Bob and Ann in Russia 2007

This was the day to leave the ship and find our way back to Berkeley. We had a 15:00 flight so we had lots of time to kill before our 12:00 taxi pickup. We were a little worried about our taxi service because of the esperience with the Moscow Transfer Service Company. We asked the Vantage people to call the taxi company to make sure they knew the pickup location. After that was settled, we lazed around the boat reading and chatting with other passengers who also had later flights. We considered ourselves fortunate to have afternoon departures. Most of the other passengers had very early flights. Some of them stayed up all night waiting for their 04:00 pickups.

When 12:00 arrived with no taxi, we asked the Vantage folks to call the company again. They got the driver to our dock and we were underway at around 12:15. The freeway was jambed, so our driver took us through suburban streets to get to the airport. Although noticing that the fuel gage read empty was slightly unnerving the drive was really interesting to us because we could see a different part of St Petersburg. It's just another big city with lots of apartment buildings, shops and semi-crowded streets.

We got to the airport in plenty of time to do some duty-free shopping and to eat some lunch. Our flight to Stockholm with SAS was nearly on time. When we reached the Stockholm airport, we called Ibis Stockholm Arlanda Airport Hotel for its free shuttle and checked into our room. This is a budget hotel but the rooms are fairly large and clean. There is WIFI access and a decent restaurant where we had our last Scandinavian meal of the trip.

We had an early breakfast the next morning and caught the 08:00 shuttle back to the airport. We had an uneventful flight on US Air back to SFO via Philadelphia. Then it was Bay Porter Express to home where we were greeted by food left by the Bensons as a wecome-home surprise.