October 14, 2005 - My journey is coming to an end

Well.... My Flight home to Seatle from Frankfurt has arrived. I was fortunate to have a business class ticket and a seat on the upper deck of a 747. This will be the fist time I have ever had the opportunity to even step foot on the upper deck. I asked the flight attendant if I could possibly see the flight deck (We were still on the ground) and she asked the captain and he said it was fine. There were 4 pilots up there. Two obviously to fly the aircraft and the other two were jump seating to Washington D.C. One of the pilots told me to sit down and he would talke my picture. I then sat there and talked with the pilots for about 10 minutes. I felt very privledged in this day and age of security. I thank them tremendously and took my seat.

I´ll have to admit, I´m ready to come home. I´m tired and have had a cold for about a week now and my energy is low. I left Berlin Sunday morning and took the train to Frankfurt. I spent one night in Frankfurt took the train to the airport with out incedent.

I have had an amazing trip. 8 countries in 30 day is quite a lot to take in. I´ve covered alot of ground. Most things went smoothly. My first two weeks were very strictly planned. Mostly because the Visa I had to enter Russia was for specific dates. My hotels in Russia were pre booked. I was able to get from Germany to Sweden to Finland so that I could take the train from Helsinki into St. Petersburg. The journey was slightly different from 15 years ago. The train now arrives at a different (new) train station in St. Petersburg. I was expecting an easier initial metro experience in St. Petersburg. But it was not too bad. The biggest glitch I had in St. Petersburg was the fact that the hotel I stayed at had cancelled my reservation because they had expected me the day before my actual arrival. I was fortunate to have my Visa Support papers from the Russian travel agency which showed the dates for which I had the room booked. Once this little glitch was cleared up I had a very nice 5 days in St. Petersburg.

Buying my train ticket from St. Pete to Moscow proved to be very challenging. I had waited to buy my ticket on the over night train (Red Arrow) at the train station in St. Petersburg because I thought it would be cheaper and I kind of wanted the challenge. As it turned out I saved myself at least $ 100.00 u.s., by purchasing my ticket while in Russia.

The train journey to Moscow went as expected. A hot, crowded, smelly, unrestful train ride. I probably got about 3 hours sleep total. Not too bad for an 8 hour train ride. The first time in Moscow all things were taken care of by the Russian friends that I was with. This time I was on my own. I arrived in Moscow at about 8:00 a.m and ventured onto the largest metro system I had ever seen. I was able to get from the train station to Red Sqare in a matter of 30 minutes. As I walked toward Red Square and started up the cobblestone to walk across I started to get goose bumps. I was skeptical about the hotel I would stay at because I had read nightmare stories about people having thier reservation cancelled, etc. I was very pleasantly surprised. I walked up and was able to communicate in Russian that I had a reservation. I presented my passport and the woman at the front desk of the Hotel Rossia handed me a key and sent me on my way. Now I just had to find my room among 5000 rooms. Fortunately only 1/4 of the hotel is utilized and my room proved simple to find. It was a large room and nice. So I was checked into my hotel in Moscow by 9:00 a.m. I probably should have taken an nap but after a shower I was refreshed and ready to take a walk out on Red Sqare. I did not waste any time and walked all the way around the Kremlin.

After what seemed like a long 3 days in Moscow I made it to Domodedovo airport and boarded my European Budget airline and was on my way to Berlin. I was very pleasantly surprised with Germania Express airlines. All the seats were nice and the flight was on time. Arriving in Berlin was simple. The bus ride into Berlin was Easy. I had met a very nice Russian woman who sat next to me on the airplane. She was travelling into the North of Germany to do some Research on a project. She is a Bio-Chemical Engineer for Moscow State University. She spoke Russian of course, but also German, French and English. She jokingly made me speak Russian and graciously corrected my grammar and my pronounciation. She helped me get the correct bus into the center of Berlin. I waited with her until she got on her train to Hamburg. She was a very interesting person.

Once I arrived at Zoo station in Berlin I located the informatoin desk and asked for assistance in locating my hotel. I was lucky. It was less than a 10 minute walk from the train station. A very nice hotel. So...originally I was only to be in Berlin 1 night and catch the train to Prague. But I was so tired and desparately needed to do laundry. I stayed an extra day in Berlin and got some things done.

After my short stop in Berlin, I was off to Prague. I had contemplated trying to make a hotel reservation on line but every room was well over 100 Euro per night and I though that I could do better after I arrived in the city. I did get a clean fairly nice room in a Pension. But it was a bit off city center in Prague. So this skewed my experience a little bit of Prague. I was able to thoroughly walk around the city and enjoy a very authentic Czech meal..... about like all the others.

So then it was on to Vienna. The same hotel situation. I thought that I could do better than over 100 Euro per night for a hotel if I went to the hotel booking office in the train station. The train arrived at the south station in Vienna and the hotel booking office was in the West train station. So I ventured onto the tram system in Vienna. Very easy. I was able to get a room for 60 Euro per night. I stayed two nights in Vieanna. Well worth the time. There is much to see there. Incredibly beautiful.

More later......