After a lot of walking yesterday, we decided today would be a day for logistics. We were up bright and early to get our laundry done, but despite arriving to the washers at 8am someone had beat us to the punch. We went back to François and took care of some other cleaning and sipped our coffee. By 8:30 we had our load in the washer which was a Maytag complete with American English labels on the buttons to push. Right after we put our load in two other people showed up with dirty clothes so we were not the only ones who decided today was laundry day.
By 9:15 the washing was complete, but we were now waiting for the dryer to be freed up. Unlike the Maytag washer the dryer was Italian and European dryers take a much more leisurely approach to drying clothes. This one didn’t even have a display to show how much time was left so we had no idea how long the wait was going to be or how long it would take to dry our load. I spent the next hour waiting for the peoples clothes in front of us to finish and helping a Belgian woman understand the workings of the Maytag including explaining the American term Permanent press to her.
Finally the dryer stopped and we gave the person whose clothes were in it a 10 minute grace period to turn up. When they didn’t I went to open the door but could not get it open. The original button or handle had broken off and it was jury rigged with a cord to pull on. But I was pulling pretty forcefully and could not get it open. I tried pulling straight, up and straight down to no avail. So stymied by the door I trudged off to the office for advice. When I explained the problem to the maintenance guy there and told him I was afraid I would break the latch, he just laughed and gave the most Italian answer, Pull very hard, and if you break the latch it will be good so that we can finally get the door fixed.
So back at the dryer we pulled very hard and the door popped open. We unloaded the clothes, and loaded ours. While Ton was loading the clothes I cleaned the lint filter, and replaced it. When I closed the door to start the dryer it would not latch, so I thought I had actually broken the latch, so now I trudged off muttering bad words about Italian appliances. When I got to the office they gave me another token for some reason, and said they would send help. While I was doing that a German guy wandered by and saw Ton trying to close the door, he quickly figured out that I had replaced the lint filter the wrong way and it was preventing the door from latching, so by the time the maintenance guy and I arrived the dryer was going. It was now about 11:00 am.
I started checking the dryer every 1/2 hour and at 12:30 it was still spinning away. I opened the door and checked and the clothes were pretty dry, but not up to Tons standard of dryness. So I continued the dryer watch.
We were under some time pressure because the restaurant at the campsite has been tempting us since we arrived. It has been very full for every meal, and the menu and prices looked good. It is open for lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 and I was beginning to wonder if we would make it.
Finally about 1:15 Ton pronounced the clothes dry. After folding the clothes and putting them away we headed to the restaurant at 1:45. It took approximately 5 hours and 45 minutes to wash and dry one medium sized load of wash. I hate laundry days.
The lunch was as good as advertised, we each had a first course with me picking a Polenta with sausage, and Ton having spaghetti. Our second course was a plate of sausages that we shared. My Polenta dish was huge as was Tons spaghetti, so it took a while to finish up the grilled sausages when they came. We were done with our lunch about 3:30. The nice thing about Italian restaurants is they will never push you as meals are for socializing and enjoying the food.
We finished cleaning up François and relaxed after our laundry ordeal.