June 10 & 11, 2007
Up at 5am, out of the house at 7am, in the sky at 9:30am. My first leg, Redmond to Portland, took only 40 minutes. Mom met me at the airport to while away the next 3 hours. It was great to have her all to myself with no annoying siblings, nieces, nephews, or husbands vying for her attention. The flight from PDX to Frankfurt lasted almost 12 hours. We were in circling purgatory above Frankfurt for almost an hour waiting for our turn to land. Rain and fog had all but one runway obscured. I read an entire book, completed 11 Sudoku puzzles, and fitfully napped. I tried not to worry about the state of my bicycle sequestered (I hoped!) in the belly of this beast. I had a long 5 hour layover in Frankfurt before departing for St. Petersburg. I amused myself by trying to find a hot spot to get my computer up and running. During my hunt I treated myself to a Diet Coke --- a very expensive Diet Coke. I didn’t have any Euros and didn’t come upon an ATM (very odd!) so I paid with dollars. The meager 10 ounces cost $5.00!!!! During the 3 hour flight to St. Pete, I fretted about going through Russian Customs with two huge suitcases (mostly the bicycle and tools, shoes, helmet, etc) and a heavy carry-on with my clothes. I had visions of the inspector unpacking all the pieces of my bicycle then leaving me to figure how to get it back into the suitcase. I takes me about an hour to break down the bicycle and fit it into the case --- and it’s so complicated that I watch a video on my computer to make sure I do it correctly. Was I surprised to see everyone just walking through the gate! A very serious inspector asked me to step aside and put my luggage through an x-ray machine then asked me what I was going to do with that mess of metal. After I explained that it was a bicycle and that I was riding it to Istanbul he rolled his eyes, shook his head, and waved me out the gate. The shuttle that ExpeditionPlus arranged for was waiting and we drove silently (he spoke neither English nor Spanish and I speak no Russian) to the hotel. After checking in, finding my room, and a walk on the river I returned to the hotel. In the lobby I met the rest of the riders just returning from dinner. (I arrived too late to go with the group.) It was really great to see some familiar faces from the Mississippi Ride: Dan, Bill, and Rick. I also met our leaders, Monika and Michele.
It is finally time to try and sleep and get on Russian time. By the way, at 11pm here it is still so light that the cars aren’t using headlights and I am writing in the natural light from my window. Weird! Just the beginning of many strange and wonderful experiences, I’m sure.
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