Day 13 - Milan to Kalamazoo

Our return trips meant a day's worth of travel for both of us.  Mona and I were each on separate flights heading back to Kalamazoo.  Mona's flights took her from Milan to Frankfurt to Chicago to Kalamazoo.  My flights took me from Milan to Miami to Chicago to Kalamazoo.

We got breakfast and got on our way to our gates.  As we passed through the airport was noted several interesting things.  First, Mona spotted a couple of soldiers from the Italian army doing rounds in the terminal.  I later learned that the standard issue Army rifle for Italy is the Beretta AR70/90, chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO rounds.  The soldier on the left in this picture is carrying an SC70/90 Random factoid: like the US move from the M16 to the M4, Italy is in the process of moving from a weapon popularized in the 1980s to a more-flexible system allowing more customization and variety of a single platform, instead of many, specialized rifles and carbines.

Next, we spotted a very (ahem) interesting add for a new car.  It was funny to see paparazzi clustered around a car, taking pictures.  Still, it was a good laugh to start the day and served as a good landmark to find our way between the departure/arrival gates and the hotel.

In the terminals, we said our goodbyes and split up for our separate gates.  Mona did great getting to her flights, but I managed to go most of the way down the wrong terminal, as I thought she had texted me.  In fact, I had just re-read a text from earlier in the trip.  DOH!  This meant that I ended up sprinting down most of the B terminal to get to my gate.  I was the last passenger checked in, but there were still passengers lined up on the jetbridge getting onto the plane.  I basically ran all that way, just to stand in line.  Oh well!

When we connected back in Kalamazoo at home, we regaled each other with tales from our individual flights.  Nothing major to report, but I did want to sum up my observations on this trip.

Clothing - 8/10

We both made pretty good decisions about what to bring to wear.  Mona says that many times she brings too much variety of clothing, and only wears 70% of it.  I wore practically everything I brought, except for one pair of heavy pants.  When we were planning, weather reports for Venice were in the 50s and 60s; in reality, they were never below 65 and got up to 75 twice; once in Venice and once in Cinque Terre.  Next time, I'll probably bring the same layout.

Luggage - 8/10

For this trip, Mona took her standard rollaboard bag.  It's seen travel all over the world - we've had it for so long, I can't remember the first trip it when on.  I'll probably have to look at our travel pictures to see when we first got it.  Over the years, the wheels have stayed on and functioned well - which surprised me, based on the number of three-wheeled bags I always see.  However, the zippers have all broken off, one by one, and when we got to Lugano, Switzerland, the handle finally broke off.  The bag survived long enough to get back to Kalamazoo, but it's going to go in the trash next.

My new REI backpack worked pretty well.  I was able to fill it with all the clothes I needed on this trip, and the chest strap pulled the weight of the shoulder straps to the front, making it more comfortable.  The bag was balanced well-enough for me to run with it on my back, which proved to be the deciding factor in my dash to the gate in Milan. The only thing it lacks is a waist strap to pull more weight down to my hips.

I also bought a smaller daypack to replace the single-shoulder messenger bag I've carried since our trip to India.  The new pack was big enough to comfortably carry a tablet, where the old bag could not.  This smaller daypack had both chest and waist straps, which was really nice for keeping my hands free.  The top was also a drawstring, which made access pretty easy.  I think this bag will see a lot more use for our smaller trips, since it fits everything I need.

Money - 10/10

Thanks to our Capitol One card, we were able to pull cash when traveling without paying any extra fees.  We always got good exchange rates, so this was very nice.  ATMs were conveniently located in every location we visited, which was nice, but very many places accepted credit cards.  We also used card+PIN everywhere we used the credit cards, which was a pleasant surprise.  The Post Italia ATMs in Italy and Switzerland did not charge a fee for withdrawals, so we basically pulled money from our accounts at market rate.  Score!  We did a good job spending the cash we converted, too.  I spent all the Euros I had, and in Switzerland we gave the last of our Swiss Francs to the hotel shuttle bus driver.

Travel Accessories - 6/10

This is the place we have to find a way to improve.  Travel accessories, like water bottles, umbrellas, etc. just don't seem to make the trip.  Very early on, Mona lost her favorite pink water bottle.  I, too, lost my water bottle on the train to Melide.  I also lost an umbrella.  Even though I have hooks for everything, it's still very easy to unhook things and forget them.  Ah well!

Universal plugs - 10/10

Italy uses a specific power plug style for its plugs.  I had two universal adapters (one grounded with three plugs, one un-grounded with just two) from Amazon for less than $10 in total that worked great everywhere.  It was easy to plug in our US travel chargers for our devices, and still have a standard, grounded outlet to plug in laptops.  This made it super-easy to stay charged every where we went.  Italy used the three-prong plugs everywhere, but in Switzerland, we needed to use the two-prong plug (the grounded plug in Switzerland is a little different).  In Milan, Mona could use the ungrounded two-prong adapter to plug in her iron. which was nice.  If you're visiting both Italy and Switzerland, you'll definitely want both a three-prong and a two-prong adapter - older hotels may only have two-prong plugs.

Overall - Great Trip!

This trip was a true and utter blessing from my wife.  With all of the care she took in arranging our tickets and our stays, it was easy for me to just focus on getting around.  Getting to-and-from many of our stops took a lot of mental effort and discipline.  Not to mention, dealing with street signs and directions in Italian, navigating unfamiliar roads and keeping track of our bags.  On our next trip, I'll probably look to consolidate more things into a single daypack, and see what I do to keep my hands free.

I'm very thankful the weather cooperated the entire time.  We no rain on the trip until we got to Milan at the very end, so we could travel easily and see everything we wanted to see.  As we look at our next trip, I'm sure Mona will help us pick another great destination, and we'll believe for more great weather!

Thanks for following along with us on this journey!

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!