rather delicate so she cannot attend regularly, and it pains her very much not to be able to go more often. I will be delighted to reserve the very best seat for you if you advise beforehand, so you will be quite comfortable while you are there. <BR> <BR>Yours Faithfully, <BR>Lortz Schoolmaster."

How about the one on the Chunnel between Paris and London. After using the toilet, tried to flush, looked EVERYWHERE and could find nothing so foolishly opened the door to another waiting lady and she pointed to a diagram on the base of the toilet with the scene of the front of a shoe. In other words, "Just step lightly here" and it worked. Is always an adventure in Europe, with such a variety. However those are the kind of things that make travel soooo interesting.

I love this thread, especially the old chesnutt about Her Ladyship in Deutschland and the image of scigirl spraying down the stall door. Keep it up (not the seat, the topic).

I'm not quite used to the toilets that flush when the sensor sees you get up. I do my business, rise, turn around, and wait. . . wait . . . wait, sometimes waving my hand in front of it. What are those things looking for? I can't just leave and let the next person who comes in think ill of me by not flushing. <BR> <BR>Maybe the sensor doesn't see me because I'm oh-so-thin.

No problem figuring out the toilet at a roadside cafe in Morocco: <BR>Hole in the ground, spigot, bucket.

Is is really necessary for vulgar, people, namely Americans, to lower the tone of this forum with such a crude subject such as this?

Okay, maybe this topic is a tad crass for Miles. But I'm getting a good laugh! It's funny because it's so true --- I think many of us have had one of those 'scratch your head' moments when trying to figure out how the heck do I operate this plumbing. <BR>

I went to Budapest and Rome this past May. In Budapest - it was very easy to figure out how the plumbing worked - there is something to be said for good old Communist straight forward know how. However, at the hotel I stayed at in Rome, the bathroom was compact and thus very well designed. It must have taken me about 10 minutes to figure where the flush handle was - turns out it was a push panel behind the hanging bathroom towels. I won't even begin to tell you about the murphy-bed styled bidet (at least, I'm pretty sure it was a bidet.....) <BR> <BR>Thanks for the laughs and the relief in knowing I'm not the only one.

LOL! And I thought I was the only one who has spent literally hours (total) of my vacations in Europe trying to figure out how to flush, I was "overseas" the first time I ran into an automatic flush. I'll never forget standing there forever trying to find something, anything, that looked mechanical: a handle, plate, button, tile, etc. Finally, decided to go out of the stall to ask the question, and, lo and behold, it flushed. Scared the dickens out of me! This is a great thread. Got my chuckles for today.

I got a kick out of an in flight magazine on a flight back from Japan when they had a diagram of how an American toilet worked, complete with a stick cartoon drawing of a person using it!