Where to pee in Germany, Australia, France, UK etc

For any of the folk here who either live in Germany or may need to visit it, I thought you might be interested in this site I found while planning a trip there.

It helps you find public bathrooms/restrooms/loos/toilets/WCs:


www.gratispinkeln.de/toilette-suchen.html

When I got Chrome to translate a few pages it seemed to make enough sense for someone that doesn't understand German.

You search via State("Land") and then town/city, and then you get a map showing the position (eg for Cologne/Köln):

www.gratispinkeln.de/Nordrhein-Westfalen/Koeln/

You can zoom in and see the street street etc, and there is also a description eg "Behind the Cathedral, at the entrance of Musuems."

The site is all about places that are Free to use, but the street maps also mark loads of other ones.

I am hoping it will make my trip easier and less stressful.

Alf

Edited to change title as other countries added in the thread

Post Edited (English Alf) : 6/22/2013 6:32:30 AM (GMT-6)

So ley's add a few more.....

Brussels:
www.brussels.be/artdet.cfm?id=6193&

And UK:
www.findatoilet.co.uk/
or London:
www.toiletmap.co.uk/map/

Paris (search by district/arrondissement):
www.paris.fr/pratique/proprete-des-rues/sanisettes/les-sanisettes/1er-arrondissement/rub_8938_dossier_59613_port_21141_sheet_11848

There are sadly very few public toilets in the Netherlands, I have to go into department stores or McD's (and you have to pay). I know of only one free place where I live and that is at City Hall and that one is only open during office hours.
There are though some weird on-street urinals here. They are concealed in the pavement/sidewalk; at the weekend they rise up from below in the evening and then disappear again in the morning:
www.centrum.amsterdam.nl/publish/pages/441123/sc-uriliften_12-04-12_internet.jpg

Alf, the trick in the US with stores that don't want to supply a restroom is to stick up a sign in the window saying "Restrooms Out of Order". You know its not true, as their employees would have to be able to use the facilities. Or my other favorite, "Bathrooms are only for the use of our Customers", or others along that line.

We all have to go, finding an available bathroom when needed shouldn't become a scavenger hunt each time, lol.

david

Yeah, its a shame that homeless people need to go to the bathroom too, how rude of them.

I remember as a kid living in Rabat, Morocco, seeing the French businessmen, dressed in their best suits, just pulling it out and whizzing into the street from the sidewalks, no one thought anything about it.

Like most of us, in my local area of travel, I know in advance which places have available and clean bathrooms, in case I have an emergency on my hands. Our local Wal-Mart, which is one of the brand new super ones, has the nastiest bathrooms that come to mind. Have complained to the store manager, but never seen any improvements. Some of the cleanest kept ones, are actually at some of the fancier and larger convenient store complexes.

david

I got a speeding ticket the other day because I had to go and man I had to GO!!

Of course, the cop was having none of it. I even showed him my seed card from the Chicago Prostate Center and told him I get urgency. He was like "whatever" and seemed annoyed.

Hope the judge cuts me some slack.

41 in a 25 - 4 points and 144 bucks.

I don't imagine a lot of us need (or want) to know this, but in Vietnam, public urination by men and boys is entirely socially acceptable (but not for women or girls).

Numerous times while going down a road on convoy from one base camp to another we would pass through villages where there would be some guy letting it out by the roadside while a couple of Vietnamese women would be walking right by him and not paying him a bit of attention, having seen it all their lives.

But this was much more acceptable in the rural areas, while in the urban areas doing it was considered proof of being a "hick from the sticks."

Of course what inevitably happened in view of this was that American soldiers caught on to this, and some (certainly not all) of them would, while in village areas, wait for some Vietnamese girls to come by and then, with a big grin of their faces, whip it out and proceed to answer nature's call. How did the girls react to this as they passed by? Invariably with a grin and a giggle.

Not sure if the American command had this in mind when they encouraged the GI's to have "friendly relations with the locals."

davidg,

I lived in Morocco for 4 years growing up. While my father was in the Navy, he was attached to various American Embassies. It was interesting, from there, we were in easy distance to go to Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Egypt, Gibraltar, Canary Islands, etc. My brother and I spent endless hours exploring the many Roman ruins. It was there that I learned the real French language and Arabic. We went to the various embassy ran schools, which were made up of kids from all the other embassies located in Rabat. So it was truly an international affair.

david

and strong quads.

We had those in Italy in old structures, my Catholic School had them. We call them "turkish toilets" in Italy. Apparently far more hygienic.

Try using one in a ski lodge while wearing skiing boots. Seriously, focus on what it's like to walk and balance on this things while squatting.

Morocco sounds fabulous. I'm the last one of family and friends who hasn't visited. I have a friend who just moved to Tunisia with his Italian pension as it goes a lot further in North Africa.

That would work, Ed.

Who comes by to clean that out?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Australian government also maintains a "toilet map" app for your iPhone which gives you walking or driving instructions to your nearest public toilet.

Now this is something genuinely useful for the federal government to do.

An

This is Australian website where you can find the toilets and the app that An mentioned.
www.toiletmap.gov.au/

Didn't find much for USA besides:
americanrestroom.org/locate/index.htm
and
www.imodium.com/bathroom-finder


So do the folk at HW want a challenge?

My thought is this....
Are there enough skilled people here who could perhaps design/make a website plus an app that would show people in the USA (and Canada) where the nearest bathroom/wc was?

If nothing else perhaps we could make a list of places we know of city by city and then maybe get it put in the üseful info" sticky thread at the top.


Alf

Post Edited (English Alf) : 6/23/2013 2:57:42 AM (GMT-6)

I wish I had this info last May when wifey dragged me to Amsterdam/Brussels/Paris and various places in between! But I'll have it for next time! Thx E. Alf et all!

My memory of Vietnam was people of all ages squatting or standing, as appropriate to their gender, in the dunes by the fishing villages to do what needed to be done.

Back home in Boston/Cambridge in the 70s I was wishing we had those customs and those sand dunes. Places you could get into when in need were few and far between--and committed to memory. The bathrooms on the second floor of the COOP - (the Harvard Cooperative Society Bookstore - which was right across the street from the Red Line subway station in Harvard Square); the men's rooms at the Boston Public Library and the Statler Hilton; and for only when truly desperate, an underground public men's room near the Park Street subway station -- where you would go only with your head on full swivel and your other hand clutching your wallet.