You guys cracked me up about the ice thing.
It was one thing my sister groused about in Europe.
I don't particularly care for drinks that are cold - e.g. I'll drink sodas warm - but my sister is a dyed-in-the-wool ice fiend. She likes ice in all her drinks that are not hot.
In London, she grimly noticed that
no drink automatically came with ice. She had to continually ask, then when they did arrive with the ice, she'd get a glass with one or two cubes at the bottom of the drink.
She leaned over to me and in stage
sotto voce asked, "Are they still on wartime rations here?"
Paris, she was a lot happier with. Many cafes served iced drinks, with a decent amount of ice - though no where near the generous heaping glasses you get if you ask for extra ice in the States.
She couldn't find lemonade in London, but she did in Paris. Though it was the 'make your own' 1/2 filled glass of lemon juice, a carafe of water and a big bottle of sugar at $7.50 American.
The shower-head thing we had in Paris, but not London. In Paris, I managed to spray myself, the wall, the floor and at times, reached the door with accidental aiming. The claw-foot tub in our hotel bathroom did not have a shower curtain. Is that normal for Paris and free standing tubs? Our hotel bathroom in London had a walk in shower with a fixed head
and a shower curtain.