Who knew laundry could be so much fun!

Doing laundry typically sucks especially in a laundromat. Most on the trip had packed enough closes to last for about a week. So, laundry was needed to be done. Our guide found us a place nearby. The majority of the group (10 out of 14) went and overtook yet another establishment.

The place was small by USA standards. Not only in number of machines but size of them as well. It took us a bit to figure out how to operate the machines. In the USA, each machine has a coin drop box in order to pay for operating the machine; not so at this particular laundry. There operations were run from a central location. Ahhh....German efficiency! A local was kind enough to help the tourists figure it out.

Doesn't sound like fun yet...you're right. Next door was a doner place with beer and wine. Yes. We overwhelmed them and greatly improved the bottom line for the day. The fun came as we began to chat with some of the locals doing their clothes. We had great conversations with several individuals. First was an elderly women who travels an hour to this particular laundry because it has the best iron. She was born and raised in Germany but her English grandfather required all of his children and their children to learn English.  The reason...he wanted to talk with them but didn't want to learn German. Second was a young man who was in the wind energy field. He actually knew where Iowa was due to his job. The third was an upper level chemistry teacher at St. George's School. It is an English International School. Jackie has just moved to Cologne from Ireland. She had been to the States backpacking through several of the national parks. The most memorable though was a young man who not due to his conversation but for his outburst at us stuck with us. He came in to do laundry and realized very quickly as most people did...American tourists were here. He hurriedly left to reutrn with a box of t-shirts. He was a shirt designer, I guess. He was wanting us to take a look and potentially purchase a tee or two. Well, we were wrapped up in our little conversations with the locals. I know I didn't really know what he wanted until he yelled at us to go back to American because we were rude self-absorbed people.  Really???  Rude and self-absorbed? OK maybe a little rude since we didn't really know what he was doing or wanted. At least, I didn't know what he wanted. But self-absorbed...nah. I am having convo with locals. Get over yourself.

It took us roughly 4 hours due to being self-absorbed. This was much to the consternation of one of those who chose to stay at the hotel. But, it was one of the more memorable moments of the trip.