Monday, July 22, 2024
Yesterday, Sunday, I took and early taxi to the Lugano Main Station, then the train to Milan-Malpensa airport (yes, there’s more than one airport in Milan!), followed by a Finnair flight to Helsinki, where a van from the tournament picked us up (for a very reasonably charge of 10 Euros…the airport is in a different city it’s so far out of town). I was in three countries in one day.
As I mentioned yesterday, the train to Milan was a direct one to the airport…if you sit in the rear of the train…I did not and suddenly had to race to move my luggage and re-enter the part of the train going to Milan…not that Como didn’t sound nice, but not yesterday. The airport was a zoo, but I was able to get checked in pretty quickly (flying a lot has its perks..Finnair and Alaska share and airline alliance), and also got through security pretty quickly (but I would allow three hours if you don’t have any airline status, the lines were long). In Milan the gate doesn’t show up till 30-45 minutes before the departure time. I was around A5 when the gate was finally announced on the flight departure screens scattered all over the airport…it was A72! I ran for the flight (which was already showing as boarding), made it on…only to wait for nearly an hour for some reason…baggage I think. Not a huge deal compared to the mess in the USA this week with airlines. I found the van from the tournament, taking the scenic route around the airport to find it. It was raining and cool in Helsinki, rather nice actually. We waited for three other passengers coming from Rome, none of whom received their luggage, some baggage issue in Rome. I ran into two other passengers from the Rome flight at the hotel check in and they had gone carry on so were ok.
I left at 6:15 from my Lugano hotel and arrived in Helsinki at around 5pm (it’s one hour ahead of Lugano). Long day for sure!
After checking in, I took a tram to and from Lidl for some fruit and so on (it was open till 7pm on a Sunday, a nice change from Switzerland and Spain), then walked to the courts which are so close to the hotel I can hear balls being hit from my balcony! There are six courts here but two other venues for doubles and consolation (bonus) events. I was able to sign up for practice courts from 8-8:40am.
Two important things to know about the tram: 1: use the blue screen to activate your ticket if you bought a 24 hour ticket or a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 day ticket; and 2: The yellow objects attached to the poles have a “stop” button on them, which you push before your stop on the tram, otherwise the tram will sail right by your stop if no one is waiting!
And that’s a wrap on a long travel day to Helsinki (always with too much luggage!).