Saturday and Sunday
Yesterday - a flight to Munich and Milano. We knew the day was not going to be great, when the checkin counter labelled the two bags "Hot". At our confused looks, the girl behind the counter explained that 1/2 an hour was not a long transit time for Munich. Sure enough, we had to clear immigration (thank goodness for business class and being first off), then complete a ten minute sprint acorss the airport to a new gate, which Lufthansa had conveniently booked at the opposite end of the place. At least that's what it seemed like. On the plus side, Air Dolomiti does serve some of the best food we've had so far. Cheese, salami, prosciutto, etc.
We made it to Milan airport in one piece, then had to locate and collect a rental car. The car rental agencies are conveniently located at the opposite end of the building to the arrivals gate. And the luggage trolleys require you to have change to use them. Which, coming from another country with diffirent currencies, you are unlikely to have!
The Ford Fiesta (1.4l) that Hertz tried to foist on us in place of the Merc A-class just was not going to cut it. Andrew has decided that he has "mug" written on his forehead. Hertz in Italy are not impressive. Customer service seems to be just the label on the badge that they wear, not a description of their job. Eventually we got a Ford Focus 1.8 diesel, which goes alright but stalled a few times until Andrew figured out how to drive it.
Then came the challenge of nevigating our way from the airport to a small village on the outskirts of Varese - look it up on Google Maps and you'll see the challenge (click here for a link). You need to zoom in a long way to understand that many of the directions take you through the small (only wide enough to allow one car at a time) roads through the centre(?) of Varese. Then combine that with Italy's lack of road signs and Sonia's navigation skills (lack of), it was a difficult afternoon. We got to the hotel (very nice) and went to sleep (4 in the afternoon). On waking around 7pm, we decided to walk into the town, and ended up getting choclate icecream (not as good as in Prague), and then Pizza for dinner (very nice prosciutto pizza). Then watched American Dreams, the movie, and went back to bed. In the morning, a slow start leaving just before the 12-noon checkout time.
Sunday morning we made it to Laveno-Mombello (again, look it up on Google Maps here) just in time to catch the ferry. It took a few tries to get through Varese onto the main road. We know the centre quite well now. I wrote most of this, sitting on the ferry on the way across the lake. Given the location, we could see Switzerland from the ferry. The weather was closing in a little, with the big cold-front that's been making it's way across Europe arriving in Italy in time to greet us. We do feel a little hard-done-by, as this is the only bad weather we've struck on the trip.
PS. Now at the hotel. It's very nice, sitting right on the edge of Lake Maggiore. They upgraded our room from a side-lake-view to a full-lake-view. Nice, but I don't think I would bother if I was having to pay for it. The room is European-small but pleasant enough.
We made it to Milan airport in one piece, then had to locate and collect a rental car. The car rental agencies are conveniently located at the opposite end of the building to the arrivals gate. And the luggage trolleys require you to have change to use them. Which, coming from another country with diffirent currencies, you are unlikely to have!
The Ford Fiesta (1.4l) that Hertz tried to foist on us in place of the Merc A-class just was not going to cut it. Andrew has decided that he has "mug" written on his forehead. Hertz in Italy are not impressive. Customer service seems to be just the label on the badge that they wear, not a description of their job. Eventually we got a Ford Focus 1.8 diesel, which goes alright but stalled a few times until Andrew figured out how to drive it.
Then came the challenge of nevigating our way from the airport to a small village on the outskirts of Varese - look it up on Google Maps and you'll see the challenge (click here for a link). You need to zoom in a long way to understand that many of the directions take you through the small (only wide enough to allow one car at a time) roads through the centre(?) of Varese. Then combine that with Italy's lack of road signs and Sonia's navigation skills (lack of), it was a difficult afternoon. We got to the hotel (very nice) and went to sleep (4 in the afternoon). On waking around 7pm, we decided to walk into the town, and ended up getting choclate icecream (not as good as in Prague), and then Pizza for dinner (very nice prosciutto pizza). Then watched American Dreams, the movie, and went back to bed. In the morning, a slow start leaving just before the 12-noon checkout time.
Sunday morning we made it to Laveno-Mombello (again, look it up on Google Maps here) just in time to catch the ferry. It took a few tries to get through Varese onto the main road. We know the centre quite well now. I wrote most of this, sitting on the ferry on the way across the lake. Given the location, we could see Switzerland from the ferry. The weather was closing in a little, with the big cold-front that's been making it's way across Europe arriving in Italy in time to greet us. We do feel a little hard-done-by, as this is the only bad weather we've struck on the trip.
PS. Now at the hotel. It's very nice, sitting right on the edge of Lake Maggiore. They upgraded our room from a side-lake-view to a full-lake-view. Nice, but I don't think I would bother if I was having to pay for it. The room is European-small but pleasant enough.
posted by Andrew at 10:00 PM
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