We're Back

Just a quick post to say it's both sad to be back (from a great vacation in Germany) and good to be back to the 'familiar' things in our life. I'll do a few posts in the coming days on where we went, what we saw and even some photos.

We went to Germany with no real plans other than a hotel reservation and 2 towns we'd like to see. We came back with over 500 photos of our time away and managed to see 8 or 9 different villages/towns/cities, even made it to Austria.

For now, here's my highlight (and yes, lowlight too) of the best and worst of the WC's (that's water closet... though of course they aren't closets, well, ok, MOST of them weren't and they don't just have water in them unfortunately). Why a top 10 list of WC's? E's asleep and the camera and converter are in the bedroom.

Top 10 list of WC's, from BEST to WORST

1. Mc Clean. You've heard of McDreamy and McSteamy on Grey's Anatomy, well, now we've seen McClean. This WC is located in the Munich Hauptbahnof (main station for DB trains, UBahn and SBahn), everyone goes through this station. This bathroom is the pay version to the subway bathrooms. I have a picture of it, glass, cleanliness, and the prices... a couple euro's for #1 and more for #2. But, it was clean.

2. Our hotel bathroom. We opted NOT to fork over $300 (minimum) a night to stay in central Munich, we stayed in the Theresienwiese (by the Octoberfest grounds) district. Just 1 stop off the Hauptbahnof. You never know what you'll get for less than an arm and a leg, let's just say, E thought it was clean enough to eat in (if for some reason we had to eat dinner in there), not just on day one, but all the way to day 10 of the stay.

3. Lufthansa Munich to Chicago flight... bathrooms 1, 2, 3 and 4 (hey, it was a 9 hour flight!!!) This plane had downstairs bathrooms, 6 in one section, and I tried out a few. They were all clean, and more than double the normal size, so for size alone this one ranks high.

4. Ratskellar, on the MarienPlatz in Munich. Man, dinner in a historic building complete with toilets where the ceilings were painted and the word carvings were gorgeous.

5. Hard Rock Cafe (the only American style restaurant we ventured into) -Men's side, this is the only one I'm including from E's point of view, he'll have to attest to it. He said it was nearly as clean as our hotel bathroom and was so happy he told the waiter. I'm not kidding. The waiter thought we had a disgusting hotel bathroom as by midnight it's so disgusting no one will use it. What a difference a few hours makes... and what a difference the sex of the bathroom makes, see my version a few lines below.

6. The (it turns out) pay toilet in Salzburg. Eric went to his side first, he said no attendant, no fees. OUr first real day trip and I was surprised, I've heard much about pay toilets in Europe with Attendants. So I take no small change into my side... there was an attendant, it cost me the only change I had, a 2 Euro coin, that's 3 US $'s.

7. O'Hare Saniwrap seat. Now we're getting to the real crux of the list. It gets bad from here on in. I have to say I hate Saniwrap seats. If I need a "wrap" on a seat I want to be the one to put it on there. Who knows if these plastic sleeves gets cleaned, or reused when they loop over and over and ick, yuck...

8. DB (Deutsch Bahn, the main rail network -not subways- in Germany that we took everywhere) train from Landshot. We took many many trains over the course of the vacation. Lots of different styles, sizes, old and new. THis was the oldest or most rundown one. Think old train car in the US subways. Add in a bathroom. Well, we had to use it. Smelled like an old camping ground toilet, but I used it. E used it, this gets even better, he says it flushes onto the TRACK!

9. Hard Rock Cafe (the only American style restaurant we ventured into) -Ladies side. Don't be fooled by what E saw/smelt. The assault on my senses by using the WC at the Hard Rock... it still lingers today.

10. Dulles. I saved the best for last. Now, I will give credit where it's due, I was expecting the same disgusting, crappy (little did I know of this prophecy), run down airport we saw when we took family to Belgium in 2005. One terminal was that way again this time. But we had to change terminals and went into this sparkly new terminal. I was impressed, until, I hit the toilet. I walked in, surrounded by 5-6 8 or 9 year olds and I spot the floor. There is a flood just in the making. I used to think Dulles was the armpit of US airports from what I'd seen... I now know it's not the armpit, it's the shit pit. The flood grew fast and furious, trapping 6 ladies in the stalls, me and the girls outside the stalls but cut off from the exit. The flood had 'floatys', no, not the kind you put on your kids arms to stay afloat in the pool. It was everywhere, there was so much of it and luggage was sitting in it, people we're caught like deer in the headlights. Me, all I could see was the exit and several girls too terrified to move. I prodded, pushed, and finally we made our way out of the flood zone. It was disgusting.

Oh and for the record, I ONLY had 387 work emails to go through, I am currently down to 283.