Auckland - Milan
It was mostly dark on the 2nd leg of our trip from New Zealand, more than 13 hours from Hong Kong to Milan with Cathay Pacific. I was by the window and with 3 hours to go I lifted the window blind and the light streamed in. This meant we were close. There were alot of crying babies on both legs. When we disembarked young children filed out on scooters with lights, scooting all the way to the luggage area. You had to look out for them. Bill declared he wouldn't fly Cathay Pacific with all its children flying again.
After checking in at 8.30 am it was gym, walk and explore time. Then we went for a pizza lunch - yum.
We are at the Meliã Milano Hotel, the blue dot below.
Imagine 1000 years from now finding a few relics in an area - a concrete wall painted with two large eyes, the bronze tail of a giant animal, part of a painted stripe rail, and a semi-circle metal plate. What would you be thinking went on here?
It was a bit like that for us when we walked. We walked around a high dark concrete wall in the San Siro district. We couldn't see anything that went on inside the walls. We heard the sound of hooves. We glimpsed through a half-open gate at a magnificent huge bronze horse statue. In one section of the wall tall trees were still and it was silent and eerie. As the day wore on the temperature rose and the light got brighter.
But behind the wall, there is at various times horse show jumping, concerts, gallop races and trotting races. It was a walk in the shade, in the sun and all the time wondering what went on behind the wall.
We eventually came to a gate and discovered that the European Show Jumping Championships were on, at the Ippodromo, a huge horse riding park with horse riding facilities and two race tracks. We needed to buy a ticket to the Show Jumping to go in, but we weren't willing to pay the $60 each to do that.
Artists all around the park were spray painting on the walls. There were some fantastic murals, many with horses featuring. If you hung around too long you would have got high on the paint fumes.
The San Siro Football Stadium is opposite the horse park. Bill had been to an All Black - Italy rugby test there in 2009 - it was full, 80,000 people.
Plants growing high on the top of this apartment block.
The other side of the horse park. You can see the top of the stadium. More tagging/artists work.
We ended up walking further than we had intended, but it was beautiful in the sunshine and the temperature was just right - about 24C. It was a great way to ward off the jet lag. Italy we have arrived.
