Milan to London
We woke at 0700 and took breakfast at the hotel. Described as a “lavish” breakfast, it wasn’t really. Italians aren’t big on breakfast so the fact that they had some ham and cheese in addition to pastries and biscuits made it lavish I suppose.
At check-out, we made a last attempt to get the rate that we thought we had booked, but were unsuccessful.
We walked to the railway station and found the bus to Linate airport. We had been told to buy the ticket on the bus but we were told, nope. We ran to the bookshop and kiosk to try there, but they directed us back to the bus. Finally, we found a man outside the bus selling the tickets.
Linate airport is cramped and warren-like with just a handful of airbridges including one that appeared to be converted from a hangar. The airport appears to service only shorthaul flights within Europe. Everything went smoothly at check-in for our 1135 flight to London Heathrow.
On the Airbus A320, we were served an identical meal as the what we had been given from London Heathrow to Milan Malpensa, except that the warm ciabatta was missing this time.
London to Warsaw
Landing at Heathrow at 1230 we had 1h10 to make our connection to Warsaw departing at 1340. We had to go through the Flight Connection Centre for x-ray and then proceed to the departure level.
It would have been the perfect connection except that the Boeing 757 was 1h30 late, initially due to an incoming delay and then a brake fluid leakage, air traffic slot issues and finally a runway change. We were seated onboard for part of the delay and the B757 was horribly noisy while on terra firma in my starboard windowless seat, seemingly due to a ventilation duct through the windowless area.
We were given the identical British Airways boxed meal again, this time with a warm ciabatta (again).
Why the detour?
It may seem awkward that we are travelling from Milan to Warsaw with a detour through London rather than directly. But this was the most economical way for us. Round-trip tickets within Europe on British Airways can be very competitive. We had purchased a Milan return and a Warsaw/Krakow return, back-to-back. One-way fares are still artificially high in this part of the world.
Arriving in Warsaw
Landing at 1705 in Warsaw, immigration wasn’t the best. The non-EU queue for us foreigners was long and slow. On a Malaysian passport, I didn’t need a visa whereas Kim on his New Zealand one needed one until recently. The rules changed only in the weeks before our visit when Poland joined the European Union weeks ago.
We made it out eventually into a taxi in the form of a Skoda Octavia, getting stuck in traffic initially.
We had booked into a hotel located inside an apartment tower called Babka Tower. The taxi driver knew the tower but wasn’t sure about there being a hotel inside. The building guard knew of the hotel but wasn’t sure which floor it was in.
A gentleman in the lift said we should go out and around the corner to use the entrance there. We took heed and tried that, but the guard over there guided us back where we started. But this time we knew we had to head for Level 10. Then we realised the lift only went to Level 9, so we walked the remaining one floor.
The male hotel receptionist was wonderful. He was super helpful with information, then guided us down to the basement and then up the other side to our room.
We had an apartment studio with a walk-in wardrobe, kitchen and a washing machine in the bathroom. Our windows looked out into the internal courtyard below.
We had a Mexican dinner at a place called Maxxim’s nearby before buying a few items for breakfast from a convenience store.