cherylforeurope

Okay, my grey matter is not up to par since I
have to ask this. So many pictures of hotel rooms show huge, almost bed length pillows which aren't as wide as the bed and way to big for a pillow. What are they? And I'm sure this is giving someone a reason to laugh.

hsv

They are covers, I suppose. Very often they have down inlays which makes them so fluffy - and tremendously comfartable!

elberko

It's a duvet (comforter) folded in half and sideways. Each person gets their own, so there would be two on a double bed.

~Liz

Betsy

I think it's the duvet, Cheryl. It's plumped and folded. Duvets are used in Germany in place of sheets and bedspreads. I've never quite mastered the technique of using them in the summertime and usually end up shaking the enclosed fluffy duvet down to the end and sleeping under the cover.

cherylforeurope

Mystery solved.....thank you all!!

coco

I am laughing! They are duvets and I have yet to stay at a hotel in Germany that didn't have them. This is in lieu of a top sheet (or 2) and blanket. I personally loathe them in the summer. I was at the Adlon in Berlin 2 weeks ago and asked at check in to have some flat sheets sent to our room, didn't even bother to wait to see if we'd need them. (Yes we did.)

Patrick

Some people love duvets. I have a couple of problems with them.
A) In the middle of the summer they remind you of a ski lodge in January. You will sweat under them extensively.
B) Most duvets are exactly the size of the bed itself, or possibly an inch bigger in width. That guarantees that they will shift from side to side exposing you in the rare event you really do want to keep warm.
C) You have two choices with the length of the duvet. You can pull it up to your chin in which case your bare feet will stick out at the bottom. Or you can tuck it under the mattress at the foot of the bed to hold it in place, and then it will reach all the way up to your mid section, exposing your upper chest and shoulders.
D) unlike an old fashioned sheet with a combination of a blanket or two so you can opt for how much warmth you want, with a duvet you have two choices. Either you can throw it off you and freeze or you can cover yourself up and roast. There is no happy medium.

Vorkuta

Yes, they're probably just the duvets.

That said, pillows in many German hotels are big. (It's the same in many central and East European countries, including Russia). Some pillows are at least twice the size of the average North American pillow. If you lie with your head near the top of the pillow, then the bottom of the pillow is half-way down your back.

cherylforeurope

I won't be informing my husband of this....he
always sleeps with feet out and very little cover. ;-)

suze

This was at a friend's home recently in Switzerland... the twin guest bed was covered in a top-of-the-bed exactly size summer duvet, but she offered me a light-weight Egyptian cotton sheet/blanket to use instead. I would assume a hotel would have something similar is you requested it.

aeiger

Hi
The large pillows are made usually of down. My grandfather always slept on one.
alan

SeaUrchin

Years ago I discovered these duvets with down in Switzerland and fell in love with them. I have them in all of my bedrooms at home and I love to wrap myself up like a burrito and get toasty, but then I am not so tall that my feet hang out.

There are also "body pillows" that take the place of a person if you are lonely, such as: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:g...lows&hl=en

MyriamC

Patrick, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. A really good duvet (filled with 100% eiderdown) will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter as it adjusts to your body temperature. Most hotels, though, don't have that good quality duvet. Some have 'duvets' with synthetic filling, which are absolutely horrible as they will indeed make you sweat like a horse in the summer!
Your second point, duvets being exactly the size of the bed, is indeed true for most German/Swiss hotels. A pain! Our duvets at home are long and wide, the same as our normal sheets used to be. They can be tucked in at all sides of the bed.
Nothing more comfortable than a fluffy duvet for a good night's sleep, which is what I am going to do right now!

rex

By contrast to Patrick's views, I think a duvet is just right for any climate (though I have never traveled in Europe when it was REALLY cold).

But for any nights I have been in Germany, Switzerland (or other places they have them), I have found them just right - - more as something you lie against (and maybe a little bit under). And they are ideal for two people who want differing amounts of covering up - - each has individual climate control!

Your hubby who mostly sleeps out of the covers (feet or otherwise), may find them a perfect answer to having as much or as little as he wants (er... or maybe you control that... wink...)

Best wishes,

Rex

flanneruk

The argument for duvets is really about housekeeping.

British housewives converted en masse to duvets in the 1970s when they realised:
1. How much easier beds were to make
2. Men might wash up and clean. But, in the generations that hadn't known compulsory military service, men were (and remain)incapable of making beds with sheets properly.

As a result, any British home run by people under 60 that doesn't use duvets is almost certainly Fogey territory.

As MyriamC says, the secret is to use only the very best eider down. Any other filling, and it's roast in summer, freeze in winter.

Giovanna

We love ours and sleep with it year around. No top sheets, just a fitted bottom sheet and our down filled duvet with cover on top. We use flannel in the winter and cotton in the summer. Works for us.

I loved the duvets in Prague, Vienna and Hungary last year at all the hotels we stayed at.

Guess it's just a matter of opinion!

Patrick

Sorry, but I still refuse to believe a thick duvet filled with 100% eiderdown is actually LIGHTER and COOLER than a plain thin cotton sheet, which in warm summer months is ALL I want over me.

nytraveler

One of the things I love about traveling in the Alpine areas are the unique and intereting bed furniture. Besides the feather duvets (one per person) I love the gigantic pillows with the tiny little pillows on top of them. And the little foot doilies they put on the floor where you get out of bed.

I also love when they take your nightie and fluff it up to make a little person shape of it (bosom, waist and hips) ontop of the duvet - instead of just folding it under the pillow.

Perhaps I'm easily amused.

Christina

I'm with Patrick on this one -- I've had duvets in 4* hotels in Czech Republic and maybe some other countries over that way, and they were too hot in summer. Maybe they weren't 100 pct eiderdown, but they weren't cheap. I have one at home that is 100 pct down and not cheap and I'd never use that in summer.

I realize this is custom, but it just seems dirty to me, also, the idea of sleeping without sheets, especially in the summer, as washing those duvet covers regularly would be a lot more work than washing sheets. I have several duvet covers at home and would not want to wash them as often as sheets, they are mainly to keep them clean and change the decor (as my duvet is white).

I was in a hotel in London that had these and it was Swedish, and I couldn't understand why people were sleeping without sheets, and I had to throw them off as they were too hot. I know people who love these don't get this, but I don't get down duvets in summer when it's 95 degrees. Isn't down used in parkas, etc., because it is one of the lightest-weight warmths you can have? I wouldn't wear a parka around in summer.

nytraveler

I believe the purpose of the duvet covers is that they are easily washable - just like sheets. Everyplace I have used them they were changed regularly - not like hotel bedspreads. It's true they're kind of hot in the summer (even in Switzerland if its' warm). then you just sleep with nothing.