Sunday, June 18, 2023

Bye bye Crete. Hello Milan

Monday, we traveled to Chania. 

The road trip was easy peasy, but the trip through town to the hotel was a different matter. Thank the lord for GPS and Google Maps. Stanley was a real trooper and managed to get us there safely. We got the car turned in and we got checked in and immediately set out to buy a suitcase. This idea of pulling two cases and carrying a bag is for the birds. Suitcase purchased, we returned to the hotel, repacked, and took a short rest. Soon it was time for dinner and we did ourselves proud. Octopus, Mussels, and a great salad. 


Our plane didn’t leave until 2:30 on Tuesday so we had a leisurely morning breakfast and another tour of the hotel garden and a great taxi ride to the airport.  From the backseat of a taxi, with a native Cretan in the driver’s seat, the streets of Chania don’t look at all intimidating. On to Milan. Everything worked like clock work. 


Our Vrbo host Kiki met us at the train station and escorted us to our new digs. They are some of the quirkiest digs we’ve ever had in Europe, but spotlessly clean and well equipped with everything we could possibly need except groceries. I prevailed on Kiki to loan us some bread and cheese and we made do. 



Wednesday, we lounged around in bed for a while, unpacked and set up our tidy camp comfort. Then we made a fatal mistake. We found one of Kiki’s highly recommended restaurants. We ordered more food than we ever should have ordered. We ate it all and between us, a whole bottle of white wine disappeared. All of that before 2:00PM. 




We found our way back home, and didn’t move for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we went back out in search of a food store, but didn’t find anything. We weren’t in the mood for any more restaurant food so we came back and made more Kiki cheese sandwiches.


Today, we spent several hours at the Milan Duomo Spectacular. Very impressive. We climbed all the way to the roof - quite a hike for me!








Toured the church and the Duomo Museum. Lunch nearby within viewing distance of all the folks still visiting the Duomo.








Back to the apartment for another long rest, but this time we arrived with stuff to fix for dinner. 


Kiki has been so very helpful! Not only did he provide us with dinner ingredients for two night, a long list of recommended restaurants, pizza places, and food shops, he also went with us to the train station today to make sure we understood how to make the transfer. He has done everything possible to make this part of our trip a success.