Going home

Yesterday (Tuesday) I returned to Oregon. I woke at 1:30am to prepare to leave the apartment by 3am and reach Malpensa airport by 4:15am for my 6:15am flight. A couple of things didn't quite go to plan. First, the car I had planned to take to the airport wouldn't start, probably because I haven't driven it for two months (and have driven it only three times in six months). Fortunately the apartment owner's son Uli, who had agreed to drive me and return the car, was able to use his own car instead.

Just after we crossed border into Italy, we encountered a characteristically Italian bureaucratic cock-up: The freeway was closed, but there were no signs directing cars to an alternative route. In fact, all signs toward Milano brought us back to the same point where the road was closed, and we went around the same traffic circle three or four times at least. Twice we went through the traffic circle following a tour bus, but our initial expectation that the bus would know the right route didn't last. Eventually we did find an alternate route (without any encouraging signage — we came close to turning back before we started encountering signs to Milano again) and, when we reached a toll both on the freeway, we saw again the tour bus again there.

In the end it was fine. We reached Malpensa airport by 4:30, barely behind schedule, and everything went smoothly from there.

One of my two big bags held my Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro, a folding bicycle designed to ride like a racing bike despite a design that includes smaller wheels (20 inch rather than 27) and a monotube in place of the normal top tube and down tube. This is only the second time I've packed it into the suitcase (a standard plastic suitcase from Samsonite), so I was a bit nervous about that, but mostly it went smoothly despite the snug fit.

You can see the assembled bike in some of my earlier posts (e.g., Monte Generoso). Here it is coming apart and into the case.