On the road again

 

Helsinki
Wednesday 25th to Saturday 28th September
A nice relaxing wake up time for our 10am flight from Humberside airport, just half an hour up the road from us.
We’ve decided for all our trips abroad, if possible, we would aim to get to Schiphol Amsterdam for the start of our international excursions.
So our journey starts at 7:30am in a thickish sea fret(fog) and on arrival we are advised that unless the fret burns off we will be delayed, or bussed to Doncaster!
The planes apparently can land, but taking off needs good vision and our flight is coming in from Schiphol. I must admit, I thought technology had moved on from this!
So, time for breakfast, which we had planned to have in Holland, our last full English for a while.
Not bad, had better, had far worse at airports!
Fortunately good news, the fret is lifting and we are on our way by 10:30, just half an hour late, arriving at 12:30 after adding the extra hour for European time.
Our flight to Helsinki, is at 13:55,so less waiting time, and no real time to do anything to waste time in the airport lounges, which is good.
Once on board we find that all fellow passengers are also aboard and the Captain has been given approval to move off early for our two and a half hour flight to Finland.
With permission we are taking off early, it doesn’t get us into Helsinki any quicker though, we have to queue up for a stand!
Anyway it’s now 5:30pm, and we’ve lost another hour moving time zones!
We are met at the airport and 2 couples join us for the journey to our hotel, both American, one couple though were missing all their baggage, it didn’t get transferred from London, so Schiphol won on that score. We hear later the luggage arrived that same evening via the next flight out of Heathrow.
So Helsinki.
We are staying at the Radisson Blu in the city centre just across from the train station.
After a quick wash and brush up and a decision to eat in, we attempt to get into the restaurant, but are told to come back in half hour.
We didn’t, and headed outside to find another place, there is a Nepalese just opposite and a Mexican just next door to that, we didn’t fancy a curry or a chilli but found an Italian opposite the station and had a very good seafood pasta.
After a comfortable nights sleep and a buffet breakfast we were lined up by the tour company for an orientation tour of the city It’s cold, a north westerly has blown up and the expected 16 degrees is now 4c, with a chill factor added. Our tour guide was perfect in finding the wind tunnels!
Whilst I think of it, how many times have you heard “this is not the usual weather” or “you should have come last week”

Helsinki is a small city so our walk, although it took a good few hours was great for what intended......orientation. Very helpful for our two remaining days walking and restaurant hunting in the City.
Oh by the way, Santa may be late this year, I had a very tasty reindeer steak on our last evening, I think it may have been Rudolph!

St Petersburg bound
Saturday 28th September

Saturday morning we find there are 32 fellow travellers in all as we set out across the square to the station to board our train for a three and a half hour journey to St Petersburg and another time zone. The train by the way was very modern and was Russian.
An almost uneventful journey until the Russian border when we were boarded by the women’s shot-put team of border guards and their minder for the stamping of passports and  checking of visas.
I had already noted that one of our fellow travellers had a pot plant, romantically given to her by her husband as she had a bad cold.
Russian shot putters don’t speak English, or American come to that, and certainly don’t appear to have a sense of humour. Anyway the minder is called who also doesn’t speak English and frightens the life out of the American lady with the plant pot.
I later find out she had a bad experience on her very first travelling experience from the States to London back in the late 60‘s, I think it was the time of the Angry Brigade so security was heavy. She underwent a strip search, and has been very wary ever since, some 40 odd years later, although being a seasoned World traveller..
Anyway, although told otherwise in Helsinki, potted plants were not allowed into Russia, to cut a long story short and joking talk from her fellow Americans about the federarlees and being locked up, she was told to put the plant in her holdall.
We think it was a Russian game to wind up an American, maybe they do have a sense of humour!
On arrival at downtown St Petersburg we are bussed to our ship the Viking Ingvar, about 40 minutes outside the city.....in the middle of nowhere!
Trapped!

The Cruise
Our ship is moored on the Neva River and will be for the first 4 days whilst we visit the historic sites in the centre of St Petersburg.

The hotel

the room

We then move on through the river/lake/canal system of the Neva, Lake Ladoga, Svir River, Lake Onega, the Volga-Baltic Waterway, through White Lake, onto the Rybinsk Reservoir to Uglich then onto the Volga again, and down the Moscow Canal over 5 days stopping off to visit  five sites on our way to spend 4 days viewing Russia’s capital city Moscow and it‘s sites of interest.


Next St Petersburg, but you will have to wait as Wifi signals are not the best, or it could be that the other 190 odd guests are all phoning home!