Laundry Day

Doing laundry can be a challenging, and a quite complicated when your are on vacation. Here's our step-by-step guide for doing laundry while staying in Montreux, Switzerland.

1. Figure out how to say "Laundry Mat" in French
2. Ask several locals if there is one around.
3. Consult the GPS
4. Make a quick trip to the information center to acquire a short list of "local" laundry mats (within 60km).
5. Reconsult the GPS.
6. Drive 40 minutes through Swiss wine country
7. Follow the GPS instructions to a tiny alley, with no laundry mat in sight.
8. Assume the GPS was wrong.
9. Park the car, and try to ignore the overpowering fermented grape smell, and the drizzly rain, while attempting to find a local to ask if there really is a laundry mat close by.
10. Follow the local's directions back up the alley to exactly where the GPS said there was a laundry mat, and notice that there is in fact a small, closet sized space with 1 working washer, and no dryers which could technically be called a laundry mat.
11. Appreciate the little village, but decide to try the next address listed.
12. Drive another 20 minutes to a slightly larger town, and locate the Self Wash.
13. Realize that you need soap.
14. Ask other patrons in the laundry mat if there is a store near by to get laundry detergent. If it is past 6:00 PM the answer will be "no."
15. Borrow two loads worth of soap from a nice young man.
16. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
17. Dry clothes (without dryer sheets for the full experience).
18. Take pictures while waiting for the clothes to dry.
19. Fold, and repack clothing.
20. Appreciate freshly washed clothes.
21. Remember to bring detergent, and dryer sheets next time.

Luckily, it was humid enough that the static was only an issue when we first took our clothes out of the dryer.