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Published: July 17th 2008
London
Our tiny bathroom in our london apartment. As you can see, Owen can only just fit in!Marion on bathrooms:
One of the challenges and surprises of travelling are the bathrooms - and we have had some interesting ones. Hope you enjoy my musing on them - otherwise hit the flush button! Not that we are fixated or anything; given Brian’s throne picture from Bangkok.
In London the bathroom was welcomingly warm, this provided by the luxury of a heated towel rail. The floor, ½ metre square at most, was carpeted. The shower was over the bath but the water had to be activated by pressing a power switch on the hot water service, situated in the far left corner over the bath. It worked fairly well until it was time to get out and we soon learnt that the heat switched off immediately but the water did not, regardless of whether we were under the rose!
We then had the challenge of drying our bods without burning ourselves on the towel rail. The bathroom was not designed for large occupants. Happily the loo was separate and had its own hand basin.
Our Parisian bathroom was slightly larger - no nasty surprises from the hot water service, the only inconvenience was a window handle
Rome
Our bathroom in Rome - some space at last! that protruded into our backs while under the shower! I guess the window was positioned to let the steam out of the bathroom but it was impossible to shower and have the window open at the same time, since it swung inward. The floor space was a little more generous than London. We did, however, almost need a ladder to get out of the bath/shower, as it was quite high off the floor. The base of the bath was a good two feet higher than the bathroom floor which meant that you had to step over the edge of the bath (around about 3 feet) and down another foot into the bath. This wasn’t too difficult a feat getting in, although it was awkward. On the other hand, we all experienced difficulties with the three foot drop on the way out; the rim was about mid thigh level (and I have long legs).
Onto the Regno Hotel in Rome - The bathrooms are getting bigger, this time with a loo and bidet included. Our bathroom soon looked like a laundry with our washing lines strung across it. My main gripe was the positioning of the toilet roll holder -
Florence Bathroom
Our bathroom in Florence....complete with Bathroom Demon. right behind my right shoulder and approximately 6 inches from the corner - awful design and requiring chimpanzee skills to reach the toilet paper. The side of your buttocks also rubbed against the side of the bath which was less than comfortable.
The bathroom basin had its own plug but with a lever to open or close the drain. We soon became very familiar with the design of these contraptions as they are very common in Europe. I guess it stops the tourists from stealing the plugs. We decided that these plugs are the Stephen’s curse - since we have managed to sabotage three of them so far, including the one at the Regno.
In Florence at Hotel Martelli we had the biggest bathroom so far. We could have held the town dance in there. The floor was covered with deadly slippery apricot marble-imitation tiles. This surface was fine, provided there was no water on it.
Again, the shower was over the bath and with no shower screen, water went everywhere. We soon had towels all over the floor for our own protection. Fortunately there was plenty of space again for our laundry!
It was also
Venice
Surely not...a normal bathroom?! impossible to quietly visit the bathroom because the door was a noisy concertina contraption that rattled each time it was opened - great in the middle of the night.
We also had a mystery object in our bathroom which was a type of sanitation device, connected to the water output and so was activated by the loo, the basin, the shower; in short by any water going down the drain. This contraption, known affectionately by the Stephens mob as Beelzebub, groaned intermittently, even if you just were sitting on the throne.
Sadly the bathroom in Venice was incredibly normal. We were delighted to discover a heated towel rail and used it for drying our washing, even leaving lint on it as a souvenir when it got a bit hot! A traveller’s dream aid!
Most of the showers that we have encountered have had removable shower roses with long metal hoses, as well as a switch to channel the water to either the bath tap or shower. In each establishment it is a puzzle to work out how each of these work, and to stop being drenched prematurely with water that is too hot or cold. We are
Langley Castle
The shower in Langley Castle, with two settings: Hot, or Hot. learning fast, or I thought I was until one morning in Germany.
The shower rose delighted in spinning around and spraying me and assorted bathroom surfaces each time I let go of it. Each assault was accompanied by appropriate abuse from the recipient. Eventually we understood each other but I think it had the upper hand.
Brian continues:
Travelling through Europe created even more bathroom woes and confusion.
Plumbers in these countries clearly are not physicists; they have no conception of surface tension! This means they will insert a partial screen into the centre of the bath top, creating, supposedly a water proof screen between the showering area in the bath and the bathroom tiles. Wrong! The water drips down the inside of the screen onto the top of the bath on the inside of the screen. As water continues to run down the pooled water oozes around the end of the screen, along the top of the bath on the outside of the screen and down onto the floor. Viola! An instantly flooded bathroom.
The only partial solution we have been able to find is to sacrifice a hand towel to the cause and
Schwabisch Hall
His Sink - with ball knobs? place it on the top of the bath alongside the edge of the screen to stop the flow of water. It works, sort of. You end up with a damp floor but not a flooded one.
