Helpful Guy in a Berne, Switzerland, Laundromat

 

Today in Berne, Switzerland, not too far from the river in this photo, I went to a small laundromat. I got Swiss Francs on the way and bought a sandwich and coffee so I would have change and small bills. But as is often the case with laundromats, the money requirements are very specific.

Outside waiting for his laundry to dry was a guy named Thomas who helped me with the whole process--which coins I needed and where to get them.  The washer needed five one-franc coins, the soap dispenser and dryers would take coins from 10 centimes up to five francs.  Thomas took me over to the bar next door where they gave change for the laundry.  Then he pulled his clothes from the dryer and went home. COVID is far enough from people's minds that we shook hands as he left.

Since I travel with just a backpack, I am in weekly need of a laundromat on a long trip.  Last week I used a laundromat in Paris near the Pantheon, not my favorite one, it was closed for remodeling. 

My favorite laundromat in the world is in Jerusalem where I met an Israeli tank commander who fell from a helicopter and lived to tell about it.

Last year, at a rural boat dock in Denmark, I used the laundromat and met a retired electronics technician who had traveled the world for Siemens Corporation. He nearly died during the civil war in Libya, but hates Las Vegas more than any place on earth. I also met three of four American sisters traveling together in Paris in the renewed travel in 2022.

Just as I was leaving the laundromat today, as guy with a cigarette scratchy voice asked me a question in what I thought was German. I said I only speak English. He said, much more clearly, "I am speaking English." I laughed and passed along the information from Thomas: 1 franc coins only for the washer, any coins for the soap and the dryer.  He thanked me and began pulling off several layers of clothes and putting them in the washer.  

Laundromats Have Tourists Again!

 

Amy, Lee, Jane and John

American tourists are back in laundromats in Europe

Five years ago, I started making trips across Europe and Israel with just a backpack. Carrying just a few pieces of clothing has many advantages, but it also meant weekly trips to laundromats.  I like doing laundry, but the laundromats turned out to be much more fun than I expected. 

Other tourists from all over the world use laundromats in big cities so I met some very interesting people while resupplying myself with clean clothes.  But COVID changed laundromats just as it changed so many other things.  This current trip I am on is my fifth trip to Europe since July of last year.  

Until last week, I did not see any tourists in laundromats from France to Poland. At the beginning of this trip, I washed clothes in Rome in an empty laundromat.  But last Thursday, I went to a laundromat near the Pantheon and met three sisters traveling together in France. Actually, there are four sisters, one was off doing something else.  

Amy, Lee and Jane are currently living in Chicago, DC and Detroit.  We talked for a while about where they had already been--the Louvre, Versailles, and many other Paris destinations. The next day they were going on a tour of the Normandy coast.  They have another week in Paris then back to America.  

A few minutes before the laundry was dry, Jane's husband John joined us.  He saw my armor tattoo. He had an uncle who was a tank commander in World War II.  

Next week I am staying in a monastic guest house which has its own washer-dryer so I won't need a laundromat.  

In the same laundromat in which I met Amy, Lee and Jane, I met a couple from Australia and a bike racer from California. That was in 2017. The story is here.   

My favorite laundromat story was from 2019 in Jerusalem. That is here. 

Meeting an Israeli Tank Commander, a Dallas Couple and a Parisian in an Israeli Laundromat

Tonight after a long bike ride, I walked to a laundromat on Jaffa Road, a mile and a half from my hotel. The laundromat had three washers, two dryers and, lucky for me, one other customer who could explain what I needed to do to operate the machines.  

That customer, Joshua, told me that I needed four 5-shekel coins for the washer and at least one 5-shekel coin plus 1-shekel coins for the dryer.  I went to a store around the corner and got Gatorade and the required coins and started my laundry.  

A few minutes later, a couple from Dallas, Tony and Patty, who were on a Church trip had showed up. I told them what they needed for the washer, the dryer and the soap dispenser. 

Joshua came back 20 minutes later and started folding his clothes from the dryer. I thanked him again for telling me how the laundry worked and told him about Tony and Patty. We talked about travel. I told him my first travel was with the Army to Germany as a tank commander.  Joshua was a tank commander in the Israeli Defense Forces IDF! He was on a Megach 6 tank. He served in the 90s, after the Patton tank I served on was retired from the active-duty IDF.

Israeli Megach 6

He told me he was famous in the IDF, not for being a tank commander but for falling from a helicopter.  In 1994 he volunteered to be a MEDEVAC dummy, loaded onto a Huey helicopter on a stretcher and flown to a field hospital on a training exercise. He was loaded on the middle stretcher on the left side of the aircraft, but not strapped in securely.  The helicopter took off, banked left 20 meters above the ground and Joshua fell--and bounced. He remembered the fall and bouncing on landing.

The helicopter landed. The other fake patients were unloaded and the doctor ran to what was now his real patient. Joshua had broken ribs and a collarbone and leg fractures, but no head injury. He could remember the whole incident in slow motion--including seeing hundreds of soldiers watching him fall and saying the Israeli version of "Oh Fuck!"  

The doctor treated the worst of his injuries on the ground and in Russian-accented Hebrew said, "I am sorry to tell you we must put you back on the helicopter."  Joshua made a full recovery.  

While we exchanged injury stories, a young woman named Nguyen (sounds like Wen) came in. We told her about the coins she needed.  She spoke French so I could tell her in French when she seemed confused about the English explanation.  

After Joshua left, I found out Nguyen lives in Paris. She came to Paris from Vietnam as a school girl and went to a school for girls set up by Napoleon in Saint Germain-en-Laye, a beautiful town west of Paris.  We talked about how beautiful the towns are west of Paris: Chatou and Rueil-Malmaison along with Saint Germain-en-Laye.  

Patty and Tony came back and told me about how they were traveling around Israel visiting kids in hospitals and seeing the sights. Nguyen helped a Chinese couple to get the right coins. I put my bike clothes in a bag and left for dinner.   

I can hardly wait to find a laundromat in Latvia! 

The Whole World in a Paris Laundromat

I returned from the visit to Normandy with one clean pair of shorts and a shirt, bike clothes. Everything else needed to be washed. I found a laundromat near Luxemburg station in a lovely part of Paris. Most of the machines were busy in the small place so several people were standing or sitting and reading or looking at their phones.

One of the guys was tossing bike clothes in the washer. We started talking about the Tour,and following the Tour and riding. Jay is from San Diego which in my mind is only rivaled by San Francisco as the best bike riding places in America. He has lived in San Diego long enough that he said its strange that it rains any time except January and February.  We both talked about our favorite rides up and down Mount Palomar and along the San Diego coast road.

When he found out I live in Lancaster we talked about Floyd Landis and drugs.  A couple from Australia was in the laundromat also and joined in talking about the Tour. They were leaving for home in Adelaide on Wednesday. Jay was starting the second of three weeks in France with his family.

Tim and Andrea from Adelaide knew about the Tour, but they were in France for the 24 Hour Sports Car Race at LeMans. I used to follow International sports car racing in the 80s and 90s, so we talked about the wide variety of engines back then and how drivers crossed over more.

We also talked about traveling in Australia. I had been to Perth on the west coast more than they had. For most Australians, the west is simply not a place they go. Perth and Bunbury are the only cities. They rest of the huge state of Western Australia is the set of the Road Warrior movies.

The four of us had been to or were going to or lived in most of the time zones of the world and met in a Paris laundromat.