Toilet Talk

          We get accustomed to our toilets  and bathrooms, but a trip out of the United States will make you rethink what we take for granted. The photos above are from a hotel in Florence Italy. The top is a designer toilet which is square. The bottom photo is the bidet. Many places in Europe depend on a spray of water and a towel to clean yourself.

           In France, most of the facilities were fine except in public areas in the old centers of town where you will find squatting toilets (that is, a hole in the floor) and there may be a bucket nearby to flush.  Some of the street toilets in Paris are automatic; close the door as you leave and the floor gets washed down. In Amsterdam and some other countries, the men's rooms can be just a screen.  In fact, in one area of Amsterdam the urinals are the canals - just walk up to the side of the bridge...

          In Africa we find pretty potties in the hotels and porta-potties in the tent camps in the bush. Not bad.

          In the United Kingdom, my experience has been that the loo is lovely with the exception of the flush. Most toilets seem to be under pressure and you have a feeling you will be sucked out to sea ... sort of like the toilets in airplanes.

          In guidebooks, some people advise that you take your own toilet paper with you. We have never found that necessary, although some countries' sandpaper and toilet paper are very much alike.

          We are now seeing Japanese toilets imported to the U.S. They have mood lighting, seat warmers, and a host of other gadgets. Why, I do not know.