The number of different contraptions that designers have come up with to control water for a shower is astounding! Along with the ubiquitous flick tap (and these can cause problems too, as they do not all produce colder water when swung to the right, so a little experimentation is always required before immersing yourself under the flow), there are devices with a large plastic dial on the wall, inside of which is a second dial. The outer dial controls water pressure, the inner controls hot/cold. Another device is similar but has a press button that switches on the water instead of the outer dial; there are also long horizontal chrome bars with a section on each end which rotates. The left end controls water pressure, the right end temperature; some of these were fine, but a couple had a right end that drifted back to its original position once left alone.
The designs of the shower curtains and screens have been inventive
and diverse, to say the least. We have had every sort of shower curtain you could imagine; some straight, some curved and some that only covered half the bath that shower in was in, again, resulting in a swampy floor.
Shower screens have also been variable. About from the half screens on the sides of baths I talked about earlier, there were many different ways that the doors closed. Some folded, concertina-like, two part fold, or large swing door, one large slide door. There have also been a number of semi circle and quarter circle showers that give you a "beam me up Scotty" experience when you close the curving doors. Most of the curving doors slid in groves but a couple had swing out doors (drenching the floor when you had finished your shower), and one memorable shower had swing in doors with flanges on the inside making it nearly impossible for anyone (including someone relatively skinny like Owen) to get into the shower and then be able to close the doors.
In Langley Castle Marion and I had a shower with three separate functions, a hand-held shower, massage jets and a "Fully Drench" Shower. The only
Two Sinks
Schwabisch Hall had two sinks...one for him and one for her. problem was that we couldn't use it. Something had gone astray with the plumbing in our bathroom so that both the cold and hot taps delivered hot running water, which meant that the shower was unusable unless you wanted to scold yourself.
We were, however, happy to finally leave Britain so that we could get some water pressure back in our showers. It doesn't matter what type of shower rose was used, every shower in Britain just dripped feebly (as did many in the rest of the continent.
This changed in Tallinn and Russia where we finally got some pressure back; however using the shower in Moscow was quite challenging. Apart from having a mind of it's own and wanting to swing to its own spot in the bath, the tap mechanism is reversed. So turning the tap counter-clockwise increases the flow, clockwise decreases it; important to remember if you don’t want to end up scalded!
We also had some interesting loos. In Claremont-Ferrand, the loo was situated under the stairs to the loft bed, so one had to be careful when one stood up otherwise you bumped your head. (This also made wiping your backside an
Togetherness
The ultimate in togetherness...going to the toilet holding hands. athletic experience!) We have also come across loos made for dwarves and some made for giants.
When we went to Alaska, we had a short stay in Japan. Marion was shocked when she went to the loo to be confronted with a "hole-in-the-ground" in place of the conventional ceramic "throne". Well, we have discovered "hole-in-the ground" loos on this trip also: at the Millau viaduct Tourist Centre in France and at Star City and The War Memorial (both Moscow).
The most sexist bathroom award goes to Schwabisch Hall which (as can be seen from the two pictures), had his and hers wash basins.
The hand basin in St. Petersburg was also challenging. It had a conventional removable rubber plug, unfortunately it was a size or two smaller than the plughole. We needed to be able to fill the basin to launder our smalls and socks. Fortunately our room had a kitchen, so we swaddled the rubber plug in paper towelling and jammed the wrapped plug into the hole. Worked OK, but you end up with a mess in the basin.
Favourite WC signs:
• Koln (Cologne). Shows a man and woman heading off to the loo
Bus Sign
This bus has a toilet....lovely sign. hand-in-hand.
• Bus: A WC sign that forms the letters using a picture of a person sitting on the loo.
And then we come to.... urinals.
Owen and I were somewhat shocked in rural France when we began seeing urinals in the basin areas of dual sex bathrooms. It was often the case that you would pass through a door with both genders on the door to the WC. Opening the door you were greeted with a couple of basins, a couple of urinals and two doors (separate ones for male and female) which led to a standard cubicle or two.
The most blatant of these was in a pub near Domaine Du Coquerel. On leaving the eating area there were a pair of swing bar half-doors, similar to the saloon doors you see in Westerns, behind which were a basin, a urinal and a hand-dryer. The rest of the plumbing was behind another door. Not very private (or hygienic).
In Germany the first urinal I approached was dirty and appeared to have a dead fly in it, so I moved to the next one, which also had a dead fly. On closer (but not too
FLY!
A German Urinal, complete with fly! close) inspection it turned out to be a deliberate design in the porcelain. I assumed it was some makers logo, as we kept seeing them in different loos all over Germany (and later in Switzerland ).
However I came across a thread on the web that suggested they had been placed there to give men something to "aim for". I find this suggestion highly unlikely as the flies were in varying places in different sets of urinals, and some of the "flies" were in positions that would've required very accurate "shooting".
And what we've covered above is pretty much only the tip of the iceberg, sorry bathroom.
Moral of the story - there is nothing quite like your own loo, shower and bath! Enjoy!!!...but it makes travelling even more educational.
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