We came back to the hotel relatively early intending to do laundry, shower and relax and get a good night sleep for our long drive to Como, Italy.
We inquired about the laundry when we first arrived, preparing ourselves with the proper 20 cent Francs for the machines and all. Being the world traveler that I am I even brought my own compact detergent and dryer sheets in one so we wouldn't have to fuss with buying any.
We got some more change at the front desk and double checked with the hotel clerk on where and how to use the machines.
When I got to the machines there were minimal English instructions on a sheet of paper and after following them I was directed to push the proper buttons on the machine to select the cycle and temperature- the buttons were impossible to figure out so I pushed anything and waited. Nothing happened....as I fiddled with the next machine the first one started working. Relieved I began to prepare the next machine hoping the 20 cent francs would be enough to wash for at least 15 minutes. For some reason the machine said 1 hour and 18 minutes which made me nervous that I would be up all night because I had at least four loads to do but at least our clothes would be clean! I left and decided to come back to check on it about 30 minutes later. When I came back I found the machines off and I assumed I did not put in enough $ but I figured 15 minutes was enough washing anyway and was happy that maybe I wouldn't be up all night. Again I managed to figure out how to work one of the dryers and thought I was in the clear ( one of the other dryers didn't seem to be working). And filled my next loads of wash and dryer. Suspecting that something might go wrong I came back to check 20 minutes later. This time I found all the machines off and all filled with water- even the dryer!
Fed up I called Ronnie for help and we decided to take out all the clothes wring them out and carry the 100 lb wet load across the street up and down stairs in the dark looking for another machine. At this point Aida came down to help and we were all tired. We walked around in our pajamas in the rain no less and couldn't find one and went back to the front desk to see what to do.
this time the clerk said "you can't do laundry at this hour in Switzerland." "What does that mean?" we asked. Apparently they shut the electric or gas or something at 10:00 throughout the country! "But we are in the middle of washing!"we insisted "There is nothing we could do." they answered. Ronnie got annoyed and said "why didn't the other clerk mention that an hour ago when she saw us doing laundry?-what are we supposed to do?" We asked for some help to at least bring the wet clothes back to the room until morning but the clerk said no one could help. I was too tired to argue and we managed to bring it all back to the room and hang it piece by piece around the room to dry. I knew it wouldn't really dry but at least it wouldn't get moldy and dank. We figured we'd deal with it in the morning.
We woke up, showered gathered the 100 lb damp laundry from around the room and went back to the machines. Teta went to get housekeeping to help but we found the machines still filled with water and the housekeeper had no idea what to do but to call maintenance! This was getting to be a long fiasco! I was about to give up when Ronnie forced the front desk to give us the money we lost from last night and Teta insisted that housekeeping put our laundry in their commercial dryers and deliver it to our room. Thank god everyone was more cooperative this morning and it seemed to be working. We went to breakfast hoping the plan would pan out. I thought we would either end up at the hotel all day or more likely in the car with our 100 lb bag of wet laundry driving to Italy. What do you think happened?! Send us messages with your guesses and I'll tell you next blog!!!!