Tour in Russia starts, flying through Canada & Germany to Russia — and the Uniword River Victoria
On our way to tour in Russia, our original flight from LAX to Toronto was going to arrive late, leaving us only 30 minutes to clear Canadian customs and get to our next flight. So we got on an earlier Air Canada flight that gave us a couple hours of a layover – so we’d be sure to get on the flight to Frankfurt.
On the Air Canada flight, we both watched the new Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – and enjoyed it. The flight was 4 hours, 32 minutes – and was pretty smooth. Air Canada has very nice flight attendants, and we recommend it over Aeroflot. We ate sandwiches that I had made at home yesterday – in my ‘let’s clean out the fridge’ flurry of activity.
We’re now sitting in Casey’s Grill and Bar in the Toronto Airport – near the international E gates. I can recommend this place wholeheartedly. We split the Cobb salad and chicken pad thai – extremely yummy. And great service too.
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We took another Air Canada flight from Toronto to Frankfurt – it’s a 7 hour 28 minute flight plus the 6 hour time difference. I watched Sherlock Holmes – 2ndone. We boarded at 10:10PM.
They served us a hot dinner. Air Canada food is good. Chicken and roast potatoes, a cold corn succotash salad. I finished the movie and then went to sleep.
If you haven’t been on an international flight in a while, like for us on this tour to Russia, you forget that airlines outside of the United States actually give you service in economy class, usually including pretty good meals.
The gal next to me had taken off for the rear of the plane to sit with her sister – so I had a bit of extra space. Which was nice. I put in my earplugs, put on my eye shades and I was gone. I woke up with about an hour left in the flight and we arrived at 11:55AM. We headed toward the “B” Gates, had to go through Security again.
Sky is overcast. We were in a very nice LARGE bus on the bus ride to the Uniworld River Victoria, which was only 30 minutes. It was on a typical freeway, and roads you would be used to, with traffic. Nothing surpising so far.
I had not been to Russia in 40 years, so I did not know what to expect, and was sort of thinking it would be as backward as it was in the 70’s. But I was surprised. It looked like the US.
Except for a few thiings. The signs look a little foreign. The Russian alphabet is Cyrillic, such as “P” in Russian is “R” in English, “C” is “S”. So the old “CCCP” in Russian is “USSR”. You with me?
Carol checked in at the reception desk on the River Victoria Cruise Ship. In this picture, she is the one on the right! We were told the Captain would have a special briefing at 9:30 in the Chagall Lounge, about some very serious stuff called “Safety”. We are ready for our Tour in Russia.
Below are some pictures of our cabin – the “Junior Suite”. We had decided to upgrade a little from a basic room, since this was sort of a once-in-a-lifetime river trip. We were very happy to have the extra space in the room. However, as you will see later, the recent remodel caused some flooding problems in the bathroom.
Captain briefing – ship is 123 meters long, 17 meters wide. Lena, Tour in Russia Activities Director, gave us a briefing about the next 3 days. We decided to do all the optional excursions and signed up for them. Now it’s 11:00PM and we’re about to hop in the shower and then go to sleep. It is still light out.
Looking ahead:
Last night (Sat night) we stayed up until about midnight – it’s hard to think that it’s getting late because it’s completely light outside. It gets dark (mostly) around 3AM but then is completely light again about an hour later. I’m dragging today. But still ready to tour Russia.
Best from the East, Carol and JB…
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Posted June 16, 2013, By JB Leep (Google Profile)
Original date May 30, 2010, Tour in Russia, Canada, Germany — Uniword River Victoria, JB Leep and Carol Martin