About a month ago, I was at Cologne central station (Hauptbahnhof) for an official visit. A colleague of mine was looking for a toilet and it took him more than 30 minutes to finally find and use a toilet. There is only one public toilet between platforms number 5 and 6. Like many European cities, this one is paid too.

Very often, the problem is not the money that you pay, but, having the coins handy. In general, it is a good idea to have 50 Euro cent coins and 1 EUR coins handy while in Europe. We get to hear heated debates on whether the toilets should be paid or not. The reason is simple - at all public places like train station, bus station, streets, the cost of public toilets needs to be borne by the local govern authority. In tourist cities, although getting more and more tourists is in their interest, but, the toilets are a net cost to the local government and the number of tourists they get are multiple times the local population. Clearly, why should the local tax payers bear this cost is the main question. If you are prepared to walk little bit, you could find toliets which are free of cost. Places like restaurants, museums have a way to make money and they can afford to offer toilets for free.

This is not to justify paid toilets, but, this is how understood the reasoning. Sounds logical ?