Andrys - Oh, way too funny. Had to send to my girlfriends.

Travelnymph - I'm sorry for the predicament you were in but I was laughing out loud and couldn't stop. Remebered I was at work and still couldn't control myself. This too will be sent to my girlfriends. This is something we all fear could happen to us.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

My worst toilet - Pisa train station, waited in line when it was my turn I opened the door and it was a squatting situation. Personally, I don't do the squatting thing (afraid I won't be able to get up) so I turned around and prayed the toilets on the train weren't too bad. They were 'ok'.

Linda

Okay, I just had to add my bit to this thread! I am not going to say any potty experience was "the worst," but China takes the cake for what we called "squatties." My favorite was when I went up the Yellow River to some buddhist caves carved into the rock face. There was a little trail out to one side and at the very end there was a little alcove carved out of the rock. There was a hole in the ground... that I could look straight down into over nothing but open air below. I don't even want to think about where it all went!

My second favorite incident is actually the "worst toilet" for a little friend of mine... a four-year-old we had with us who was paranoid about public WCs to begin with. We were on the train for about 8 hours and this stubborn little girl "held it" for about 5. Finally her mother insisted that they go to the restroom. The rest of us watched as she exited our cabin... pause... and about 10 seconds later, this absolutely blood-curdling, spine-chilling SHRIEK echoes down the entire train car. Apparently the horrifying first sight of a train squatty was just too much to handle!

Best restroom: gorgeous one in Tru Restaurant in Chicago.

Worst: Never used a 'turk', but I was amazed to find one in a brand new rest stop on the Autoroute between Rouen and Brugges had a shiny, brand new 'turk'. I waited until lunchtime!

quote:

Years ago in Germany, there was a toilet that had a shelf so when you made a deposit...it would sit there until you flushed it. Yuck!!

I first saw these in the Netherlands and was puzzled. Years later a friend told me they were originally designed that way so you could examine your... product... for parasites you might have ingested from fish.

I was on a tour of Greece. I used the restroom at one of the monasteries in Meteora. It had a flush toilet but was open to the sky. A small sapling grew from between the stones in the wall of the stall!

With reference to "germs everywhere" posted earlier. I occassionally have to teach somebody with little or no knowledge of microbiology about "germs". I tend to use the following fact as an opening.

If you had a "star trek" type teleporter, that could break down your body into component cells. If you then split all the cells that were "you" from all the bacteria that live in or upon your body into two piles - The bacteria would outnumber the "You" cells by about 9:1.

What a depressing thought - I am just a bug condo !

Well, recent news may have us worrying less about TOILET germs :-)

That mobile phone of yours?

This CTV News article talks about the latest and also points out the situation with work desks (vs toilet seats) also.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/200...0804?hub=CTVNewsAt11

ABC News article - sort of gross
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/story?id=2273311

A CBS News article follow-up story
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/04/earlyshow/con...ay/main1865106.shtml

A doctor's advice
http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=...7A-A010-290E69CADB35

And on one of the links above, a doctor points out that these things are all over and an abundance of them can even boost our immune system capabilities :-)

- Andrys, with happy news as always

Mezzalu - I was just at Tru recently. I *loved* the sink! I made my husband go use the men's room so he could see one too

I am very very finicky about public toilets, but have actually come to appreciate the hole-in-the-floor types. Hey're hard on the thighs but at least you don't toucn anything.

Here's one of the cleaner ones I've seen ...


THis was near Alba Italy.

The wrost I've used had nothing to do with cleanliness. It was on a train in Scotland in December and the WC had no heat. When my bare skin touched that porcelain I learned the true meaning of cold. I couldn't get warm for motnhs afterwards.

Great topic (in a weird way). Glad i'm not the only one who thinks about, talks about and takes photos of, toilets!

quote:

Well, recent news may have us worrying less about TOILET germs :-)

I read some time ago that you are actually better off germ-wise standing over the toilet eating your lunch rather than standing over the sink!

Toilets seem to be much maligned, huh?
(Of course, some of them -- according to the above posted pictures -- probably deserve to be!)

