Faro to Milan

Good morning and a early one it is, we were woken up at 4:45am this morning and had 45 minutes before Roger our driver was picking us up to take us to Faro airport for our first leg of this trip to Milan. We had packed yesterday so it only really needed a quick cuppa and a few last things sorting out the villa and we were on our way. 30 minutes to Faro and a quiet airport which was a nice surprise considering its a bank holiday weekend. We checked in and had a light breakfast before our 2:45 minute flight to Milan on Easyjet. The flight was nice and was made easier by the fact that most people were catching up on sleep so nice and quiet. We arrived at Milan and our bags thankfully appeared although mine was last and then we walked to exit 10 in the airport where the hotel shuttles collect, it was a very long walk but it was inside thankfully because outside it was pissing down and although warm it was horrible. Our shuttle arrived and took us the 3 minute journey to our hotel Villa Valpensa, it is a nice looking hotel old but modern rooms so at first we were very happy until we asked about lunch. we had arrived at just after 2pm and was told that the bar didn’t open until 4pm and the kitchen closed at 2pm. Well we were amazed and was even told that most hotels and restaurants close there kitchens at 2pm, so with that we asked for the driver to take us back to the airport, to the Sheraton at the airport hoping that they would have a bar and somewhere to eat. Well we were pleased to see they had both, so we got seated and had some late lunch, well a burger, lasagne 2 beers and a Bacardi later we were nearly 90 euros short but happy to have eaten, we also heard from Brandon and JJ from Chicago airport lounge showing us a couple of drinks while they waited for Bill to join them from Denver later today, they had flown from Houston Texas and would be on the red eye to Frankfurt and then down to Athens on the 25th, so a very long day for those guys, we called for the driver to pick us up again and take us back to the hotel, now we had booked a dinner reservation for 7:30pm but as we walked into the lobby we asked what time the bar served snacks to, and was told 7pm, so we left the reservation as is for now and went back to the room for a little nap. We woke up at 6pm and got ready to head down with the plan to have a few drinks and some snack in the bar before they close that kitchen, although being able to get room service from 7pm, seriously you couldn’t make it up. So we headed down to the bar for drinks and a snack and got there at 6:45pm there was nobody in the bar, so we asked at reception mentioning that we wanted to eat in the bar, and was met with “well its all frozen” feeling that they could not be bothered and wanted us to spend more money in there restaurant we said no thats fine, where is the menu, it took a while and we ended up with a lasagne and a pasta dish all of which was predictively dire. Although the wine was lush and plenty. So we stayed until around 9:30pm and called it a night. So in a nutshell not a great hotel experience. But we are glad to be on our way to meeting up with the guys and starting our real vacation on our cruise on Windstar. So a little update when we booked we asked for a high floor and quiet room. We were put into 119 which turns out to have been over the restaurant and by a loading bay. All night long we were kept awake by moving furniture on marble floors and constant banging. Then at 6am a truck arrived and for the next 45 mins wheelie bins were loaded. So almost no sleep at all. It always happens to us.