Station: [21] Living conditions and hygiene

“You may envy the people in the 16th century for not having to bathe regularly. To be honest, they would have preferred the opposite: they do suffer quite badly from lack of hygiene. Taps they can simply open are far from being invented – the bathwater has to be lugged laboriously all the way from fountains or streams.

And then this water is anything but clean; strictly speaking, it’s extremely brackish. That’s why most ordinary people mostly drink beer – much more healthy due to the brewing. Beer had far less alcohol then compared to now, which is why even children would drink it!”