Toilet facilities

[Rosina Lila]

OK,
Despite my personal disinclination to speak on the subject, I can tell you
that the facilities for the purpose in Spain are cleaner than those one may find
while traveling through small towns, etc., anywhere, including the USA.
Carrying one's own paper towels is as good and practical an idea there as
anywhere else. Sit down facilities, as it were, can be found in the "bars" (small
coffee shops-cum-bar) throughout the Camino; occasionally, following a
largish group of pilgrims that just passed by, a facility may be messy, but, in my
experience, notifying the bar owners of the situation it is soon remedied.
Unlike France, Spain does not appear to have public bathrooms.  But neither
do we have them here in New York City.  Some years ago a few public bathrooms,
         a-la-Paris, were installed; they were clean, convenient, comfortable
and could be accessed by depositing a quarter.  However, some  Civic minded
groups, including the ACLU of which I am a member, representing physically
disabled people, forced their closure on the grounds that they violated the
Americans with Disabilities Act in that people on wheelchairs, etc., had no easy
access to  them. We don't have them anymore.  I suppose that tourists and the
like in New York are obligated to resort to restaurants, bars, and so on, though
most of them restrict the use of bathrooms to their patrons.
.... Well, it is the same all over, except for Paris -(Vive La France!).
Now, what I found to be of particular concern during my first pilgrimage, in
1999, was needing to attend to a physical function, however minor, when
walking between towns.  In that respect  women are at a distinct disadvantage.
Eventually I learned to deal with the eventuality by carefully timing my
liquids intake (sipping slowly while walking so that perspiration would eliminate
the excess liquid, etc.), by not drinking coffee, particularly spresso, during
the day, by sucking oranges or lemons, slowly, and by being mindful of the
distance, time-wise, to the next town.
Most of those controlling measures were suggested to me by friends who are
female judges and who sit at the bench for four uninterrupted hours, or more,
twice a day.
It all seems so very common sense, but, like Columbus' egg,  most common
sense solutions are so evident that they are invisible.
I've haven't had any problems, or preoccupations, in that regard ever since.
Regards,
Rosina