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IAH Departure - 12:50pm, MXP Arrival - 10:35am with an easy change over in Newark and another quick stop in Zurich... well...that's how it was supposed to go! Things started off great, I built an extra hour in our deadline for leaving the house, knowing we'd need some of it. Only left 15 minutes late to find the airport fairly empty; so we were sitting at the departure gate an hour early. But the takeoff was delayed 20 mins on the tarmac and we flew around a storm on the way, so we landed in Newark with 12 minutes to go before the next flight, and we're at the end of one terminal and need to get to the end of a different one! Remember the scene in Home Alone 2 where Kevin is chasing his dad in the brown trench coat? Yea...that was Heather chasing me...was it A78 or E78? Meanwhile, imagine a slow motion action sound track from the 80's as I'm running down the terminal full speed, hurdling people's bags, jumping over the rail of the moving sidewalk because there was a crowd that wasn't budging, etc. BUT we made it!
We made it, just to wait another 15 mins because they were giving our bags time to make it to the plane, all that running for nothing! On to Zurich, it was a good flight, Maclaren didn't sleep until the last hour, but was well behaved otherwise. However, when we got off the plane, the airline rep told us our flight was cancelled due to "all of Italy being on strike today", but we should continue to our gate anyhow to find out more information. Well ok, cancelled flight means there is no need to rush; we didn't exactly lollygag, but by the time we made it the 2 miles from the end of Terminal E to the start of Terminal A, we heard our name on the PA "Passengers Portelance report to Gate A85 immediately for boarding." Ah s***, we're at A50...I'm not running again, and Heather can't do it again with her belly, she almost went into labor after Newark; they're just going to have to wait for us. But we picked up our step anyway, to arrive at Gate A85 to an upset attendant yelling at us "you missed it, 20 other people from your flight made it why didn't you?!?" They weren't pregnant and toting a 2.5 year old!
So back to the transfer gate to figure out our options; wait until tomorrow morning and hope the strike is over, or fly to Munich and then to Milan today because apparently the Germans didn't get the memo about the strike! So 2 hours later it's a 1 hour flight to Munich for a 45 minute layover for a 1.25 hour flight to Milan. Arrival in Milan at 3:45pm instead of 10:50am like originally scheduled. But we finally made it! 4 countries in 1 day is a record for us: USA, Switzerland, Germany, Italy.
Clean up at the hotel, some quick advice at the front desk, and we're across the street to the ice cream shop that has had no less than 15 people in it at all times since we got here. It's good but doesn't hold a candle to the ice cream in Bulgaria #stillthebestintheworld.
The subway system is quite confusing for the first 3 trips, by the 4th, I have it figured out. We went to the Giralbaldi district for dinner tonight and landed at a Japanese Italian fusion restaurant (mostly because we were tired of walking). The food quality and presentation was good, the portion size was on the smaller side, and the price was pretty decent (especially compared to the $47 Burger King meal we had in the Zurich airport!
Closing comment, we thought it was supposed to be cool at night here...there is nothing cool about the temperature here, feels like Houston with only about 5% less humidity.
- comments
kmacoog04 Following along on here Jarrod so get to work! Give my girls kisses! Love,Aunt Kell
Mimi Hope you are learning more about traveling less direct routes.OMG. Just the thought of this wears me out. Also considerfirst class on the trains. If you book it far enough out, sometimes evencheaper than economy and they allow a space for your luggage.