When I was living in Germany (a duration of 3 years) it was the custom to only bathe once a week. The water was too harsh for anything more and they were big believers and practioners of water conservation even back then (they employed the same conservation practices with utilities). I still bathed once or even twice a day and slathered on the lotion afterwards until my skin grew accustomed to the hard water. We had to clean the tubs and showers with vinegar to remove the deposits. While the water was not as hard, it was the same in France and Spain and Switzerland. I wasn't in Netherlands long enough to know what the culture was back then although I visited twice. This was the mid 80s. Complete opposite of the Japanese who bathed often but had a different routine (they didn't bathe in the bathtub but in a little area by the bathtub with a couple of buckets. The idea was to be clean before entering the bath because other people would use the same bath water.)

Either the custom has totally changed since then or you, yourself have not travelled as much as I thought. You have however, managed to become ruder as demonstated by your disparaging comment as reply to John. Since his daughter travelled just recently, I put some weight into her statements. They also match my own experience although it was 20 years ago. Rather than answer with information on the custom as you know it in Netherlands, you call him a red-neck and claim he cannot be converted. Converted to what exactly?

Funny, but at the time I visited Netherlands, I thought it was the European country most similar to culture to the U.S. and the only one I would consider back then living in permanently.




>>Haha, my daughter just returned from a 6 week excursion through Europe. She went from Amsterdam, to Spain, via Germany, Belgum, Austria, Italy, and Turkey. She said she hasd a great time, learned a lot, and would love to do it again. She also said the people over there don't bath but once a week. Dang! They don't have many of the amenities that we take for granted here in the US. Yet, I keep hearing all these people saying we should be more like Europeans. I think I'll keep my US citinship for a while longer.
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>Keep up being misinformed. I don't know of anyone who only washes themselved once a week. She mush have been hanging arround with the wrong poeple.
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>In the end you can't convert a red-neck..