Beds

So much for exciting travel stories. We are back to the mundane. This time I am writing about beds, probably because we've been sleeping in a lot of different ones over the last couple of weeks. On Friday, Brian and I even slept together in a single bed, but that's another story.

Beds in Europe are very different from beds in the U.S. Here's how:

Anatomy of an American bed:
frame
box spring
mattress, mattress pad
fitted sheet
top sheet
blankets
bedspread/quilt/comforter

Anatomy of a Euro bed:
frame
thin wooden slats connected with nylon or fabric strips. This is called a Lattenrost in German.Using a Lattenrost means that you can't jump on the bed because it doesn't bounce at all. It also means that the bed is firmer than what Americans are used to.
mattress, mattress pad
fitted sheet
comforter with duvet cover (2 comforters if it is a big bed)

The Europeans have an all or nothing take on bedding. Either you are cold and you have the comforter on, or you are hot and you take it off. They don't mess around with lighter blankets and top sheets.

The sizes of beds are also different. In the US you have twin, full, double, queen, king. European beds don't have cute names for different sizes, they just go with centimeters. The biggest mattress you can get is 140cm wide, then you have to start doubling up. Our bed is 180cm, which means it has two mattresses side by side with a funny crack in the middle. It's sort of a hybrid - Euro frame, Lattenrost, and mattress, American sheets and blankets, one set of pillows from each continent.

Could Brian and I have shipped our old bed here? Maybe, but it would have been the only furniture that we could have sent without paying tons of money, and we would have had to sleep on the aerobed for 3 months while waiting for our shipment to swim its way across the ocean. We will have to just be content with no jumping on the bed for now. It would bad to get your foot stuck in between the mattresses anyway.