July 6, 2025
On Our Way Home
MXP to YYC via YUL (ARU - Acronyms ‘R Us)
After 89 days the time has come to fly home.
We consciously left ourselves lots of time at the end of this trip to get ourselves and our bikes organised and it’s worked out great so far.
Somma Lombardo is perfectly placed as an access point for the Milan international airport. It’s a maximum 15 minute drive even at peak traffic times.
On the last few days of our ‘drive’ portion of this trip we were going over our plans and logistics for today … exactly how we were going to get our bikes and bags from Margaret’s and then to the airport and when should we do this. During these conversations K came up with the brilliant idea of renting a car from the airport when we retuned from Munich and that turned out to be cheaper and far more convenient than organizing multiple taxis.
We had a great final meal at Corte Visconti (a very nice family run restaurant in SL) and a good night in the air conditioned apartment.
So today … we were up at 6:30 and had the car (mid size SUV) loaded and on the road by 7:15. The car drop off went smoothly and by 8:00 we were standing at the front of the queue (we were the queue) waiting for the Air Canada check in to open. We were keen.
I’m writing this in one of the airport lounges as we wait to board, so far everything is going like clockwork. Fingers crossed that our good luck continues!
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3 weeks ago
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We were a bit delayed leaving Milan but we had a long layover window in Montreal for our connecting flight to Calgary, so we were pretty relaxed. The flight went well and all our stuff arrived with us in Montreal (determined through Air Tags! Everything was checked through to Calgary) so we were pretty pleased.
The only small speed bumps came in Montreal … about an hour and a half flight delay (pick your reason from the drop down list … incoming flight late, weather at originating airport, misalignment of the planets … we heard them all). Not a big deal but it just added to what became a long travel day. Once the flight was in the air I manage to sleep for most of the 4 1/2 hour flight to Calgary (note to folks who don’t live in Canada, our flight from Milan to Montreal was 9 hours, and the Montreal Calgary flight is only about 2/3 of the way across all of Canada … it’s a very big place).
Our son had dropped our truck off at the Calgary airport earlier in the day for us so once we arrived .. along with all our bags - big win!- we were packed up and heading west for the one hour drive home. There’s an upside to arriving late a night - there is very little traffic on the drive home!
We got home at just before 1 am local time, about 26 hours after we woke up in Italy. We were in bed, our own no less, shortly after 1 am! To no surprise we were both wide awake at 5:30 so we rolled out of bed, put some air in the tires of our neglected Toute Terrain bikes and went to our ‘regular’ 6:30 am Monday morning yoga class. Seven degree’s C and not a cloud in the sky - classic Canmore summer morning.
It’s good to be home.
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3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
SOTD
Get Home, Angus & Julia Stone
“If I ever, ever get strange, would you come back to me?
But you can’t follow a dog home, no you can’t call a dog home,
if you don’t know his name.
Just as long as you gonna get home, you get home.
Just as long as you gonna get home, you get home.”
Fitting … we found out a couple of weeks ago that we were getting another service dog puppy to raise … but we didn’t know his name! In the interim I’d nicknamed him “Buddy No Name”. Yesterday we found out his name is Ralphie. That was the sign. Time to get home.
We’ll follow up in a few days with a final post of insightful thoughts and reflections … and to satisfy my inner quant, the numbers. It was another wonderful journey, some things familiar, some brand new … and each day was an adventure.
With that, so long for now
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3 weeks ago
Thanks for following along and for the kind comments. We’ve benefited so much from other’s contributions on this sight so it’s nice to know that we’ve added to this in some small way.
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
We enjoyed following along your blog too especially since we travelled in similar areas. It was fun seeing them from your point of view. I am curious on how you pick your accommodation as it sounds like you selected some real winners. If you want we could just email that info. Mckaar4@hotmail dot com. Thanks
2 weeks ago