Welcome to Germany.
When one notices the quirks of or in a region or country compared to what your recent baseline has been, it always give you pause. And so it was with Germany.
I have known this about many of the large European states that I had a chance to visit in the past where bathrooms or restrooms or WC as they are called are not available for public for free.
Even the ones on public transport vehicles like the ones on the local and express trains in Germany are available to paying customers. And these customers know it. This winter as I traveled on the DB system I saw many of the new set of travelers board at a stop and first make a beeline to the loo.
Not having one operational (which I noticed on couple trains - es ist geschlossen) got people peeved when they wanted to pee and could not. German efficiency does also break down at times.
Most certainly before disembarking the savvy crowd hits the loo on board a train and then leaves at their stop. Finding a clean loo is not so much a problem as having to pay for one. There are facilities in train stations some of which are unmanned and automated (for cleaning) and free. But some actually do have a a coin operated mechanical arm to block entry to the facilities.
You never know what you find. The ones on long distance express trains also have some that are handicap friendly with auto slider doors that are set on a curve so as to not take space and slide open or close. Those I like the best. They also tend to have more room to go about your business and it always feels like one can have a small conference in there.
It also has all sorts of touchless faucets and paper dispensers. Not so much in the regular loos. India on the other hand was a complete disaster where finding an operating clean facility was impossible in most road trips. Hence you had people defecating anywhere. Maybe things have changed.
America has the best situation. Many public restrooms from libraries in towns, to rest stops on highways to just any public building or retail stores (hey they hope you will spend some money on gum while at it) and even hotel lobbies where you can basically walk in to relieve your plumbing is perfectly ok and free of charge. Most are very clean.
The one oddly relieving experience was when I was able to request a security guard at a small town Municipal office building to let me use their loo and he acquiesced. Danke Schon.
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Wuppertal Rathaus (with a nice bathroom) |
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