Your favorite European bathroom
 

It's Friday afternoon, guys, and my mind is frying...so for a few fond memories and maybe a chuckle, will you tell me about your favorite European bathroom? It could be your favorite for any number of reasons. <BR> <BR>Mine? I think it would be the large and weirdly shaped room in my first Roman hotel room. There was a window overlooking a courtyard, no shower curtain, of course,beige/stone tile everywhere. I don't really know why that one sticks in my mind, but it does....

I have a big ass and found German bathrooms to be very adequate, so it is a tough choice. A bathroom in Glencoe comes to mind though, where you could actually look out the window after a deposit and see the bodily waste be caried down this beautiful stream nearby. Very ingenous those Scots.

A few comments on the facilities: These are not favorites, just curiosities: The public restrooms at the CS in A'dam: well used and fragrant, and you pay for the experience. Certain other public restrooms in Europe where the Men's/women's where the main rooms were quite open to all to see (though the stalls afforded some privacy). As for equipment: Turkish toilets are interesting, of course. What I thought was almost as unique were toilets in Germany and the Netherlands that have a shelf in the bowl upon which waste is deposited, above the water line, until flushed. Odd and (unpleasantly) aromatic.

I remember standing in a bathroom lineup in Avignon France, when a young American girl was quite hysterical behind our group. Seems, she had to go sooooo badly and went into the library nearby to use their toilet.It was one of these places where the sink was outside the toilet which was in its own room. Door to toilet was locked and she was desperate. Hiked it all up, jumped up to the sink and proceeded to pee - sink fell out out the wall and water started gushing out. She ran (as she was pulling up her pants) and was trying to hide out in our lineup - certain she was about to be arrested for flooding the library....I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants in line.

My first visit to Paris, I was 11 years old and stayed in a very swanky hotel with my mother. We had a large, marble bathroom with an enormous tub, towel warmers, big fluffy towels. But the most amazing thing of all was the bidet. I couldn't imagine what it was for until my mother explained. If I could recreate my dream bathroom it would be that one (with maid service!). My second trip to Paris was last November with my boyfriend, a not-so-swanky-but-OK hotel. What a miniscule bathroom! And no bidet, alas. But I was so thrilled to be there I didn't care.

The Samarataine department store restrooms in Paris. In order to get to the women's restroom, you have to walk through the men's! I backed out hurriedly as soon as I saw men coming out of the stalls, but one man pointed and told me in English that the women's room was "through there." I still didn't believe it until I finally saw some women exiting though the men's area. Quite a surprise!

True story. <BR>Stayed at a small hotel/large B&B in Galway, Ireland. In the morning, had the occasion to sit on the loo in the shared bathroom. Strong breakfast-cooking odors waft into the room - bacon, sausage, the usual. <BR>Glance down to where the WC meets the floor, and through the several and large holes in the floor I can see the heads of the cook and assistant rustling up the grub. I am perched directly above the prep counter, where the tomatoes are being readied for broiling, the toast is cooling to the required icy temperature, and the plates are being chilled for the eggs. Fortunately, none of the folks downstairs bothered to look up. Maybe they'd already seen it all. To this day I don't know how in hell the WC was suspended, with my corpulent self adding to the defiance of gravity. Stout plumbing, I guess.

The hole in the floor behind the door with women/men scrawled in pencil across the front and it was off it's hinges propped against the neighboring wall in the colosseum in Arles. <BR> <BR>The real kicker? There WAS actually a line!

The "bushes" in the country in Provence when I was on a walking tour -- <BR> On the way to our private spots, each of us trampled on or brushed past old dried out thyme and lavender plants gone wild or brushed past still live ones, releasing their wonderful fragrance with every touch. It was much much better than using the foul smelling public "Turkish" toilet in the town we'd just left.

We really do have a favorite bathroom. We stayed at the Hotel du Lourve in Paris a few years ago. The bathroom was huge and completetly done in marble. My recollection was that even the ceiling was marble.The tub was huge. the toilet was huge. You almost needed a step to get up on it. A real "throne". <BR>Fluffy robes, all the amenities. I normally hate aromatic soaps but theirs' were very pleasant and I'm a guy. <BR>We've only got one small bar left we're keeping it as a remembrance of our trip to Paris...Paul J

Our favorite bathroom was at the Hotel Grand in Rome--huge bathtub where we each took two or three baths in a row. The marble floors and walls were really incredible. Worst was in Florence at the Residenza Millennium where the proprietors enjoyed watching us through the keyholes in the shared bathroom. Very creepy. They also tried to come in our room at night, and they groped us every chance they got. We found the true meaning of Dirty Old Men here. Yuck.

