San Siro Visit then Ciao Italia
I slept pretty well at the "Apollo" Hotel, Milano. Too well, if anything as I didn't wake up as early as I had thought. So I was a bit late setting off for my first destination, the impressive looking (but ask Gerry for a second opinion!) stadium, home to both Inter and AC Milan.
I've seen the outside of the stadium before. When I used to work for British Airways I used to be able to fly to Europe for ten pounds. As I worked in IT, I could check which flights were most likely to have free seats and the deal was you could fly anywhere on standby for 10% of what it cost the public. Unfortunately, I was only able to take advantage of this for a year as you had to have been a member of staff for twelve months before the perk kicked in and I was only there for two years. I remember flying to Milan one day to watch Kaunas Zalgiris, the Lithuanian basketball team, play Milan in the European club championship one year - must have been 1989. I checked the flight at about 4pm, left my work stuff by my desk, nipped from Hatton Cross to Heathrow after work. I caught the flight at about 5:30, arriving in Milan about an hour later. I caught the bus to the city, found a cheap hotel and booked a room. Then I set off to the stadium, bought a ticket, and watched the pride of Lithuania (this was still the dark days of the Soviet Union, remember) play Milan. I can't remember anything about the match, except that for me at the time it was the first live basketball game I'd ever seen and I was impressed with the atmosphere. After the game I went back to the city and had a few beers before going to bed. Next morning I got a taxi to take me to the airport via the San Siro stadium.Crazy, but I must have done something like that.
The stadium itself didn't seem to have changed much in the 27 years since, indicating the general decline in the standard of the Italian league, Serie A.
I've seen the outside of the stadium before. When I used to work for British Airways I used to be able to fly to Europe for ten pounds. As I worked in IT, I could check which flights were most likely to have free seats and the deal was you could fly anywhere on standby for 10% of what it cost the public. Unfortunately, I was only able to take advantage of this for a year as you had to have been a member of staff for twelve months before the perk kicked in and I was only there for two years. I remember flying to Milan one day to watch Kaunas Zalgiris, the Lithuanian basketball team, play Milan in the European club championship one year - must have been 1989. I checked the flight at about 4pm, left my work stuff by my desk, nipped from Hatton Cross to Heathrow after work. I caught the flight at about 5:30, arriving in Milan about an hour later. I caught the bus to the city, found a cheap hotel and booked a room. Then I set off to the stadium, bought a ticket, and watched the pride of Lithuania (this was still the dark days of the Soviet Union, remember) play Milan. I can't remember anything about the match, except that for me at the time it was the first live basketball game I'd ever seen and I was impressed with the atmosphere. After the game I went back to the city and had a few beers before going to bed. Next morning I got a taxi to take me to the airport via the San Siro stadium.Crazy, but I must have done something like that.
The stadium itself didn't seem to have changed much in the 27 years since, indicating the general decline in the standard of the Italian league, Serie A.
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| The San Siro hasn't changed much in 27 years at least |
Not having a data connection in Italy meant I had to load the route through WiFi at the hotel and just hope I didn't go off track too far. In fact the journey was very smooth indeed. Selfies added, it was time to leave Milan and head north.
My (yes, I know, crazy) plan was to visit Liechtenstein. Woy wuncha? It's a country in Europe I haven't been to - and I think I've been to most, so I thought this was an ideal opportunity to do so. It would be the 7th country on this trip.
Trouble started, though, when trying to leave Milan. The traffic was horrendous and my phone crashed and restarted as Google Maps froze, so I lost the route I'd set up at the hotel. However, despite this, using the amazing GPS feature smart phones have, it's still possible to use the map, to locate one's current position and, with a bit of common sense/guesswork you can still get to where you want to go.
I was listening to poor old Roy's goodbye press conference on the BBC 5 Live Podcast as I struggled to inch my way through the morning rush hour and make my way north to Como and the mountains.
Como MacDonalds
I had visions of breakfasting by the beautiful lakes, with green hills and white peaked mountains as a backdrop to the inevitable selfie, but alas, it didn't quite go that way. The town of Como itself is very busy and without a decent map loaded I had to find somewhere that did WiFi.
MacDonald's always used to be the ideal choice but this year I'm finding that more often than not it's a frustrating experience. Firstly the touch screen menus seem to just slow everything down. Whatever happened to "fast food"? I estimate it took half an hour before I had received my "tasty" (i.e smokey) burger and fries. Worse, to get access to the internet you now have to supply your mobile phone number and then they SMS you a login password. Frustrating at the best of times (assuming you can remember your phone number - even if you just looked at it again for the sixth time, two seconds ago) but it just didn't work for me - probably user error but maybe it just wasn't working as I was in Italy. Wouldn't it be good if someone abolished these silly tariffs and hassels? Someone like the EU? Oh yeah sorry, the UK just left that.
When I eventually did find a WiFi I could use - the local shopping mall - the speed was slow and all I discovered was how going to Lake Como would add extra time to the journey and that Lake Lugarno, although on the way, was not quite right for another stop.
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| Is it just me, or has Maccers become slower and less Wifi friendly? |
When I eventually did find a WiFi I could use - the local shopping mall - the speed was slow and all I discovered was how going to Lake Como would add extra time to the journey and that Lake Lugarno, although on the way, was not quite right for another stop.
