Day 12 - Lugano to Milan

Sadly, our last day in Lugano came very, very early.  It was a damp, gray morning, as the rain had

settled in overnight.  The day would be much cooler, only getting to 60 degrees.  Mona would be gone to her conference today, and I would have errands to run to get us ready to return home.

We headed down to breakfast, enjoyed the last of our coffee and took in the gray clouds descending on the mountain.  After breakfast, we packed Mona's bags, so that we could drop them at the front desk for the day - this freed her up to carry less stuff for her last day.  I walked Mona to the bus stop just down the street from our hotel.  We rode them #4 back to the train station and headed over to the #436 bus stop.  This bus stops just up the street from Franklin University, making for an easy walk.  Dropping Mona off at the University, I returned to the room to pack.

Unfortunately, the luggage I bought for Ramona was too small, so I had to take it back to the department store.  I quickly packed my belongings, then brought down my bags to the front desk.  From there, I returned to the train station and rode the funicular train back down to the department store.  Returning the luggage finally freed me up for the rest of the day.  What to do?

I took the train from Lugano to Melide, to see a park called Swissminatur.  This park features almost 200 miniature replicas of famous buildings, churches and castles from all over Switzerland.  You can easily lose hours here.

Returning on the train, I met Mona at the train station and headed back to the hotel.  We met our

shuttle driver at the front desk, and quickly returned to the station.  Our train arrived after a short wait, and we finally on our way!  The first class car we sat in remained very quiet most of the ride.  We passed the time looking over pictures of our trip and playing a few games on our phones.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the train, was that the first class car was SOOOOOO quiet!  I mean, the sound of the outdoors were masked in the car.  There were only one or two people in the car between stops, so there was little conversation.  An overhead display showed our current stop, next series of stops and the arrival times at each.  Because of this, only very quiet announcements were made just before each stop.  It was incredibly peaceful and relaxing.

Shortly after nightfall, we reached our destination - Milan airport.  Mona had booked a night for us at the Sheraton hotel, so that we could quickly pass through security for our early morning flights.  The hotel was actually located within the confines of the airport, much like the Westin at Detroit Metro.  After check-in, we took a walk, exploring the enormous airport.  We walked all the way across the terminal, getting a feel for the food courts.  Sadly, my ability to get one more gelato was thwarted by my need to rest my aching feet.  I've been averaging more than 18k steps a day for the last two weeks and I was ready to get back to normal!

Returning to our room before bedroom, there was just a few minutes to push out a quick blog post and call it a night.  In the morning, we would catch our flights back to Kalamazoo!