It's always hard to leave Campy, especially since his dementia is getting worse. He threw up bile twice on Monday and wasn't eating (and was really lethargic) which wasn't like him. He really enjoys his walks throughout the day but something was off. He's also been coughing for over 2 weeks. We had him on a med for it but it wasn't getting any better. I made a vet appointment for Thursday (when our vet was back in the office) and she worked me in for blood work, Xray of the lungs and an overall check up. I didn't want anything to suddenly happen to him while we were away so the vet visit felt like a priority. Thankfully, his blood work and organs looked great. Although his brain is struggling, his body is still showing up for life. She gave him a steroid shot to help the coughing (it was our 2nd resort, first we tried an antibiotic pill) and that seemed to help. We go through a lot of diapers each day but it's worth it for this not-so-golden anymore, golden nugget.
Whenever we fly international, I like to get to the airport around 4 hours before our flight take off. This gives us plenty of time for delays and there is less waiting/lines. We also like to check in first before parking the car as this is easier for us than lugging our bags and bikes around the airport (and on the shuttle). We drove directly to hourly parking and brought in our bikes and bags to the terminal for check in at Virgin Atlantic.
I really enjoy watching travel vloggers on YouTube (I really like Kara and Nate) and I've learned a lot about travel hacking with credit card points. In other words, saving a lot of money on travel with the help of being savvy with credit card sign-up bonus's and understanding the perks of each credit card. I told Karel to give me three years to see if I can pull off some travel hacking and it only took me less than a year to book our first first class international flight with money and points. I do a lot of research and plan well in advance. I booked our tickets in the early sprint/late winter for our September flight.
I transferred points from AMEX to Virgin Atlantic and booked 2 upper class seats for ~$800 each and ~65,000 credit card points. Compared to an economy ticket on Delta (which is what we usually fly), I saved us over $800 (total). With our upper class ticket we got lounge access to Delta Sky Club (which we have already thanks to our biz Amex Platinum Credit Card), 2 free checked bags up to 70 lbs each, priority boarding, priority luggage and the best part, lie-flat seats. This 8.5 hour flight took us from Atlanta to London Heathrow. Originally I booked our next flight on British Airways from London to Milan w/ 15,000 points but after hearing a lot of stories about lost luggage (and bikes) with BA from London, I decided to go with a more reliable airline (Swiss). I spent a little more than I would have liked but it gave me peace of mind knowing that there was a better chance of our luggage (and bikes arriving). I booked two business class seats (so that we could get the priority luggage and extra weight w/ 2 free bags) on Swiss from London to Zurich for ~$250 each. I booked a flight 6 hours after arriving in London so we would have time to go to the Virgin Atlantic arrivals lounge after getting our luggage and going through immigration and also in case of any delays. In total, I spent ~$2200 on flights to get us to Zurich from Atlanta. The flight would have been ~$500 less had I not changed to Swiss but I was really worried about our bikes not arriving. I can't wait to share about our flight home from Milan to JFK (it was less than $200 thanks to points...and on Emirates business class!).
After checking in around 2:30pm, we drove 6 miles to off-site parking.
I booking off-site parking online a few days prior to our trip (Park 'N Fly Plus, free airport shuttle to domestic). I was able to save $63 by booking in advance. We got on a shuttle right after parking and got dropped off at the domestic terminal (no shuttle directly to international). We went quickly through TSA (thanks to pre-check, well worth the $85 for 5 years and our Amex card covers the cost) and then took the plane train to terminal F. We had to wait over 20 minutes to get into the Delta Sky Club (it's somewhat small for a lounge compared to domestic and very busy) and we were really hungry. Once we got in, we got some delicious food and worked on the computer for the next 2 hours until our plane boarded at 5:45pm.
I was so excited to board the plane. We went to our seats and Karel was surprised by all our amenties and our seats. He never really knows what I plan for our trips - he is just wants to show up and not have to worry about travel planning. I love travel planning so it works out.
The flight was a bit bumpy but overall it was incredible. Many people said once you fly first class you'll never want to fly economy again. Although the staff, lie flat bed w/ a comfy blanket and pillow, wide screen TV, delicious vegetarian options, complimentary PJs and extra perks were great, I don't feel like we always have to fly first class. I consider this a luxury (and something to check off our bucket list) and I will only "buy" first class seats if I can use points. Otherwise, it's not worth the $5000+. I actually saved money with points and paid less than had I purchased economy seats so I consider this a big win.
