Firstly, before talking about today - now that we are in Riga, and seem to have a better wifi speed, I managed to upload a photo of me at Peterhov Palace yesterday, just to prove we were there!
Today, We said good bye to St Petersburg this morning and caught the plane to Riga. We got through all the passport control and security stuff and waited to board. We boarded pretty much on time, and the flight attendants shut the doors, ready for us to taxi out to the runway. After a bit of a delay, the flight attendant opened the doors again and the pilot announced that we would be delayed for half an hour or so before we could take off, because the airport had been temporarily closed. The reason being that President Putin was arriving and we had to sit on the tarmac until he had landed and they received clearance for take-off. After about a quarter of an hour, the flight attendant shut the doors again and the pilot started the engines. Then we taxied off to the end of one of the runways, and we spent another 20 minutes waiting there. We could see some planes landing at the opposite end of the runway we were on. As it turned out, we eventually taxied across the runway and taxied all the way down to the other end of the airport, past the domestic terminal then back we came up the main runway and took off over 45 minutes late! Hopefully people with connecting flights didn’t miss them because the President decided to some to St Petersburg! (Perhaps he was visiting to check on the arrangements for the G20 Summit which is going to be held there in September, or perhaps he was coming for a weekend escape at his other residence there!). The bloke behind us on the plane was speculating that Mr Putin may have been coming to St Petersburg to find the next Mrs Putin! We didn’t even get to see the President land! Where his plane was – who knows. Maybe they had to just clear the airspace but he may not have landed anywhere near where the main runway was.
We had a good flight in a Turbo prop Bombardier NextGen 400 – (info for all you plane buffs out there!). We purchased a vegetarian salad on board, and a cup of tea, and the cuppa was the best one we have ever had on a plane - large mug, and nice and hot, and we could make it to our own strength – unusual for a tea on a plane.
Our arrival in Riga went very smoothly. After picking up our bags, we walked out of the airport and straight onto a shuttle bus which took us into the old town in the Centre, and right to our hotel. The old town of Riga is lovely and we really look forward to exploring.
Rob and I have had colds for the last few days, and I think Rob is on the mend. Yesterday, I thought I was getting better, but today I have had the proverbial running tap to deal with. When we were at the airport and on the plane, I had to try my best to look like a picture of health, and be very discreet about the number of times I had to resort to the tissues! Hopefully I will have shaken it off by tomorrow, because I want to explore Riga without the embuggerance of tissues.
