A Walk From Cletwr ..... and Toilets.

At last I was back walking with my group of friends. A local walk this week starting at Cletwr, along the river, up the wooded hill with bird and dormouse boxes on the trees and back down the lane. We were lucky in that the promised rain held off until the very end though now it does seem to have settled in for the evening.

 

We usually take the footpath through this field and stop for our break on the rise with views out to sea but this group of large horses though very pretty were overly friendly and we had a dog with us. Instead we sat ourselves down on either side of the narrow lane to share biscuits and eat a snack before heading back down the lane to Cletwr.

Why toilets you ask? Don't worry this won't be scatological but I found the different toilets and hand washing facilities we came across in our travels quite interesting.

Being of an age when if there's a toilet available it might be worth paying a visit I became acquainted with a variety of facilities in different public places. And all were acceptably clean with the top prize going to the toilets at Knossos where a lady popped in and sprayed the toilet before each customer.

The first thing I noticed in the toilets in the main lounge area at Schiphol airport were the vast cubicle doors. They were at least 8ft high solid doors reminiscent of a bank vault. No chance of prying eyes something I found unnerving on our travels many years ago in a distant country (don't want to offend the inhabitants) where there were frequently wide gaps down the sides of the cubicle doors which were sometimes only 5ft high.

I'm used to a range of flushing methods, things to press or light sensors to hold your hand in front of but in one place (can't remember exactly which) there was a metal disc on the wall and a small sign above saying automatic toilet. ? Nothing to press or hold your hand in front of. Standing up from the toilet had no effect and I had given up and was going to apologise to the next person when I found that opening the cubicle door set off the flush. That was a new one.

On one plane coming back going into the toilet cubicle set off loud birdsong which was rather sweet.

Hand washing systems varied too. I'm used to taps which dispense soap and then water when you put your hand underneath but I came across one set of sinks where the air to dry your hands came out of the ends of the t-shaped bar water and soap came out of. 

Moving on to Spinalonga the island across from Plaka. During the Ottoman era or maybe earlier the prosperous merchants houses were built round a small internal courtyards with a toilet built in one corner.

Going back 4,000 years to the Palace of Knossos the queen's apartments included a separate toilet with running water. As a nearby guide explained to her group it is the earliest known flushing toilet. Well, if you were the queen of a mighty city state why not?