David Rauschenbach

Business brought me to Bodiam, East Sussex, England, where I was able to visit Bodiam Castle, which dates back to 1385. I was surprised to learn that the toilets dumped straight into the moat, which everyone would have smelled.

It must be similar to how I smell raw sewage in Berlin, because European toilets are not designed to replace the water bowl's contents when flushed. Instead, a flush just mixes up the contents somewhat, and some or most of it goes down the sewer. If you go away for the weekend, you come back to a bathroom that smells like an outhouse. The same smell can be noticed walking any sidewalk in summer. The smell might be compounded by the fact that the city sits low, and does not ventilate properly.