Something new

For the first time in my six Olympics, with the exception of the time I spent in the COVID quarantine upon my arrival in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, today was a day with Olympic action and I didn't see any of it. At least not in person.

That's because I spent the majority of my day on one mode of transportation or another as I moved out of my hotel in Milan and up to my hotel outside Anterselva.

This is something I have never done before at any of my previous five Olympics. I have always stayed in the same location for the duration of my stay. Sometimes they've been really convenient (PyeongChang, Beijing), sometimes they're not (Tokyo, Paris) and sometimes they're perfectly fine, one way or the other (Sochi). But with the spread out nature of these Olympics, it would be impossible to stay in one place and see more than just a couple of sports. 

I made the decision to stay in Milan for a few days, seeing the Opening Ceremony, some hockey, figure skating and speedskating while I was there. But if I wanted to see any of the snow sports, I was going to have to make my way up to the mountains and that's exactly what I did today. 

I hopped on the bus outside my hotel in Milan at about 7:30 a.m., took the bus to the train station, then took the metro into Milan Centrale Station where I was pretty early for the train that I had booked to get me to Venice. The Milan-Cortina volunteers were very helpful in getting me to the train platforms, although in my dumbness, I almost got on the wrong train.

The train to Venice was a little more than two hours and it arrived right on time. Once again, the Milan-Cortina volunteers were incredibly helpful in helping me find the bus that I needed to take and letting me keep my luggage in their room in the interim. Once I got on that bus, it was a good long ride, almost four hours, up into the mountains past Cortina, where I got off on a random street corner and had to catch another bus with both of my suitcases at my side.

The second bus was a bit more of a challenge, as there was no storage for my suitcases, so I had to wrangle them as we lurched and darted up these tiny mountain roads through little villages until I got to the hotel. However, I got off at the wrong stop (one stop late). Thankfully, a very nice young woman who lives in town helped me get back down the hill to the hotel, where I checked in and they told me dinner would be at 7 p.m. if I wanted.

As I hadn't eaten all day, I took them up on the offer and had some delicious risotto among other things and now it's time to sit down and do some work, including checking in on the alpine championships today back in New Hampshire.

Tomorrow is a new day. I talked to a fellow journalist at dinner tonight and he told me that the shuttle to the biathlon arena is pretty good and easy to get to, right down the hill from the hotel.

So, we shall see.

Believe it or not, this is a photo from my iPhone taken on the deck of my hotel room in Valle di Casies.