February 3-4
This will have to be a quick post at the end of two really short days crammed together to make what feels like one really long day. Our alarm went off at 4 AM and gave us just enough time to take quick showers, pack our toiletries and get picked up by our Uber to San Francisco International. Bay Area traffic is funny. We knew we would be way early to the airport, but if we had waited another hour, we would have arrived two hours later. But this was okay. It gave the TSA workers plenty of time to examine the 700+ Olympic lapel pins that Steve is bringing (with the goal of giving at least 10 away per day).
Other than some pretty severe turbulence going over the Rocky Mountains, the flight from San Francisco to Montreal was uneventful. We had a 3 hr layover which gave us time to grab a light meal before we boarded our flight to Milano. As soon as we saw the plane, we knew that this going to be interesting:
It seemed likely that a plane with the Canadian Olympic Association logo on it was going to have some Olympic athletes on board. Sure enough, they started arriving shortly after we sat down. Although we have watched a lot of speed skating (both short- and long-track) and bobsleigh, we didn’t recognize anyone. Many had ski boots and we guessed that they might be freestyle skiers. We also saw the only member of the Jamaican alpine skiing team (all the other Jamaican Olympians are bobsledders) and forty Canadian athletes (the announced number- we think that’s a lot but nearly the entire men’s and women’s Italian hockey team are based in Canada) who will be representing Italy in Milano-Cortina. Several people noticed the pins on Steve’s hat, a few took pictures and one guy, who is the coach of the sole Eritrean alpine skier, gave Steve one of their team pins!
Before boarding, the gate agents announced that as one of Team Canada’s official sponsors, they were thrilled to be transporting a number of Olympic athletes and coaches and invited them to board ahead of everyone else. The crowd gave them an enthusiastic cheer.
As we boarded, what had been light flurries turned to heavier snow and we could tell that our plane was going to take a tour of the de-icing station before we took off:
While we were waiting, we found ourselves sitting behind a Canadian woman who was carrying her Team Italy hockey jersey. There were also a group of people next to us that seemed to be families of athletes.
The flight itself was uneventful. Neither of us slept more than an hour or two as we flew over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on this side of the Atlantic and Cork in Ireland and Land’s End in England on the other side. We continued down across Brittany and across France, over the Alps near Geneva and down into a very rainy Italy.
Milano’s main airport is called Malpensa which my Duolingo Italian says could reasonably be translated as “bad idea”. If so, it could be considered a bad idea for being so far from the city. After clearing customs and getting our bags, we take a 45 min train ride to the Milano Centrale station. Here is a picture of some of the art in this old time station:
Check-in at our hotel isn’t until 2 PM so we stop in the train station for lunch (panini sandwiches and some badly needed caffeine - Coke Zero) before getting an Uber to the hotel.
The hotel is a boutique hotel in a neighborhood called Navigli somewhat to the southwest of the city center. We are still working on figuring out how many rooms there are (less than 30 seems likely).
When we unpack, Steve realizes he is missing the charging cable for his laptop so he is writing this on his phone. We’ll have to do something about this when it is not raining and we are less sleep deprived. But for now, we spent some time walking around the area, finding the Metro station nearest us and buying 3 day passes (the longest time they will sell), and end up having gelato for dinner!
Tomorrow, we are off to Women’s Ice Hockey. Stay tuned!
You do a great job telling your story!
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