Our Final Day

Italy is a popular place!
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On Thursday, July 26, we prepared to say goodbye again to the beautiful country we’ve always enjoyed so much. We started the day early by helping Eric get packed and by driving him to Milano’s “Stazione Centrale” to catch the bus to Malpensa Airport. His flight back to the states preceded ours by several hours since his return flight was planned by Yale University’s Opera Staff separately from the arrangements Kathy and I made for ourselves. Everything had worked so well with the car…..so far. All we had to do was drive the car back to the Central train Station and return it to “Europe by Car,” from which we had rented it over two weeks ago. No big deal, since we had been there so many times and it was only about a mile from our hotel. The only problem was that the car was supposed to be returned with a full tank of gas (the way it was when we got it). That was a reasonable request. But it was over half empty and so we had to find a gas station to refill it. Big problem—since there are very few filling stations in the city, and the city is large and complicated. So Kathy took the map and I took the wheel and we headed out toward the Autostrada (the freeway) that surrounds the inner city of Milano. But the names of the streets change regularly when you least expect it. You can drive on the same street for five miles and the name may change four times, and, unlike Phoenix, nothing really goes east and west or north and south. So, after driving about 10 miles we were thoroughly lost. Fortunately for us, we did find a “servicio,” or service station, and finally got the gas tank filled. But how to find our way back? The service station attendant spoke no English but in that special Italian way they have of communicating with all kinds of gestures he was able to understand our plight and give us simple directions to take us to the city center (or “Centro”). From there we could figure out the rest of our way back.

Gates to Buckingham Palace
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Once we disposed of our car and bought our bus ticket to the airport we had overcome all the obstacles that remained in our path. Now we just sat back in the front seat of the big airport bus and watched how the real pros drive huge vehicles through small streets filled with little cars, delivery trucks, and an endless variety of motor bikes. Whew! Kathy spent most of our travel time with her hands over her eyes.

It was a great conclusion to our European adventure for 2007

Big Ben
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The flight from Milan to London’s Heathrow Airport was uneventful and we were anxious to enquire about my lost luggage, whose last known location was at that airport. The airport agent informed me that they had tried to send it on to us at Marco Polo Airport in Venice (which we mentioned in an earlier blog), but unfortunately it arrived after we had already left the area (they have ways of tracking all lost luggage, or so they say, as long as that tag remains on your bag). So we made arrangements for them to just send it on home to Phoenix when, and if, they really run it down. The problem is there are hundreds, and maybe thousands, of pieces of lost luggage which have resulted from the security scare they had at Heathrow back on July 2 (that’s what caused our original flight abroad to be cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute and resulted in my lost luggage).

London Eye
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Now that we knew we would be taking only one piece of luggage back home we could now concentrate on finding our hotel and taking every advantage of the one day layover in London. Thank goodness for the underground. You can buy one ticket and go all over London by bus, train, or the underground in one of the largest cities in the world (until midnight). Our hotel, Osterly Park, was right on the Piccadilly Line that serviced the West End of London. We found it quickly and, since it was late in the afternoon, immediately jumped back on the underground and went into central London, getting off right next to Big Ben. Since it was about 9:00 PM it was beginning to get dark and the city lights came on. For a serious photographer, that is a special time, when you can see the lights of the city and the city as well. So our serious photographer (Kathy) got busy getting all the pics she wanted—Big Ben, Parliament, the Eye of London, the Thames, etc. By now we were getting really hungry and we knew we didn’t really want to eat in the tourist areas, since they are so expensive (and London’s restaurant prices are among the highest in the world). So we walked away from the tourist areas and found a really cute little Restaurant called the Sherlock Holmes Pub. They had great fish and chips and the atmosphere was very “British.” It was a great conclusion to our European adventure for 2007.