We're a couple of Rick Steves' travelers (at least we use the web site extensively, always buy the books and, where appropriate and economical, buy the rail passes at Rick's store in Edmonds), but I think we depart from the majority by allocating part of our travel budget to hotel-based laundry services, rather than using local "laundromats." Through experiences in Venice and Paris, we learned to prefer to use our valuable touring time in museums, churches, etc, given the sunk costs of the travels in any case. We have booked at one of Rick's recommend hotels in Antwerp, the Matelote (we tried to book the Julien but it was full during our scheduled Antwerp time), but we've confirmed with the hotel that there is no laundry service available in the hotel and that neighborhood laundry services usually work on a two-day schedule. Therefore, we're game to do our every three day washing in "nearby" laundromats (I don't know the Belgian name) and the hotel writes that those facilities are about a "15-minute" walk from the hotel. Anybody here happily stayed at the Matelote? If so, anybody here do laundry at the local establishments?
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
The Dutch word for a laundromat is "Wasserij" (pronounced "WAS-ser-ay"), although they may just use the English term. A dry cleaner is a "Stomerij" (STOW-mer-ay"). I haven't used these services, however. You didn't ask, but..."buy the rail passes at Rick's store in Edmonds". If you haven't already bought a rail pass for Belgium... don't. If you plan to take more than two rail trips within Belgium, buy the pass issued by NMBS (Belgian rail) at the train station. It's a bargain compared to any other third party rail pass, and more than one person can use it simultaneously.
Posted by
OP
Seattle
149 posts
Tom, Thank for the tip on the Belgian railways. We'll be four full days in Antwerp and picked that city rsther than, say, Bruges or Brussels, because Antwerp seems to be, if not equidistant from, usually close to the shortest average day trip among the cities we are likely to visit in Belgium. Also, our stay in Antwerp is only about a two-hour direct rail trip from Amsterdam, our original point of arrival from the U.S. and we'll spend five days there. We"re getting old enough that we greatly prefer to establish "base" cities and use day trips efficiently where we can. We've become pretty comfortable with the online DBahn schedules (and their remarkable accuracy even down to the track information). We're no longer inclined to make nine moves in three weeks as we did on our first travels to Europe in 2000. I've checked typical fares in Belgium for our anticipated day trips and Eurorsil passes are clearly not economical for these short journeys. We'll certainly check at the Belgian rail ststions (probably when we arrive in Antwerp).