Best to this day was at main station in Zurich.You had to pay but ,it was spotless and cleaned after each use.Loved it.

Memorable bathrooms: Hong Kong - I was shampooing my hair in the all glass shower stall & when I opened my eyes, 2 boys were standing there asking if I needed extra towels. Munich - I pulled the string above the tub thinking it would turn on the shower & a lady barged in our room surprising my husband who was sitting on the bed in his shorts. She was screaming something in German as she thought we had an emergency. Both memorable trips!

Gotogo, this is what we have in our Munich apartment: <BR> <BR>toilets in Germany and the Netherlands that have a shelf in the bowl upon which waste is deposited, above the water line, until flushed. Odd and (unpleasantly) aromatic. <BR> <BR>Ha ha! I still haven't gotten used to it! <BR> <BR>The best bathroom I ever had was in Sterling, Scotland at Mrs. Humes B&B. It was a beautiful, big, clean bathroom with a huge tub and fluffy towels. <BR>

The black tiled bathroom in our apartment in Malta was as big as our hotel room in Paris. <BR>As for my favorite bathroom - when I have to go, EVERY bathroom is my favorite.

Now,it's Monday,and I'm looking at another bleak week of trying to make the numbers work. Let me travel back to Rome. A large bathroom, tiled like a mosaic in tiny purple tiles - all over - and a tub about 6 feet long, almost drowned when I leaned back. In Paris, a tub on a platform. Had a little trouble getting into it, but I could touch the ceiling (that room also had a vibrating bed). In Florence, a tub so narrow I had to stand toe to heel to shower - forget about taking a bath, I'd have been wedged in and I'm not that big! The last trip to Paris the room was so small my friend and I stood on the bed to let each other pass. The bathroom was so small if you dropped the soap, you had to go out in the hall to bend over and pick it up. We were very very careful.

Funny stuff.....Shanna, I had to LOL at your comment! John: that was so visually graphic,,,,I don't think I could have eaten bkfst....(it wouldn't hurt me). BUT, in Cozumel and some other parts fo Mexico(I know we are talking Europe here) still can not get over not being able to throw used toilet paper in the toilet(it must go in the trash,UGH!) Most Euopean bathrooms are great in comparison....I could never be on Survivor...EEEK I need my creature comforts, big time! I wish I could be more plucky....oh well, ;-) Judy ps Elvira, to true for words!

In southwestern Crete we were not supposed to throw toilet paper in the toilet in our hotels. This was on a Country Walkers tour. (Apparently the local septic systems can't handle anything as sturdy as paper.) This is especially unpleasant when sharing the toilet with someone who has an intestinal bug. <BR>

Best bathroom: Women's restroom behind the Jewel House at the Tower of London. Voted "Loo of the Year" several years running by the BTA. My daughter and I just cracked up. The boys were jealous. <BR>Worst bathroom: Not in Europe, but on a rafting trip down the Wolf River in Wisconsin I had to utilize a patch of tall weeds along the shore, only to discover (too late) there were nettles among the weeds. <BR>Fondest bathroom memories: Again, not Europe. Road trips with my family of 7 siblings when Dad would try to avoid gas stations so as not to have to buy us all candy and pop. Would park on the side of the road next to a cornfield and say, "Boys down that row, girls down that row", and throw a roll of TP to Mom. Ah, the good old days. <BR> <BR> Anna

Favorite bathroom was at Hotel Regents Montmatre in Paris on the first night of my honeymoom, that would be the bathroom with the gigantic and deep bathtub....;) Least favorite is any lavatory in an airplane... they may start out ok, but by the end of a 10 hr flight..Yuck! Most interesting are those little coin operated ones in London that are all automated, you put your coins in go in, and after you are done, the entire toilette goes spinning around and "cleans itself off" it is pretty bizarre, but clean at least.