Swiss Scenery
Anyway, the bottom line of all this frustration was that my time line was now seriously slipping. So at about 11am, having scoffed pancakes with a sickly sticky goo for maple syrup, I decided to skip my lakeside location idea and just head for the hills. I rightly thought that there's be enough beautiful scenery drifting by from the car for the next few hours. Sure enough Switzerland did not disappoint. I'd never seen the eastern part of Switzerland and although not as spectacular as the French side, it was of course still very impressive.
Liechtenstein
More successful was my quick "tick off the list" visit to the tiny principality of Liechtenstein. There is a shrinking list of European countries I've not visited now that Bulgaria and Liechtenstein have been visited. This was 55th country. Of the European countries still to visit, probably the top five on my list are Norway, Georgia, Turkey and Iceland. |
| The Informnation Center is very swish |
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| Pretty (the buildings, that is) |
There's a lot of historic castles and museums to see and fantastic trails to do here, but for me I had a much simpler and, for most, much more bizarre goal - to see the Reinplatz stadium where England played Liechtenstein in the qualification group game in 2003. England won 2-0.
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| On tenth of the population of Iceland |
Amazing! Mind you they are only a tenth of the size of Iceland, so even England were expected to win that one.
I was hoping to hear the national anthem "Oben am jungen Rhein"
which is strangely sung to the same tune as "God Save the Queen" but unsurprisingly no-one was singing it. I had one of the best ham and cheese toasted sandwiches ever, so I could get Wifi and load the next map I needed. Liechtenstein use the Swiss currency and as I didn't have any of those I paid in Euros. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone in Europe used the same currency...?
The stadium is really quite a nice one and is situated right next to the Rhine, which is obviously much smaller here than downstream in Germany, with a magnificent alpine backdrop.
Reinpark Stadium - witnessed a truly great England win in 2003. 2-0!
FIFA Headquarters
That task done, it was time to set off back towards France. On the way is Zurich, and there was only one place I wanted to visit there, the former work place of a certain Herr Sepp Blatter - the FIFA headquarters.As I was now a couple of hours later than I'd planned, I hit the rush hour traffic in Zurich which delayed me still further.
Again with the use of the GPS and a really crude map image I managed to locate it and get there. Luckily, the gate was open so I just strolled in and nosied around. It is very plush, as you'd expect when one considers the billions of dollars that has slushed around that organisation. I have to admit that it did look very tastefully done and, I must say I was impressed with the preponderance of football pitches around the building.
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| American football being taught at FIFA HQ? |
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| Another chance to where my FiFA protest shirt |
Selfies done (with my FiFA protest T shirt on) I again used the GPS to inch my way out of the now diminishing Zurich traffic and then made good progress to Basel and through to the French borderless border. Every time one does that one can't help but remembering how much hassle it used to be to go through passport control when one traveled around Europe and how, thanks to Brexit, something akin to those days is set to soon return.
Strasbourg Frustration
I had another big frustration getting to Strasbourg. Of course my mobile data credit ran out and the service station I stopped in at as we approached the city didn't have the facility to sell me any pay as you go credit, so I had to GPS it again. The time ticked away, and my hope of getting here in time to go out and explore the old city was fading away.
I stopped at a service station and managed to reload another map and then set off for the final stage of the journey.
Murphy's law kicked in at this point. Google Maps now decided, after weeks of being reliable, to start crashing every five minutes, even with a reboot and everything else closed down. So I had to wing it from memory. The Booking.com web site I'd used to book my accommodation assured me that the hotel was in an old, historic part of town but as I homed in on the locality of my (very cheap) hotel, I began to realise why it was so cheap. It is nowhere near the beautiful picturesque old town and was close to the industrial port area by the Rhein. It looks more like a building site as massive road works and a new bridge are being developed. It also looked a bit of a dodgy area and as it was now 10:20pm I decided not to go out, after all. (Mistake there. Reading back on this, I should have gone out. Always do more, not less.)
I stopped at a service station and managed to reload another map and then set off for the final stage of the journey.
Murphy's law kicked in at this point. Google Maps now decided, after weeks of being reliable, to start crashing every five minutes, even with a reboot and everything else closed down. So I had to wing it from memory. The Booking.com web site I'd used to book my accommodation assured me that the hotel was in an old, historic part of town but as I homed in on the locality of my (very cheap) hotel, I began to realise why it was so cheap. It is nowhere near the beautiful picturesque old town and was close to the industrial port area by the Rhein. It looks more like a building site as massive road works and a new bridge are being developed. It also looked a bit of a dodgy area and as it was now 10:20pm I decided not to go out, after all. (Mistake there. Reading back on this, I should have gone out. Always do more, not less.)
These things happen when you try to bite off more than you can chew. Lesson to self: Don't try to fit in ridiculously too much - or at least make sure you get up really early if you do.
My plan now is to do just that, tomorrow morning, and have brekkie and potter around the old town then, before setting off for Lille.
So, a mixed day really with lots of frustrations. Still it was good overall. You have to take the rough and the tedious and the frustrating with the smooth, exciting and enriching.
So, a mixed day really with lots of frustrations. Still it was good overall. You have to take the rough and the tedious and the frustrating with the smooth, exciting and enriching.
Aljice
Strasbourg
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