Milan to UK

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Monday 16.11.2009 Day 33

We checked out of our hotel and asked them to get us a taxi to the airport. A few times he said driver and I keep saying no Taxi. He then told us it would take 20 min he did not give us a booking number like we got when we had booked the taxi the day before and he wanted us to stay in the waiting room with him when our bags where in the foyer I did not trust him and decided to wait in the foyer. It was getting close to when the taxi should be there so we went outside to wait again the guy came to ask what we were doing and we explain it would be easier to see the taxi if we were outside. The a taxi came along that look like ours so we put our bags in, got in and started to head off when the guy runs out and says we cannot take this it is not the one we book we said it is here and we want to go now. He then says that is our car now pulling up. It is not a taxi just a car we say we only get in approved taxis as it had no meter! There was a bit of a discussion between the hotel guy and the two drivers in Italian so we cannot understand it and then they say it will be $45 EU fixed price in the non taxi and insist we do that and take all our bags out and put them in the other car. When we get to the airport the driver charges us the $45 eu for the trip and tried to charge us another $45 eu for the trip from the airport! Which was supposed to be a free shuttle buss? We tell him that we are not paying and for him to work it out with the hotel. The hotel was not honest with all their dealing with us they told us they had a shuttle on the web site and we emailed them about it to organize it they never mentioned a cost. The driver did not ask for money but when we booked in the guy asked if we paid the driver and we said no! They did not say any more about it but when we tried to leave pulled this scam on us they must have some deal with the cars. The web site said they had laundry facilities but when we got there they listed laundries close by! The web site also said it had a shuttle buss to and from the fair but when I asked about that he gave me a photo copy of the public transport bus that only ran part of the day on the last day of the fair! The Web site also said they had a shuttle bus to and from the airport which was not true. I asked then what time checkout was and he said when we wanted and I said we will check out about 12. When we ask the guy about getting a taxi to leave he said that check out was at 11? There was a note on the coffee saying they would charge us for more! They also wanted to charges us extra for dish cloths and detergent for a room that has a Kitchen and expected us to clean their plates? The website said it was 60 eu a night but when we tried to book it went up to 90 eu due to the fair but we were the only people staying in the place so they were not booked out at all! These guys seem to be just trying to scam as much money out of us as they could once they got us in the door.
I am totally over everyone in the world trying to rip us off just because we are travelers. I know that most people in my country are nice to travelers and do not go out of their way to rip them off!
After that experience we decide to get the next aircraft out of the country! We though and English speaking country would be good people would be less likely to rip you off when you can speak the language.
A few years ago you used to be able to get stand by air tickets when you just turned up and waited for the next empty flight we asked around about this and they do not do that anymore it now seems the closer you book a flight to the time it leaves the more it costs. We looked on the internet and could get flights half the price they wanted to charge us if we book for 2 days time. There is no way they could sell the tickets on fights that are due to take off in less than 2 hours so why charge us full fair? Any way we got tickets on Lufthansa. There was free food and drinks on the flight but no TV or radio lucky I was prepared this time and I had my IPod out. We sat next to a nice Italian guy who was into bikes and was telling us all about the great bike places to go around Milan we will have to do that when we get our car and go back.
When we got to the airport my friend has a uk passport so when in the express UK line as I only have Aus passport I had to go in the all other passports line. I managed to get someone who gave me a really had time about coming in and did not believe any of the answered on my arrivals card. As my friend was waiting for me some one went up to him and asked him what he was doing and he explained that he was waiting for me and we where travelling together he said we could have went though the eu line together but the signs say eu passports only so I would not like to try that. This guy could see I was being given a hard time so when up and explained that my partner who had a EU passport was waiting for me. This only made the guy go off in a different tangent of questioning. Was I going to stay in the UK with him etc I explained that my friend still had property in Aus so I did not think he was going to stay in the UK we planning to go back to Aus and both had round the world tickets which he had already asked me about and I had already show him! Then another female official went up to him and said to him it was his break and did he want her to finish processing me for him. He said no and then went back over all the same questions that he has already asked me! Eventually he stamped my passport and let me go by time I stared to think I did not really want to go to the uk and hoped he would not let him in I was so shaken up by the grilling I was given for no reason! By the time we got to the bags our bags where the only bags on there. We when to the car places and got a good deal on 4 day car rental. The (free) shuttle buss from the terminal to the rental car parking took about 20 mins then we got some maps and where on our way. We enquired at a b&d in Oxford and it was going to be $95 ($171 aus) pound a night so we keep driving. We wanted to go to Birmingham to buy a car so we keep going to there and found a place there for 65 pound ($117 aus) a night with free internet by this time it was dark and cold so we took it.

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