Mini-Emergencies

Friday, July 22, 2016--Milan to Bergamo

The hotel in Milan had a small breakfast buffet--very simple and just a little more than a continental breakfast.  We had a choice of types of croissants, mini-toasts, packaged muffins, marmalade, Nutella, cereal, yogurt, juice, and coffee.  We ate it and followed the directions of the young man at reception to find a tobacco shop to buy our tram tickets to get to the train station.  By 8:45, we were checked out and taking the tram.  At Lambrate Station, we followed signs that took us way out of the way to buy our tickets for Bergamo, but we got them and make the train leaving at 9:18.  Wes' bag had not arrived yet.  Although we told the lady at the airport we would be moving to Bergamo, so we left information with our Milan hotel to give to the driver if he showed up there.

We are staying at the NH Bergamo Hotel for the next two nights.  It's a much nicer place than the Dover in Milan was--a bigger room with much better bedding.

Because we arrived so early, we just left the luggage at the hotel and went out to explore the town.  Bergamo is a very elegant town at the base of the mountains.  It has two main sections--Citta Bassa, the modern city on flat land at the bottom of the mountain, and Citta Alta, the old walled city on top of one of the short mountains.  We headed out to explore Citta Alta first--walking about 8 blocks from our hotel before heading up steep stairs.  Unfortunately, as soon as we got to the top, there were dark clouds with the threat of rain.  We, therefore, came back down taking a different route at a junction.

That took us west of our hotel into a very old part of the Citta Bassa that was interesting.  And beyond that were several narrow streets of nice shops and then a walking street filled with many more stores.

We were back at our hotel by 13:00 and they had a room ready for us.  We came upstairs to rest, to read our e-mail and the news, etc.  That's when we realized we had a problem.  My adapter that goes on my plugs to change them from flat posts that go into electrical outlets in the US to cylindrical posts that go into European outlets here was missing.  I've had it and used it since the late 70s/early 80s always being careful not to lose it.  And without it, there would be no way for us to charge my phone, my Kindle, my camera, and our computers.

We knew it would be difficult to find the adapter, because no one living here would need that kind.  We stopped at phone stores and at a large electronic store similar to Best Buy.  None of them had them.  Everyone tried to send us somewhere else.  A guy on the street told us to continue for about 2 km (1 mile) and there would be a large electric supply store that would have them, so we headed out.  About only 1/3 of the way there, Wes saw a stored named Videocomponents.  As we stepped inside, we realized it was like Altec at home.  We immediately found adapters but not the kind we needed.  We asked a clerk if he had them, he walked into a back room, pulled out a drawer, and found one!!  We asked for two and bought them!!  Emergency solved.

We returned to the room and used our computers/relaxed until about 18:45.  We headed back to the Citta Alta to explore it.  The climb was just as high as it had been in the morning.  But the threat of rain was gone.  We wandered up and down the narrow streets and past the wonderful squares.  We walked around part of the walls.  We heard street orchestras and single musicians.  We saw a group of about 6 Ferrari owners arrive in their cars, gunning the engines as they waited to pull into a parking lot for their outing to a restaurant.

About that time, my stomach started bothering me.  In Europe, there are seldom any public toilets, and if they exist, they aren't open in the evenings.  No business owners are willing to let anyone other than a customer use their toilets.  So I had to start back down the hill to our hotel--a rather long distance.  I left Wes behind me and rushed.  I made it with complications.  My room key wouldn't open the door!!  I rushed back to the lobby realizing I didn't have time to get the key reset, but I remembered seeing the location of the lobby toilets.  I barely made it to the men's room.  Another emergency handled before it was too late!!