Having flown for something like 32 of 34 hours I arrived finally at Malpensa Airport on the outskirts of Milan with nothing but my carry -on – fortunately, having expected an overnight in Doha, I had some clothes and toiletries.
My first stop was the lost luggage office to file the paperwork which would encourage them to find and deliver to me my luggage. Another passenger in the office, from Ukraine, had put his bag on a moving conveyor belt without having checked it in so it was now lost someplace in the bowels of the airport and could take days to find. He couldn’t fly on without it as he had a carnet for work equipment in the bag. Wow … now that is some kind of stupid.
As I was in a state of disorientation and had become a creature of flight over the past day plus it took me about two hours to escape Malpensa. In the end I’d waited just long enough that my Air BnB host, Federica, was able to collect me during her lunch break.
I had booked in to her place near the airport in anticipation of, you know, having my bicycle. I planned on assembling my bike at the airport and riding the 5 kilometres to her place today and the 40 or so km into Milan tomorrow.
Even without the bicycle the decision proved fortuitous. The apartment is in Tornavento – a bit of a freestanding outer suburb with a few cute village touches. After all the flying having someplace simple and quiet to recover was spot on. I had lunch at the pub on the piazza, showered and went for a walk in Parco Ticino. In the evening I made a simple dinner and was asleep by 9 pm.
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