Gard, your Japan hotel room photo brought back memories - not of a trip to a Japanese loo - memories instead of recent shopping for toilets for our remodeling. I was most impressed with the Japanese brand Toto. Your photo shows a washlet and you can buy them in the US. If you don't have room in your bath for a toilet and a bidet, a washlet is the answer.

[quote]Worse: well, In Beijing snip

I was in China in 1978-1980 my worst was being taken to a oblong cement pad with about 10 holes in it, and needing to make a monthly change of a personal item having to turn my back and find that they were all watching in what I was doing....
The best after 3 months in the country tp at the old Peking Hotel...............

Omigod, Joanne!

It can't be that they don't know what that's about or that they don't have a sense of privacy galore too. How odd!

Sorry for laughing! With some horror.

- Andrys

DITTO!!!!!

Terry

It was very disconcerting to sit on this toilet seat in the ladies room of The Rusty Barrel steak restaurant in Ponca City, Oklahoma:

kayjay, just where did you get such a nice picture of the toilet seat?

LOL! I googled (images) key words such as toilet seat, barbed wire, razor, etc. and voila; what an array of vicious toilet seats!!

I posted here a link to a cool website with many restrooms all over the world. You should take the time to leave your comment about the bathrooms you have visited! Good or bad! That's one useful database!!!

Agree that the toilets at Pisa railway station are the 'pits' literally.

But some of the trains would have had me whistling if I hadn't kept my mouth closed.

Best toilet was in Holland. The seat rotated and cleaned itself once you pressed the button. Stood there gobsmacked and watched until it finished. Amazing!!

Elly

I love this thread…and so does my wife Lin who’s fear of dubious Loo’s has almost turned into a phobia.
Modesty prevails when she disappears into a public toilet. Even when on holiday in the States she is amazed by the huge gap under some of the doors (“I could limbo under it”) sometimes this is balanced by a low cubicle side panel. She says it’s a little disconcerting to be able to see the top of your neighbours head whilst you are both in repose upon the throne as it were.
Personally I hold some of these public conveniences in great esteem i.e. the facilities at twin Bridges Marble Canyon Arizona. Here the rock & rustic ambience is enhanced by the fact that your seat is set above a considerable drop into a large cavern, which surprisingly does not smell. This could well be because during your spell firmly ensconced on the pan your nethers are being cooled by a significant but natural breeze! This can be most soothing if spicy food has been the order of the day.
I leave you with a shot of one of our ‘ports of call’ that outside retains a certain amount of charm, inside..a different matter. Having said that it is situated at around 11.000ft John.

Among the best for me and the worst for DH was in the SAME PLACE. The Cadillac Bar in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. This is back in the late 60's early 70's. The woman's room was gorgeous!! Talavera tiles, talavera painted sinks, thick oak doors on individual rooms (my closets should be so big!!). An attendant who immediately cleaned it after you left and thick fluffy towels to dry your hands on.

The men's room was a different story. I came back to the table, told hubby "You have GOT to check out the restroom!!" Well he goes through the door for the guys and finds himself in the alley outback with a horse trough with water running through it!! He would have thought he had gone through the wrong door and come back but one of the other patrons was using the facility.

Since then I've been in some pretty spectacular restrooms (and spectacularly bad). One of the best is the restroom at the Enoteca Capronica in Rome. Located in a 13th century wine cellar with cutting edge 20th century fixtures.

If I could ever find it I would return again and again but my best ever is lost in the time warp that is Rome. There is a restroom in Rome in an office building (built probably during the Belle Epoque era) that the ceiling is a recreation of the sistine!! Someplace north of Vatican but south of the Tiber. I was totally lost and desperate.

The turk toilet at the Uffizi is among the worst I've ever been in and as mentioned train and plane toilets (particularly on transatlantics with full planes!!) What idiot decided 6 toilets could do the job for 600 passengers for 12 hours?

Mordeci Richler back in the 60's wrote a hysterically funny novel called "St Urbans Horsemen". His protagonist had a brother (in law? memory fails) who was a plumber. This guy's vacations were all "working vacations". He'd go to Paris and see the sewers!!