Doing the laundry

One of Ásmundur Sveinsson’s sculptures in the garden at Ásmundursafn – The Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum in Reykjavik.

This statue in Reykjavik, by Icelandic sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson, immediately spoke to me of the traveller’s ongoing challenge to maintain a supply of clean clothing.

More than two months into a European trip I have seen very few laundromats. One I stumbled upon was no help as my dirty clothes were some distance away, back where I was staying. Once, with a bag of dirty laundry in hand, I was directed to a laundromat and fairly quickly emerged with a stack of clean clothing. The service was rather pricey though.

Laundromat in Orleans, France.

A benefit of staying in other people’s homes, as I have been doing most of this trip through airbnb bookings www.airbnb.com/‎ and a house sitting engagement, is that there is often the opportunity to do laundry.

Electric clothes dryers being relatively rare outside North America this does mean hoping the clothes dry before it is time to move on. I was intrigued by this solution I spotted in Spain for keeping the rain off laundry put outdoors to dry.

Drying clothes in Madrid.