ohhhh. I'm trying so hard not to make a comment about your screen name based on this topic, scatcat.

Thanks for a fun thread clevelandbrown. I will now leave Patrick and scatcat to work out the corn cob subject, lol!

Patrick-go for it...I can take it.

Wow

we used to have a Dutch neighbour who often said "why are the English obsessed with tidiness but don't care about things being clean"

The other thing that drove her crazy was people making their beds as soon as they got up keeping all that sweat in the bed - she would take the bed linen off to air the bed.

An example of our neighbour's attitude (and a couple of other Dutch people i have met) was that the children's toys would be scattered around the room but when the children went to bed she didn't pick them up and put them in a toybox - she washed them so they would be clean for the next day.

My personal experience of the Netherlands (which I admit is a few years out of date)is the same. The place may be untidy but don't mistake that for hygeine.

My wife found the most high tech
bathroom she'd ever seen in a cafe
on Museumplein, right behind the
Rijksmuseum... the doors to each
of the stalls in the (scrupulously
clean, by the way) ladies room were
clear glass!

She was a bit taken aback by this,
then noticed some closed doors that were opaque. Turns out once you
put your coin the the slot the glass
turns from clear to opaque thus
providing privacy.

Bet they don't have things like that
in Cleveland! LOL

Rob

No, but I understand a certain senator is working on getting doors like that that work in reverse installed in airport restrooms!

Its true we don't have stalls in Cleveland, at least that I've seen, that require coins. The intermittently opaque glass seems superfluous, unless it clears up after a few minutes to discourage overstaying. There's a similar feature at a restaurant in Hong Kong with one-way, one hopes, glass behind the urinals, so you can stand at a urinal while observing your table and the rest of the dining room.

And I try to forget the clean high-tech men's room at a museum in Florence, where I danced around for quite a while trying to get the hand dryer to start, finally to realize it was not motion activated. They had multi-language signs in the display area; I wish they had had one in the men's room.

I'm perfectly happy with my home bathroom, where the Toto washlet has a heated seat, warm water wash or rinse, a dryer, and a deodorizer, with a handy bin nearby to hold the corncobs.

clevelandbrown, you mean you fell for that "two way" glass behind the urinals in Hong Kong? Did you watch your episode on "Hidden Camera"?

And I'm surprised that Toto has the corn cob holder. I know the Tonto ones have them.

I love the Netherlands but the dog poop situation has always been horrible. True they are cleaning up lately so it is not so bad. I remember eating out one night years ago when two waitresses came over to the table next to mine, joking and laughing and carrying a bucket of sudsy water. They got down on their knees and scrubbed the carpet. Seems that a dog had just pooped there.

BTW, some stalls in Holland do not have TP. Not even an empty roll. I suspect it is because a customer decided that it is all his and took it home after paying a buck to get in. I always carry a roll in my day bag.

"I suspect it is because a customer decided that it is all his and took it home after paying a buck to get in".

He was probably on his way to Russia. :-)

Dude- I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Neopatrick, thanks so much for your fine description of the situation in Amsterdam. The national flushing day made me fall off my chair! My husband the Dutchman thanks you, too.

In addition to the toilet where the glass wall turns opaque after you entered, here is another example of Dutch ingenuity when *delicate* problems need to be solved:
http://www.urilift.com/

Meanwhile we ladies have to keep our legs crossed. or use a http://www.urinelle.biz/. =-O

It must be true - because all the people in Belgium say this about the Dutch!!!!

As an english guy though - I would say that it is a wind-up!!

Belgians say the Dutch are mean, (which is partially true - they prefer the term careful)I've never heard them call the Dutch unhygenic. The Dutch call the Belgians thick (which is consistently disproved in various Dutch Flemish quizzes and the like). Swap Belgian for Irish in jokes and Dutch for Scots an you'll get the idea.

Some more information on the prefered US-toilet paper :-). Apparantely the brand-name Charmin and it's factories in Europe are sold by P&G to SCA:
http://www.sca.com/documents/en/obse..._616735_en.pdf

In the press-release is a really hilarious part:

Jan Åström, President and CEO of SCA, comments: “We know that consumers
throughout Europe are closely involved with their tissue products. Many consumers have
greater demands than those being met by the market today. This acquisition will help us
to take important steps towards improving our customer offer and profitability in our
European consumer tissue operation.”

Some more information on the prefered US-toilet paper :-). Apparantely the brandname Charmin (in Europ not the US!)and it's factories in Europe were sold by P&G to SCA:
http://www.sca.com/documents/en/obse..._616735_en.pdf

In the press-release is a really hilarious part:

Jan Åström, President and CEO of SCA, comments: “We know that consumers
throughout Europe are closely involved with their tissue products. Many consumers have
greater demands than those being met by the market today. This acquisition will help us
to take important steps towards improving our customer offer and profitability in our
European consumer tissue operation.”

Some more information on the prefered US-toilet paper :-). Apparantely the brandname Charmin (in Europ not the US!)and it's factories in Europe were sold by P&G to SCA:
http://www.sca.com/documents/en/obse..._616735_en.pdf

In the press-release is a really hilarious part:

Jan Åström, President and CEO of SCA, comments: “We know that consumers throughout Europe are closely involved with their tissue products. Many consumers have
greater demands than those being met by the market today. This acquisition will help us
to take important steps towards improving our customer offer and profitability in our European consumer tissue operation.”

No more tissue shortage in Europe and certainly not the Netherlands!

I suspect TommieG uses triple-ply toilet paper.