Bill and I are traveling in Russia with Pam and John Roeth. We had a good, but very long flight from LAX to Moscow. It seemed just as we fell asleep they turned on the lights to serve chips and a little bit of water. We were dreading customs, but it was uneventful, thankfully. Hope we can safely keep that little customs paper. You keep your passport handy because everyone wants to register them. We had a ride arranged to the Moscow Hilton of course it was rush hour. It was a little tight with us and our luggage in the Mercedes but we made it! It was a rainy day that day and the next as well.
About noon we walked to the train station to take the high speed express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We were told the train would be there 40 min before hand,it was there 15 min ahead time. The train was completely full, but we left on time and got there two min early. The train was a good way to see some of the country and to get a feel of the people. It turned from rainy to sunny and about 5 hours later we were in St. Petersburg and the hotel picked us up and took us to the hotel. At the end of the street, there was a London Pub so we decided to try that for dinner. It was a bit of an adventure because there were not any usual foods on the menu and our language issues did not make it any easier. We got some snacks and beer, wine and coke and called it a night. Some people that worked the G20 conference were saying at our hotel. They brought back all sorts of goodie bags, but we didn't get any.
Today the police that had been brought in for the conference were gone and the hotel was quieter. After breakfast, we took the bus and found the street with shopping, historic points and took a boat ride through canals and on the Neva River.we then found a Baskin Robbins and had an ice cream cone and toured the Church of the Spilled Blood and strolled through a couple of parks. There are many palaces in St. Petersburg. We decided to go for Georgian food and asked at the desk where we should go, she wrote out the name of the restaurant in English and we headed out. We could not find it after walking all round looking for it, we saw a place with Georgian food and decided to eat there. After we sat down and started looking at the menus that we were at the right restaurant after all, that the Russian spelling which was on the outside sign was completely different. The food was good.
Tomorrow we get on the Anna Katarina ship for our cruise, but stay 2 more days with a full itinerary in St. Petersburg.
T'il the next time.
Marilyn and Bill
Photos from the top floor of the Ambassador hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia 9/8/13 -Marilyn
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