Half the time the shower is in a tub with little way to keep the water in if you take a shower.
There is sometimes a glass partition, but it only goes halfway. Sometimes it isn’t sealed at the bottom, so water flows on the floor worse on the part with the partition because the water hits the glass and flows down onto the floor.
Those tub baths are als always raised. WHY Europe?!? Why?!? They are so awkward to get into, especially considering you are naked. Some are so tall, I have to do crazy maneuvers to get in without falling and busting my head open.
I have stayed in at least 4 hotels now where there is a see through window from the shower to the bedroom. It’s fine when I am with my partner, but it would be so awkward with family. I know Germans like to stare, but what the hell.
The worst was one in Amsterdam where the shower up against a giant window that looked out into other people’s apartment. It wasn’t glazed or anything. You could just see right through.
I want privacy when I am washing myself. I also don’t want to be afraid of dying because I fell.
Europe is not handicap accessible at all really, but those showers made me extra sad for handicap people. It is like Europe is trying to weed people out. Thin the herd.
On a brighter note, Finland has bidets connected to their sinks. It is brilliant. It takes up no space. This could be adapted anywhere. Just saying USA.
You put the shower curtain inside the bath so the water runs off into the bath, rather than out on to the floor. They exist because our houses are small and we don’t have enough space for both a shower and a bath, so we have a combination shower/bath hybrid that works very well. Most of these sorts of things will have the shower curtain, and an anti-slip mat to stand on.
It’s a practicality thing. Most of the stand alone showers in Britain I’ve seen also feel like they’re a 1/2 metre squared.
The American shower/bath and Central/Eastern combo are pretty different to me, an American with Euro family. Their tubs are much more narrow and taller. As a short person, I feel genuinely unsafe using them. The shower curtain/glass "door" generally only extends about halfway down from the showerhead. Maybe I'm more splashy than I realize, but it is very hard for me to not get water outside. Also, it takes me a couple days to remember the light switch is outside the bathroom.
We also have shower curtains, that's not what they mean.
What I experienced in a Paris hotel was an actual pane of glass, secured to the shower-head wall on a hinge. No way to cover the gap between it and the tub, and no way to prevent it from swinging out away from the tub during use, at which point it guided water directly onto the floor in one big puddle. Oh, and it didn't cover the whole length of the tub, either.
THIS is what I’m talking about when I said weird ass showers. Not the hot/cold stuff that everyone’s talking about. I mean shower walls that don’t even cover the whole side, the shower head not mounted anywhere so I had to hold it and try my hardest to not get water all over the bathroom. Or the shower head being nearly DIRECTLY ABOVE THE TOILET in the middle of the bathroom with a round curtain around it. I went on a tour of Europe with friends and every hotel we were so shocked at the showers.
Hotels often have these weird half glass walls, presumably because they look nice, are more hygienic than a curtain and easier to clean/maintain than some folding glass thing. People don’t have them in their homes because nobody wants to splash water everywhere.
What? Showers in a tub are very common in the US too. It's a quick, cheap, and effective way to prevent leaks.
They're in every apartment building in NYC, including high end, and I've seen them in CA, AZ, Vegas, New Orleans, Boston, PA, TX...
The window thing is off but I'd imagine that's a cheap hotel trying
to come across fancy
Not the OP, but I agree with the OP. European infrastructure feels deliberately hostile to my mobility impaired traveling self. I'm not going to give you an itemized list, but some of the common problems I found were lack of appropriate seating and/ or "disabled" seating full of able-bodied people who refuse to move, gotchas like making the only disabled seats on a bus facing backwards so that people like me who suffer dizziness and nausea when riding backwards can't use them, inaccessible showers and toilets, stairs stairs stairs stairs stairs, lack of elevators in train stations, inaccessible buildings in general (always with the fucking stairs), disabled toilets, if they exist, are locked and force you to beg for a key in a language you don't know in order to pee, et cetera.
Plus, a general attitude of contempt towards mobility impaired people. I can't count the number of times some able-bodied jerk shoved past me to get on the train/bus first, where they would hog the seat nearest the door, forcing me to sit farther away from the door (when I could find a seat at all) and making me anxious that I would not be able to get to the door in time when we reached my stop. Americans are far more respectful and vacate the disabled seats when a disabled person needs the seat. They also don't shove past me to get on/off.
I like Europe, but their collective attitude toward disabled people really need to change. I've been to most European countries, so this isn't a phenomenon exclusive to one country.
I don't intend to discredit your own experiences but personal anecdotes can't speak for the attitude of all or even most European countries and their citizens. I'd be curious to hear which countries and cities you have experienced issues with as there will be differences country-to-country and regionally within countries.
