Worst Travel Experience Requiring a Restroom

An Austrian Hole-in-One Restroom

When I read recently that Associated Content was looking for the "Worst Travel Experiences" I had to chuckle. There is a story here....

The year was 1985 and I was a young Army bride living in Europe. My parents had traveled the distance to spend a week with me in Germany while my husband was on duty at the border. Since he was going to be away all week, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to take my folks on a trek through Southern Germany and into the Austrian Alps.

The scenery is breathtaking-unless you have seen the Alps with your own two eyes, you cannot imagine how majestic they truly are. Of course, getting there in the 1980's was another story. Driving on the Autobahn is an experience all to itself. Crossing through the border into Austria, yet another story.

Finally, deep within the Austrian borders, my mother announced that we could "pull into the next rest area". The only problem was that rest areas in Austria were hard to come by in the 80's. I did manage to locate a W/C (water closet) and pulled off. It was in all actuality nothing more than an outhouse. My mom opened the door, stepped in and quickly came out. She motioned for me to come over. I exited the car and walked up to her,

"What's wrong?"

The look on her face was priceless, "There is no toilet."

I looked inside. She was right - no toilet, no towels, not even a mirror. Just a huge hole in the ground, with two feet painted on either side of the hole. I suppose that is the location for your feet to the proximity of the hole for dispensing your waste appropriately.

"Good grief! Well, mom, it's this or I can keep driving but I doubt we'll locate anything for a while. It's miles until the next town."

Mom disappeared behind closed doors. When she returned, she said,

"Let's go back to Germany. The bathrooms are so much nicer."

We spent a total of one hour and fifteen minutes within the Austrian borders. Long enough to use the outhouse and live to tell about it. Hopefully the twenty-first century has improved the rest areas. We never returned to find out.