What is it about these Europeans?

We are often times told how sophisticated the European mass transportation and high-speed internet availability are but when it comes to normal day to day acts of cleanliness they fall somewhere behind Nomads.
I have bitched about this before but why is the water in the sink of any European bathroom 20 degrees below zero? I am sure there is some environmental explanation but this does nothing for the hygenic questions which linger.
See in the US we are told that after you hit the can you should wash with soap and water to kill any possible germs but you go to Europe and they can't possibly expect this and quite frankly it is disgusting..

First of all you can't kill germs with cold water, you can't even get a ketchup stain out of a shirt if you wash it on a cold cycle so to think anybody is killing the piss they just sprayed all over their hand is completely unrealistic. You may as well wipe a guy's ass for him cause that's essentially what you are doing anyway.
Secondly this water isn't just cold but it's absolutely ice-cold so even holding your hands underneath it for 10 seconds is an incredible feat of strength and will-power. How this bathroom sink water doesn't freeze in the pipes is some kind of miracle.

I'm sure somebody will tell you that it has with old buildings and piping etc. but this complete bollocks. NYC has plenty of old building which still allow you to feel comfortable shaking somebody's hand after they walk out of the john and Europe has plenty of new buildings -INCLUDING airports, hotels and office building - which lack this sophisticated turn of the century technology known as hot-water pipes.

Maybe I'll start exclusively hugging people in Europe because god knows what's growing on their hands.
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