on my first entry I ran out of energy outlining my itinerary so here goes, picking it up in Tallinn, Estonia
then a 2-hour ferry ride to Helsinki, where we spent 2 nights
then a 3 1/2 hour train ride to St. Petersburg, where we spent FOUR nights
back to London via Helsinki on Finnair (if I don't get to mention this later, those flights were big fun - the steward greeting us at St. P. for the very short flight to Helsinki was the ultimate Finn - very very tall, very very blond, and very very charming - he even kindly offered me a newspaper in Russian, asking if I could read it - i.e. he didn't assume that just because I was American that I could only read English - poorly - I declined the paper telling him I couldn't read it well enough to appreciate it) - in Helsinki airport I wound up buying a quite large reindeer skin meaning I now had a huge furry carryon package but the nice flight attendants on the flight to London didn't blink an eye - maybe there are lots of people like me who wind up with the weirdest impulse buys...
a few nights in London swearing I would not walk anywhere and definitely not go to any museums (being completely museumed-out in St. Petersburg) - that resolution didn't last long as I was tempted by a really good exhibit at the British Museum on Relics and Reliquaries from the middle ages, and then the exhibit at the SOAS on the Golden Temple of Amritsar)
then a 2-hour train ride to Dorset to visit friends Nigel and Prue for a long weekend
then 1 night back in London where I used points to stay at the Hilton at Paddington so I could jump on the Heathrow Express and be at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse shortly after they opened the door at 7am - as it turned out I took a little time over breakfast in my room (fruit salad I'd bought at the conveniently-located Marks and Spencer in the station the evening before) - a very sweet bellman at first said he probably could not take my bags to the platform, because he was the only one on duty at that time and then his boss said they were not allowed into the station - but he took pity on me and loved the fact that one of the bags contained not much other than a reindeer skin, and took me all the way to the platform, and then that train got cancelled! so i had to shlep everything across the platform to the next train myself!
the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse was almost everything i'd hoped for - the only demerits were 1. NO MORE BAGELS for breakfast thereby dashing my hopes for a really good bagel and lox brekkie and 2. charging 31 pounds now for a haircut - it was also slightly annoying that the upper level was unavailable because they were doing some grey goose promo - but otherwise OMG what a cool place - lots of computers (albeit none with a mouse, another small demerit), lots of seats either in a cafe area or a lounge area, or an area near the windows with basket chairs for checking out the tarmac, very nice bathrooms and showers (i took one before my 15-minute head and shoulder massage, which was amazing and seemed to last much longer), tons of magazines and newspapers, bar with TVs and roaming staff making sure all the punters were happy - i was so enthralled that i sort of ignored the boarding call for my flight (wanting to finish my ultra-delicious black forest trifle in a martini glass) and wound up being one of last stragglers to board (i often forget that heathrow has especially long treks out to the gates)
the flight back to San Francisco takes about 10 hours and i did sleep a bit, so although i'm fairly shattered it could have been a lot worse
