P: 29 May

No pictures today.

We were taken to St Petersburg domestic airport by a bus organized by the cruise company. This was most welcome as we had a guide to take us into the terminal as far as the Siberian airways check-in. He was able to translate and advise that the flight was delayed and they couldn’t check us in right away. The guide waited till we were checked in. We were flying to Moscow were we were to transfer to a Niki Air flight to Vienna.

Our flight was delayed by about an hour which meant our transfer at Moscow needed to go smoothly. The delay was caused (we suspect) by the arrival a large plane preceded by three army helicopters. VIPs exited from the plane – someone said it was the president.

At Moscow we followed the signs for Transit/Transfer and were sent out again. We tried again and were again ejected. It is very frustrating when no one can understand us and we can understand no one, we at least knew our baggage had been checked through to Vienna. The only signage in English was for Transit/Transfer. We eventually found the main check-in hall (Domedivenko airport). The problem was it was really huge and we could not find the check-in counter for Niki. The flight was listed on the screens with no check-in counter against it.

As I wandered around looking for enlightenment I contrived to lose Alison. I returned to the spot where I had last seen her and she had disappeared. There were hundreds of people but no Alison in sight. After an anxious minute or two and waving my arms in the air in a demented manner, we spotted each other. She was quite shaken and none-too pleased with my having lost her. We then tried to find the information desk, and failed, I then heard someone speaking English and asked if he could help. He was most helpful and managed to spot the counter we were looking for.

Our flight to Vienna was also delayed so we had time to spend some of our last rubles on a few beers. Nice relaxing flight with Niki on a relatively small aircraft. A taxi was waiting and we were at our rented flat at 7.10 pm. Not bad going. We were briefed by the property owner and after a quick brush up headed off to meet Alison’s sister and her daughter who had just come in from Scotland for a few days. We are very glad to have a UK SIMS in our phone which worked in Russia and here. We met up and headed off to a restaurant recommended in a guide book. The restaurant was a bit of a disaster. It was an open air affair in a courtyard and had rugged charm. Service was slow (Sat night) and servings of Wienschnitzel excessively huge (even for me). So we left over half of it uneaten. I will be more careful in following guide book advice in future.