DAY 1A - 4 OF A MONTH LONG TRIP

Early alarm. The fact that Rochester is still cold in the morning didn't make getting up easy, no matter how nice a hotel and their beds, I always prefer my own. An 8am departure from Rochester put me in Chicago at 9:30am for a 9:30pm flight to Munich, 12 hours of airport time....glamorous enough for you?

I took my time to terminal B and occupied myself with reading the rest of the morning. 

                                

A call from my uncle alerts me of a potentially monster of a soccer match so I search for where I can eat and see the game. Lunch at the Tuscany Cafè while Madrid Atletico battled it out with Barcelona for the Spanish League Championship on TV was great, lunch consisted of Fried Ravioli as an appetizer, Chicken Casaer Salad, two glasses of Cabarnet and a good game. Not a bad couple of hours.

                               

Besides lunch and a good game there is little I can expect to bring any kind of excitement to this day, although, perhaps...yeah, the SPA looks good, I think I'll treat myself to a 15 minute deep tissue chair massage, it's always worth every dollar.

        

Amazingly the 12 hours pass and I'm off to Milan where the time that was planned for relaxation dwindled away with flight mishaps. If you've never traveled for transatlantic fights, take my word, it beats you up, realizing that your luggage has been lost can put you over the edge. Since I'm leaving for China tomorrow, I don't have much room for delays, I need it no later than tomorrow morning. I find out there are two more flights from Munich, so the hope is that it makes it on one of those. Seeing my friend Roberto, who prefers to go by Roby, has an apartment on the 8th floor of the building where he works. He has a home in Vicenza where he goes for the weekends, but during the week he is in Gallarate outside of Milan. He is a wiry anxious type which offsets my relaxed mode, and today as always, awaits me with a chilled bottle of white wine.

        

Upon finishing the wine we decided to go to dinner at our friend Michele's place. It's a Bed and Breakfast that has a courtyard ideal for dining al fresco. He never hands us a menu, I don't even know if one exists, and that is just as I like it. After he tells us what the offerings are for the first course and for the second course, I chose a pasta while Roby goes for the steak and of course we both go for more wine.

                                     

                                     

 

         

After we kill one more bottle of wine we receive a call from Lufthansa to tell me the suitcase had arrived and so we make our way to the airport to find the suitcase had lost a wheel. They offer to repair it, but of course I'm getting back on a plane in a few hours, so fixing it will have to wait.

Waking up to a beautiful sunny day makes me realize how much I miss the sun in Rochester, after all the flying mishaps I'm looking forward to an uneventful flight. We hired a car to takes us to Linate, the second Milan airport. Easy flight into Heathrow Airport however we, along with everyone else, go through a second security screaning, this is a very, very busy airport and they aren't taking any chances. As we stop for lunch I hear of the news that the US has accused, naming names, the Chinese of stealing industry secrets by hacking and it makes me very aware that relations between the two countries will cool.

At the gate we realize that it's a pretty empty flight, 40 passengers in total, great for us, not so much for the airline. The plane turns out to be brand new, beautifully designed and now we had all the space we wanted. Wine, meals and laughs ensue.

                                      

                                      

                                      

I always love looking out the window as we fly, I wonder if I would have made a good pilot, I could spend hours looking at the earth below as well as the skies around me.

                                       

                                       

                                       

As I enter the Crown Plaza in Chengdu City Center, my years of fashion and the news of industry hacking by the Chinese meet. We used to say that to the Chinese copyright laws meant they had the right to copy. Right in the lobby of the crown Plaza mind you is a clear knockoff of the Acquascutum brand.

       

Cocktails and dinner in our hotel, and hopefully a good night sleep as well. See you soon!

DAY 1 OF A MONTH LONG TRIP

So here I was all packed and ready to go. Now, please understand, that when I say "ready to go" I mean that I will still be doing something literally until I leave for the airport and then....well then I'm still doing something: I'm going to the airport. You see what I mean don't you? Look, chances are that if you're reading this then you're at least a Facebook friend and God knows that means you know me well right?!? Yeah, exactly.

An afternoon flight on United Airlines, bought and paid for long ago, had me boarding at about 2pm for Newark, NJ to then catch my second flight in the evening to Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy. The game plan intended for me to meet up with my friend Robi, two days of good wine and rest, hop on British Airways to London, and then again to Chengdu, China. Are you still with me? Good.

       

The air was cut like a butter knife through ice as I began to read the text that had just chimed in my iPhone:

UA3813 to Newark on May 16 is cancelled due to air traffic control. Please visit united.com/rebook or contact us for assistance.

Ok, I'm a seasoned traveller, it's just an inconvenience, I mean, I'm just trying to go from Rochester to Newark, I'm not trying to hitch a ride to the space station. "Do as they say" I say and with one tap I'm exactly where they said I should be. Hmmm uhmmm errrrr ahhhhh say WHAT????? Oh yes, I see, they were kind enough to book my replacement flight, one slight problem...it's for SUNDAY. Now, for those that have never flown across the big pond, you leave here one day and you get there the next. Monday, yes Monday I would therefore be on a United flight to Italy not on a British Airways flight to China. Are you starting to feel a little teeny bit of my pain? Please say yes, traveling through the abyss can be so lonely.

Contact us for assistance. Yes, that would be the next step, then I get that message, you know the one...the one that tells you how long I'll be on hold. 60 minutes. No, not the show...my expected wait. Armed with two phones on hold, don't hold it against me, I was just trying to double my chances, I contemplate going to the airport and get face to face with a humanoid. Alas, before I make a decision, Andrew from Customer Service pipes in. Let me say this right now, Andrew was GREAT!. And after a bit of doing, he finds me a flight backwards(to Chicago) to go forward. Except forward now wasn't going to be such a straight line. My direct flight from Newark to Milan became my flight from Chicago to Munich to Milan. Ok....I'll take it, it's better than getting there on Monday. Off to the airport I go for my 6:28pm flight would connect me with my 9:30pm flight on Lufthansa to Munich and Dolomite Airlines to Milan.  

        

Check a bag, get a full lat down at security and I'm on my way. Or am I? Another text:

Your 6:28pm flight to Chicago is delayed. UA4263 now departs Rochester 8:40pm and arrives 9:32pm. 

Too late. Back to the drawing board and on the phone, this time it would be Rob from Customer Service. The next hour was spent trying every major city from Chicago to Houston to Boston to Miami and between. Through Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium. I suggested every city I would have to spend the night in where I had friends I could party with, ever the eternal glass have full attitude. Try as we may it wasn't to be, so back home I came where I now write from until tomorrow when I will fly to Chicago and a 12.5 hour weight for my flight to Munich and Milan. I will call to tomorrow DAY 1A OF A MONTH LONG TRIP.