Day 14: St. Petersburg in Russia Travel Log

For a change, we did not have to take an early flight this Viking cruise. So we took a leisurely morning, having breakfast at the restaurant first, and then the panorama room, saying goodbye to the staff members who know us. I even got half an hour at the lounge to practice piano. I was rusty though.

We also got a chance to see the ship turning over. The sailors were busy hauling people’s luggage out whenever they were ready, and the housekeeping staff were especially busy, cleaning up rooms as soon as they were vacated. Our cabin attendant Marina barged into our room at one point, thinking we had left already.

The flight back was two-legged: first a 2 hour flight to Amsterdam, and then an 8 hour flight back to JFK. I quite prefer it that way over the 9.5 hours non-stop… There’s a gap where I can walk around and stretch my legs. I was a bit disappointed that KLM didn’t give us Stroopwafel this time. The first leg was delayed a little, so we didn’t even have to wait long in Amsterdam.
It was a production to gather up our luggages in JFK, but we managed to do it. La Professeure was amused at the new automated passport control (I’d already gone through it on the way back from Australia) but it does make the immigration process much smoother. I remember 2 years ago when we came back from France there was a long line.

Last updated April 28, 2020