Swiss toilets rock

I am developing an unhealthy fascination with public toilets around Zurich and find myself snapping photos of each hallowed shrine as I leave, much to the shocked astonishment of anyone waiting outside. Swiss toilets are comfy, imaginative, always stocked with loo roll, scrupulously clean, thoughtfully contains a needle disposal bin for addicts and usually contain a toilet brush, It’s a world away from public toilets in Britain, which are invariably dingy, grotty, bereft of loo roll and a resident toilet brush would probably make the headlines of the local newspaper.

And needle disposal…

The reason for my delight in these cubicles of sanitised sanity, is that to an English girl, that little white toilet brush nestled beneath each shimmering toilet bowl embodies all that is great and good about the Swiss. Firstly, it’s the expectation that you will clean up after yourself, which nudges you into doing just that. Secondly, it’s the realisation that the toilet brush will actually stay there, doing the job it should, which says so much about Swiss society as a whole. And finally, it’s the cleanliness of it all. The Swiss are the cleanest, tidiest race of people I have ever come across.

And it is having a profound impact on me.

I’m even beginning to embrace my inner domestic goddess from her deep slumber, much to the consternation of Gourmet Gray who has this week witnessed his usually slovenly wife scrubbing the bathroom tiles until they sparkle like the bowl of a Swiss public toilet for the third time. And it’s only Monday…