March 19, 2015
Today we awoke at 6am to catch a morning flight to Paris. We packed up, said goodbye to our marvelous hotel, as well as the wonderful city of St. Petersburg and headed to the airport. We got through security and customs with no problems, did some duty free shopping and boarded our Aeroflot flight to Charles De Gaulle.
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| Hermitage Hotel Saint Petersburg, Russia |
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| Hermitage Hotel Saint Petersburg, Russia |
Arrival in Paris was uneventful. We are staying at the chic Hotel Mac Mahon within viewing distance of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs d'Elysee. We took the remainder of the day to relax and rest.
We went to a local restaurant called l'Etoile 1903 for dinner. This evening we shared two plates, a cheeseburger with French fries (the waiter scoffed when Jen placed her order) and French sliced beef with a salad. This was paired with a Bordeaux and topped off with tiramisu. Following dinner we went for a walk on the Champs d'Elysee which was bustling. It was a beautiful evening. We had the chance to see the Arc de Triomphe illuminated and the Eiffel Tower was glittering with lights. Paris held true to its nickname, the City of Lights.
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| Arc de Triomphe Paris, France |
The warm weather and overly sunny skies of St. Petersburg are behind us. The weather in Paris is cool and gloomy.
Some parting thoughts about Russia-
The city and country in general felt very comfortable to us as Americans, and we didn't expect that. In fact, we felt more at home there than Berlin or Oslo. Of course we're not giving up our American passports anytime soon, but it was an unexpected surprise.
Saint Petersburg is dirty. There isn't garbage strewn about, but there is a thick layer of dirt on everything. It's possible that is from the sand they use over the snow, or from the common use of studded tires. The cars there are very similar to the US. There are Fords, Chevys, Nissans, and the nicer Mercedes, Porsche and BMW to name a few.
Another observation is that we fit in there, we were assumed to be Russian first, German second, and American third. Several people we ran into said that they loved America and Americans and want to visit. That said, we can count on one hand the number of Americans we saw while there.
All in all the Russian portion of our trip was a great experience and very eye opening.
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| Saint Petersburg, Russia |
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| Swan Lake Marrinsky Theater Saint Petersburg, Russia |