Karel wasn't able to sleep as his restless legs were bothering him throughout the night. I slept on and off for a few hours. The PJs were SO comfortable.
When we arrived in London, we went through immigration, collected our luggage and "left" the airport. We had access to the Virgin Atlantic arrivals lounge (we could store our luggage/bikes there) so we had breakfast in the lounge. Our flight arrived almost an hour early and since I slept through breakfast, I was pretty hungry.
The Heathrow airport was huge! We used a cart to carry our bikes and suitcases from one terminal to the next. It took us almost an hour to get to the desk to check in for our Swiss flight. After checking in and dropping off our bikes at oversized bags (which we do at every airport when checking in), we went through security and had a choice of a few lounges to go to. It took us about 20 minutes to walk from the A to B terminal and we went to the Singapore Airlines lounge. Neither of us were hungry but Karel got a coffee and some juice. We both took a long nap as we had over 2 hours until our flight was boarding (it was delayed by 40 minutes). I set an alarm on my phone so we wouldn't oversleep on the couches. I had a light lunch and then we walked the 20+ minutes back to terminal A for our Swiss flight.
The short 75 minute flight to Zurich was smooth. We were served a meal (Karel had tuna and I had a vegetarian meal that I requested online in advance) and then tried to nap a bit. We were both super exhausted. The nice thing about our business class seats on Swiss was no person in the middle seat. I think it's a bit wasteful (they may as well just make bigger seats) but Karel was happy about it (he isn't peopl-y :)
Once we arrived in Zurich, we went through immigration, collected our bags and bikes (we have an Airtag on all of our pieces of luggage and although not 100% reliable, it does give peace of mind to kinda have an idea where everything is). We walked to the rental car area, checked in at Alamo to get our automatic SUV (we usually get a manual for Karel to drive but got an automatic in case I need to drive). We left the airport around 6:30pm, made a few wrong turns leaving the airport and finally hit the road for our 3 hour drive to Livigno. The drive took a long time due to the mountain passes, construction lights and a 3.5K one-way tunnel. We also had to pay a toll of $17 to enter Italy from Switzerland. We arrived exhausted around 9:30pm.
We checked into our hotel (Hotel Sporting) and the staff was so nice. They took care of parking our car, took our luggage (and bikes) to our room and left us with a spread of food as we arrived after dinner (Italians express their love and kidness through food). We weren't too hungry as we ate a lot of great food over the past 24 hours but we found some room for a little of everything. Around 10:30pm we went to bed and slept until 9am (11 hours).
8/28 - Monday
Karel getting his afternoon espresso.
We both took a short nap and I had to force myself to wake up so that I could sleep in the evening. Karel built the bikes and around 5pm we drove a few miles down the road to the Aquagranda facility by the lake. This aquatic center/gym was massive! We paid $15 each to swim (a lot of money for one swim but well worth it. The only package we could buy was 10 passes each but we knew we wouldn't use them all so it wasn't worth it) and made our way to the 50-meter pool. I'm always taken back by the locker room situation in Italian pools as there is often one big changing area (private rooms with doors) for men and women. But it isn't unusual to have men and women taking showers, changing and drying hair in the same space. It's just normal in many places of Europe.
We swam ~3000 meters with a mixture of sets. Again, I felt really good (similar to the run) and the altitude didn't bother me. I was really amazed with how good my body felt while exercising - it must be from all the great food. I didn't want to swim because I was so tired and it was cold and rainy out but I was so thankful we went. We had to pay 1 euro for parking (per hour, first hour is free). I didn't have my phone in the pool area so I didn't get a picture. The water was 78 degrees F but it felt a bit warmer. It was the perfect temperature. The pool wasn't crowded (we had our own lane) but there were people in each lane. Everyone in the entire pool area (hot tubs, water park, pools) are required to wear swimming caps. I saw a lot of Ironman and triathlon swim caps.
We drove back to the hotel and we had a good appetite for dinner. The chef prepared me vegetarian meals that were not on the main menu and they were delicious!! The veggie burger was the best I've ever had. After dinner we were ready for bed. Dinner is served 7-9pm and although it moves quickly from course to course, it's still kinda late for us. But our bodies are still adjusting to the 6 hour time difference. We went to bed around 10pm.
I've been taking pictures of all the delicious food that we've been eating. I'll save those pics for their own special blog after we finish our trip.