Today was the day we were supposed to go to Milan for one day and night, then catch a flight to Bordeaux France the following afternoon. But Brenda and Greg were so in love with the Lake Como region that we decided to stay one extra day. But since there was a science museam in Milan that Greg and Brenda also wanted to see we opted to make Milan a day trip instead. And it all worked out, kind of. . .
The first hurdle was where we would stay the extra night. We tried to book another room at the hotel we were at, but they were not sure if they would have two doubles available. They had one, but another was booked by a couple who gave a bad credit card number to confirm their room. According to Italian law, the hotel owner has to notify the couple that they have until 9am the following day to supply a valid credit card to keep the room. So we decided to roll the dice and wait until 9am.
The only issue was that the train to Milan that we wanted left at 8:30am. Since Tim and Michelle really don't like Milan (it is our least favorite city of everywhere we have traveled) Tim opted to stay and figure out the room situation, and Michelle went with Greg and Brenda to Milan. But finding Tim once we got back (which hotel, a new or the old?) and getting our bags all in one place was still a bit of a mystery. We had faith though that it would all work out.
Brenda, Greg and Michelle easily made the train into Milan. The train was pretty full though with other commuters making their way into the city. Once on the ground again they found a little cafe to enjoy a cup of cappuccino and a sweet treat before the science museaum opened. This museaum is actually pretty cool, housing a history of a number of different technological inventions. Once inside the museam a lovely docent proceeded to tell us all of the areas of the museaum we should see and estimated it would take 2 hours total to work through the exhibits. We thought this sounded great as we had about 3 hours before we needed to head back to catch the right train home in time to meet Tim. About an hour later we had only walked through one small part of the museaum. We had not even started on the small real life models of some of Michaelangelo's most famous inventions. There was no way we could make our way through the rest of the museaum in 1 hour, let alone the 2 hours we had remaining. So we had to prioritize and probably only covered about 1/3 of all of the offerings.
Navigating back to the metro we made our way easily back to the train station and onto the right train. Once back in Como we headed over to our old hotel, figuring that we would either see Tim along the way or we could see if our bags were still at the old hotel. If he had found a new one he may have also moved our things. We could also still connect to the internet at the old hotel and see if he had messaged us. We did not see him along the way, but we did find him sitting at the cafe in front of the old hotel when we walked up. We had a new space for the night, it was just down the road. We grabbed our bags and made the trek to our new home.
It turns out that Tim had quite a day as well. In between figuring out the hotel issue, he also walked around the lake quite a way and managed to talk his way into a beautiful house along the water that was housing a museaum exhibit. He took pictures of the beautiful chandelier and some of the grounds before making his way back to our old hotel. It was good for him to have a bit of time to explore the area.
Our new space was comfortable and close to the downtown area. Hungry, we asked the person at the front desk for recommendations on places to eat. She asked if we wanted traditional Italian or modern Italian. We went with the traditional recommendation and were very pleased. There were no menus in this restaurant, only the waitress letting you know what the chef was cooking that evening. So there were 3-4 starters, 4-5 main plates and 4 different desserts. That was all. And their food changes every day. We were amazed, so different than how we do things in the states. We opted for a cheese filled crepe to start (Oh. My. Goodness. it was good). Michelle had the ravioli and Tim had some meat on a stick. It was all so delicious that we decided to go for dessert as well. There was a blueberry tart, a strawberry mousse and an apple pie. All of them were delicious.
Tomorrow we are headed out to catch a train to the Bordeaux region of France where we will spend a week relaxing at a house we rented through VRBO. The owner actually lives in California ironically enough. We are looking forward to renting a car so we can jet around wherever we want and seeing some more rural areas then we are used to. And sleeping in. :) Au demain!
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