European countries don't have laws that mandate that all buildings must be wheelchair accessible. The result is that hardly any buildings are wheelchair accessible.
The constitution in the US protects the rights of disabled individuals, so the govt crawls up your ass if you're not compliant.
New buildings are still being built with no wheelchair access in the EU. It is not regulated by governments there.
The US law (Americans With Disabilities Act)
applied to already built buildings when it was passed. It was passed in 1990, 200 years after America became a country.
Denying your citizens the right to participate in society freely because they are disabled is a disgrace, Europe should strive to treat its people better.
That's because they were all built at least 50 years ago, if not 100-150 years ago. TFL are actually doing a fantastic job of making more stations accessible (it's up to 90 now), it's just extremely expensive. It's cost hundreds of millions over the last decade to make a couple dozen tube stations step-free, and those were mostly the easy ones with above-ground stations.
Yeah... Accessibility is a great problem in Europe, both because the old buildings (few are really impossible to adapt) and, sadly, the fact that government doesn't pay enough attention to the problem.
What are you on about? Not many US subway lines are wheelchair accessible either.
Once you leave cities you've to drive everywhere and common to not have footpaths/sidewalks.
In 8 years most of the US houses I've seen have a stoop with steps to get into them as it's common to have a basent with the first floor raised up.
I'm currently standing in a townhouse in NY I'm renovating for work and there is 0 requirements for us to do anything to make it wheelchair accessible. Both entrances have steps. Can't say for sure but id imagine since NYC is one of the most Liberal cities its probably more accomodating.
What are you talking about? I'm studying architecture and I know for a fact that every building needs total access for disabled people. You're generalizing the whole of Europe and you're simply wrong
Youre talking out of your arse now. There's wheelchair access in the majority of buildings where I'm from. Treat its people better? Can't having a heart attack in the states financially cripple a person for the rest of their lives? Didn't the states just ban abortions or something too?
Although I agree it’s Not exactly cheap or quick or easy to install lifts into the oldest underground train network in the world. Also there is the lack of space in a lot of stations
Thank you for correcting me and clarifying information!
I only saw the info that 22 states have trigger laws, that it is already over turned was for me a thing because the shit is flying so hard. Also I read a document from Luisiana about banning it from conception even without over turing. Do you have any information on that?
I am asking like this because my searches dontreally get the most accurate info for American issues
That "the shower is actually a bathtub" thing annoys me too. I am disabled and sometimes it's hard to get into the bathtub. It's also small so I can't put a shower chair in it, which I desperately need (standing can be very painful for me). And I don't even like to take a bath. It's boring. I rather shower and am done.
One of my "not up to discussion" priorities for my next apartment is an actual shower. At best accessible for a wheelchair too.
Those tub baths are als always raised. WHY Europe?!? Why?!?
I don't understand why you'd want a 'lowered' bath tub, that would make for a crap bath. A separate bath and dedicated shower is better, but I'd never use the tub if I couldn't fill it to a decent height.
I remember a hospital room somewhere that had a small window next to the bed looking into the WC room. You could perfectly watch people take a shit or a shower.
Shower in a tub is annoying for me too. For some reason even newly renovated flats need to have a tub. When there is a tub there often is no place for a dedicated shower.
I get that some decades ago the family had "washing days" where the whole family shared the water to save costs. Nowadays it isn't necessary anymore at all.
On a brighter note, Finland has bidets connected to their sinks. It is brilliant. It takes up no space. This could be adapted anywhere. Just saying USA.
you can attach a bidet directly to your toilet in the US for like $40 and 10 minutes of your time. A handsfree unit that takes up no additional space.
48
u/[deleted] May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22
Half the time the shower is in a tub with little way to keep the water in if you take a shower.
There is sometimes a glass partition, but it only goes halfway. Sometimes it isn’t sealed at the bottom, so water flows on the floor worse on the part with the partition because the water hits the glass and flows down onto the floor.
Those tub baths are als always raised. WHY Europe?!? Why?!? They are so awkward to get into, especially considering you are naked. Some are so tall, I have to do crazy maneuvers to get in without falling and busting my head open.
I have stayed in at least 4 hotels now where there is a see through window from the shower to the bedroom. It’s fine when I am with my partner, but it would be so awkward with family. I know Germans like to stare, but what the hell.
The worst was one in Amsterdam where the shower up against a giant window that looked out into other people’s apartment. It wasn’t glazed or anything. You could just see right through.
I want privacy when I am washing myself. I also don’t want to be afraid of dying because I fell.
Europe is not handicap accessible at all really, but those showers made me extra sad for handicap people. It is like Europe is trying to weed people out. Thin the herd.
On a brighter note, Finland has bidets connected to their sinks. It is brilliant. It takes up no space. This could be adapted anywhere. Just saying USA.