We have become familiar with this ship and it has helped us to be totally relaxed and we have really enjoyed our cruise! But wait! There's more! Our trip isn't over, today we catch a train to Milan where we have 2 nights AND a day trip on Lake Como!
Up and showered, packed and out of the room by 7.30am as requested. Left a tip for Charlie our room guy, put our bags in a holding area and went for our last buffet meal. We don't usually have breakfast but this is a special moment and we've become quite attached to the wonderful buffet and the surprises and great food it has given us over this past few weeks.
Back to pick up our small bags and then sat waiting for departure time. We talked to a kiwi couple J&J friends we had met on board and found that that morning he had had a fall in the shower and cut open his leg. It was attended to by the medical team onboard but he looked very unwell. We all gathered off the ship and got our suitcases back and started our trek to the train station not far away. We walked with other friends we had made on board, a large family taking the trip together (20 of them, an awesome group). On the way we found the J&J struggling to get down some steps and between us all we helped them to make it to the train. The family took their bags and Kent got one of his crutches out of our bag to help J with his stability walking. We all stayed with them keeping them company and helping where we could.
The train was a one and a half hour trip but became two hours with a delay close to Milan. We found a coffee machine onboard but it ate our money and wouldn't give us anything so Kent hacked into it and got it going again. Luckily our hotel in Milan was very close to the huge train station and we took the bags to it and Kent went back and accompanied J&J slowly over the busy streets and got the hotel to sort them with their room straight away. The hotel was overwhelmed by the numbers of Kiwis arriving all at once to book in. They stowed everyone's bags in the lobby, up the stairs and out the door onto the pavement lol. Everyone slowly got sorted and all remained in a pleasant state of mind. Our room was really nice and a little bigger than our cabin. It's a noisey hotel, we think the metro is running underneath it and it sounded a bit like the ship noises and didn't bother us too much.
We went out for a walk but couldn't find anything open except for pizza (of course) and kebab so went back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. The menu wasn't enthralling so we were going to go back out to look elsewhere again but another kiwi couple we had befriended onboard came and sat beside us and ordered and we ended up chatting together and finally ate there as well. The food was only okay and nothing more, we decided not to eat there again but in the moment it was lovely having that time to have a conversation with our friends.
