Also a bit of a surprise was an apparent rain shower - wet pavers on the terrace.....with our vague recollection of some thunder around 5:00 AM. We jokingly attributed this to "tears of departure."
The dining room was also not open for us (8:30) so they had brought us some basics and left them in our refrigerator the night before. We managed to get packed and I lugged the cases out to the car by around 7:15. We were off and running almost a half hour ahead of schedule, wanting to try to avoid rush hour traffic around Milan.
The traffic was great. We also found a gas station and refueled before arriving at the airport. That is where the fun started. There are two terminals at Malpensa, about 4 miles separate from each other. We assumed that we were heading to Terminal 1, but that appeared to be a bad assumption. We looked at our boarding passes and saw a designation for Terminal 2…….so had to drive back from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. We found the Avis drop-off lot and went up to the counter, only to find that Terminal 2 was only for ValueJet airlines! We jumped back in the car and headed off to Terminal 1 again. Suffice it to say that some early morning panic was setting in here. We did not have this kind of contingency in our timing even with the 30 minutes jump start.
Anyway, we made it to the ‘other’ Avis at Terminal 1 and had to wait forever to get our car checked in. By this time, the moods were not pleasant. In the end, the check-in was quite easy at the Air France desk and we did not have to go through passport control as our initial leg was only to Paris. We picked up a half an hour and had time for breakfast in the Air France club lounge……which put us both in a better frame of mind!
The flight to Paris was uneventful and on time. Our trepidation of negotiating the Charles de Gaulle airport was only partially experienced. Everything went better than we expected except for a bit of a back-up at the Passport control point. The plane from Paris to Boston was a Boeing 777-300, which I think means it has 300 seats! While we were not flying business class, this plane has a great Premium Economy zone which was quite comfortable.
We will sign off here, because the story does not get more interesting. We landed in Boston to fog, rain, chilly temperatures and a massive rush hour traffic jam (it actually took us longer to go from Logan to our house than it took to fly from Milan to Paris)........a great way to make sure we did not forget how wonderful our trip was, and how lucky we continue to be! Now on to reconnecting and re-engagement. It's tough to adjust to the end of a trip like this, but it is always great to be back home with family and friends.
Ciao!
Andrea and Fiske
p.s. - one final entry two days later! Wednesday was National Martini Day, so we had a great celebration at home with flowers and vegetables from the garden (those that the woodchuck didn't eat) with our best buddies Tessa and Koda!
