Growing up we always had washcloths. You used washcloths to wash your face, for bathing, and sometimes for cleaning stuff. To me it is just one of those items you always have around even when you are traveling. Anywhere I travel in the United States, you always find washcloths as part of the linens that are provided to guests. The hotel may not provide enough, but at least they provided them for you. Well that is when you are in Amsterdam.
Usually after traveling internationally, one of the first I like to do when arriving at my hotel is wash my face and take a shower. To me there is nothing more refreshing and invigorating than washing off a long journey. So head to the bathroom to wash my face and to take a shower. I look around the bathroom and there are no washcloths. I think to myself, well they just must have missed this when they cleaned. I call down to the front desk and ask if they can bring me some washcloths. “Oh yes. Not a problem”, I hear on the other end phone. We will have someone drop these off to you right away. Great..Thank You, I replied. Not too long after I had hung up the phone, there is a knock at the door. There is a nice lady with white folded cloths in her hand. I proceed into the bathroom, unfold the cloth, and then I think to myself what the heck?? These are not washcloths, these are hand towels. Well I think, perhaps there was a bit of a language barrier or miscommunication. For now I will use these, and try to ask for them later.
Several hours later my friend arrives. I ask if he will call down and ask for washcloths. Perhaps they will understand what he is asking for. He receives the same response as I did. There is a knock at the door, he is handed the white cloths, and he closes the door. Rinse and Repeat..he received hand towels. So we begin to think, perhaps they call them something different. We seek the internet’s knowledge. If anyone knows the answer to this Google will know. This time the internets did not have the answers. We found nothing. So we tried again. Phone call to the front desk, and were told yes we will get these to you. However, this time there was no knock at the door. We waited a couple of hours. We were watching a moving, so we will just wait. It isn’t like we did not have a stack of hand towels sitting in the bathroom. After the movie, still nothing. My friend calls back down. I think now someone has realized they have no idea what we are talking about or red flags started going off that half of hotels hand towels are in our room. The person on the other end says, I’m sorry I am not sure what you are asking for. We tried our best to explain what they were and give a description. It shouldn’t really have been this difficult. The voice on the other end says, “We do not have these…sorry”. It is official there are no washcloths in Amsterdam, and I will just have to make do with the numerous hand towels I have.
I recently read an article by Rick Steves about his travel pet peeves. Although, Rick did not call out washcloths, there were several users that called out the lack of washcloths. So I am glad to know I am not the only one who feels this way. However, now I just make sure I pack a loofah and makeup wipes.
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