Since we're taking laundry, I'll share a pointless story about laundry while traveling.
When we were much younger, we never considered doing laundry while on vacation. We generally didn't go for very long, and we'd just pack what we needed for the whole time, then return home with our luggage packed with our dirties.
As time went by and we had to haul more medical-related stuff for my wife, and as we got to where we could afford to stay longer, we realized we could significantly cut down on our packing if we'd do laundry halfway through.
The first time we did this was in Munich, we'd gone for 13 days. Ahead of time, I researched laundry facilities and found that everyone recommend the same place - a trendy laundromat just off the main square downtown, and it had a coffee bar and movies on the televisions and snacks and comfy couches, and ultra-modern machines. Two transit stops from our neighborhood, so that seemed ok.
However, the first couple of days there, I was on my morning-walk-before-the-wife-wakes-up, and what did I happen upon but a laundromat, two blocks or so from the hotel.
Stuck my head in, it was clean as a whistle, no frills, though they did have a woman working there. She'd do your laundry for you for a fee.
Wow, this is a lot closer than the other, and I'm going to wager a lot more reasonably priced.
The day came to do the laundry and that's where we headed. Now, my German is passable, and I can read it a lot better than I can speak it or hear it, so I was reading the instructions for the machines, and apparently not going fast enough, because the woman from behind the window in the back, for drop-off laundry, came scooting out to us.
She asked if we needed help. That's not true, actually. She
told us we needed help.
Before I knew what was happening, she took our laundry and dumped it into a basket, then sorted it into two machines (whites and colors - I would have used three), pointed me to the soap dispenser, and when I got that, she poured it in and hit the buttons.
"Go! Go!" - she shooed us out of the laundromat.
At this point, my suspicious traveler mind took over, and I thought, "She's just duped me into paying her to do my laundry."
Oh well, I figured, I'm not going to worry about it, and if that's how she earns her living, I'm glad to chip in.
We went a little farther down the street, found a bar, had a beer, walked around a little more, then popped into a shop and bought a couple of snack items for the room.
Finally, we went back to the laundry, and she had dried and folded our clothes. I asked her what I owed her, and she said just the money for dryers.
We insisted that we owed her whatever her charge was for doing two loads of laundry, and the best I could make out was that, as she was pointing to the board with prices on it, those prices were for residents, or locals, and we were on holiday, so no charge.
We were really surprised by that. We gave her the couple of coins for the machines, and we did talk her into taking one of the beers we bought for the room!
Blimey. My once a week for two people is one load - maybe two if bedding and towels are being washed. How can you be generating so much washing...?
