It was great to have a hotel next to the train station that goes straight to the airport. The train goes every 20 minutes and I just missed that one at 0600. I got to the airport in plenty of time still to use the lounge after going through Copenhagen’s user-friendly security checkpoint.
I found the Aviator lounge and went into it. It was disappointing but adequate compared to yesterday’s Aspire lounge in Helsinki. They had oats rather than good muesli, old apples rather than excellent fruit salad etc. I knew there was an Aspire but it wasn’t within view even though I knew it was nearby. Naturally I found the Aspire lounge as I was making my way to my boarding gate.
The SAS flight to Milan Malpensa took 2h. Once airborne, the crew changed their blue jackets/vests to grey ones to serve free coffee/tea. The airline must have too much money to spend on uniforms! Strangely for drinking water, they’ll pour you a cup for free but if you want the small bottle, you have to pay. Yep, it’s the same brand of water that’s free or payable.
After a long descent and circling due to very cloudy weather I landed. I was on tenderhooks regarding my luggage as I had fears that SAS might inadvertently leave it behind due to the unusually long connection. And since we were moving out of Milan immediately, delivery to us would be difficult as well. Fortunately, I got my luggage.
Kim met me and we were able to go to his hotel, the Moxy at Terminal 2, briefly before returning to Terminal 1 to collect the car. The journey involved a ride on the free inter-terminal shuttle each time but fortunately it was very frequent, running every 10 minutes.
Unfortunately there was a bit of a wait at the Hertz counter till our turn but once our turned came, there were no people waiting. We got a Lancia Epsilon Turbo-Diesel for our week’s rental and we drove south-west to Vernazza via Genoa, taking just over 3h with one stop.
Using Google Maps, we were directed through pretty small and remote roads and we wondered if we were on the right track and whether our accommodation would where we wanted it to be. We were pleased to arrive at our guesthouse, the Affittacamere PZ, to see that it was perched high on a hillside overlooking the sea.
Even better, we found that it was only a short bus ride down to Vernazza. We were told that it was easier by bus since parking is difficult there. As we had time before dinner we took a drive down to Vernazza to check things out but the road proved rather hair-raising. It was very windy, narrow and collapsed in parts. We had to give way to opposing traffic and also back up at times. And when we got down to Vernazza’s carpark, we decided we wouldn’t bother parking to walk in. We simply drove back up to near our guesthouse for dinner at the Puin restaurant.
The clear conclusion was that driving down to Vernazza would be the wrong thing for tomorrow.