We wake quite late in the morning to the sound of our alarm clocks. Luckily we set them to alert us an hour before breakfast ends so we are able to take advantage of it otherwise we would have slept through it all. As we prepare for breakfast we take a look outside and see the area in the daylight for the first time, the training exercises with the helicopter catch our eyes – this is something that will happen every day of our trip.
Something unique for today is the fact that in the other direction we can see looming mountains capped with snow, likely in or near Switzerland that is about one hour away by train. Quite impressive but not visible in the other days we visited due to clouds or general air pollution.
We then descend from the top floor where, luckily, our room is to the reception area to find out where breakfast is served. We were told when we arrived around 3 AM but at that point we were too tired to care.
We are happy to see that there is enough room in the breakfast room to find a secluded spot and then it is on to explore what is on offer. Nothing really unexpected for a breakfast bar in Europe but the offer is really sooo much better the in the US. Especially the fresh bakery products are quite good and soon we are ready to make our way to Milan.
That is quite an arduous journey of over one hour each way that we have to make every day but we made the strategic call to stay near the airport as the plane we arrived in arrives late at night and the plane that we are going to depart with is going to depart early in the morning before we can take advantage of any public transportation so it would have cost an arm and a leg to get to the hotel. So we make our way to the free shuttle stop to the airport, wait for the shuttle and the make it to the airport. There we take a Malpensa Express train to Milano Centrale, after having our struggle with the automatic ticket dispenser that flatly refuses to accept any American cards. The only way around it is to use Google Pay where the same card is entered – no problem in using the phone to pay using the same card that was not working directly…..
The train ride itself takes about one hour and the train is not that full with us even able to find seats every time we have taken it, which is quite nice. What is not nice is that the platform where the train always arrives and departs is somehow squeezed near an edge of the station and is much smaller width compared to other platform. As everyone either leaves or enters the train here this makes it for a bottleneck that can be dangerous at times, a couple times they even stationed uniformed people to direct the traffic so there is no accident.
The station itself, while busy at almost any hour we were there, is very impressive especially the top level with its monumental design. It is structured over multiple levels with a few shopping area and has an access to the subway system that we are going to use almost every day, except today. Today we are planning to leave on foot and explore the more modern area near Milano Centrale.
Just finding the exit is an adventure that we bravely take on similarly to the Harry Potter fans standing in line to take photos near Hagrid, not really sure what the event is but quite a few people stop for it. And then we find the exit and can take one more photo of the impressive Milano Centrale building before starting with our exploration of the Milan.
