I left Dulles airport on a Lufthansa flight around 6:30 P.M. and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany at 7:30 A.M. local time. A short two hours later I boarded another Lufthansa plane bound for St. Petersburg. At the immigration facility in St. Pete I spotted someone I thought might be one of our climbing party -- based on her clothing and backpack. It turned out it was TA from Newfoundland, and we retrieved our bags and headed out into the airport terminal. Immediately we were met by Vladimir and Igor.

Igor took us on a high-speed trip to the Hotel Moscow in his personal car, and TA and I checked into our rooms. Vladimir returned to the hotel about 5:30 pm with four more members of our climbing group. He and Igor will bring the remaining team members and Phil (from International Mountain Guides) later. Hopefully all will arrive safely. We are to meet in the hotel lobby for dinner at 8:30 P.M..

By 10:30 P.M. or so everyone had made it to the hotel, but Phil and Ed are each missing a piece or two of luggage. Jeff will be my roommate in St. Petersburg, Terskol, and also later on in Moscow.

*****

Monday 8/28 -- St. Petersburg

We went sightseeing most of the day, using a mini-bus to get around St. Petersburg. Our tour guide is a woman named Maria. The traffic is heavy in the city, but it's fun to watch all the people along the streets as our bus moves slowly along. We took a boat tour on the river, which provided some great views of the city. We climbed up the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral and saw the bells, both old and new.

After a long day of seeing the sights, we made it back to the Hotel Moscow for a late dinner. I managed to get into bed around 11:00 pm and slept well.

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