Friday, 30 March 2012

Planes, trains & automobiles - home again.

Leaving the snow behind and heading back to sunshine in the UK apparently.
Our trek home starts with leaving Yaiva at 08:30 for the 3 1/2 hour drive to Perm, to get the flight to Moscow. The flight is just over 2 hours long, but due to the 2 hour time zone difference we get there 15mins after we take off!!
This is Bolshoye Savino airport in Perm on the day we left. Landing again at Domodedeovo, Moscow, but this time the traffic is lighter for the car journey to the hotel and it only takes 1hr 10 mins this time. So today we've had 7 hours travelling with a couple of hours waiting around and tonight someone else is doing the cooking for dinner. We meet up with Arthur from Surgut at the hotel.
The next day we have a meeting at HQ, but Friday we're on the move again with a taxi & train journey from the city centre to the airport. Its a 1/2 hour taxi from the hotel to Paveletsky Station, where its then aboout 45minutes on the Aeroexpress to Domodedovo.
As you can see, wet, grey, and horrible in Moscow at the train station, but Arthur does battle with the ticket machines (the manned ticket booths are all closed) we get our tickets and the train is waiting, and I'm glad to be on it as we are a little tight for time.
Our flight leaves at 14:00 for Dusseldorf, but Arthur has a longer wait as he's getting a flight to Heathrow. Moscow to Dusseldorf is 3 1/2 hours, then we have another clock change - two hours back- so we get there 15:30 local timeand then a 3 hour wait for the next plane!!! This is the 18:40 to Birmingham which takes 1 hour 20mins and gets into Brum at 19:00 local time so we have another hour to wind back on the clock!!! After sorting a hire car out, its an easy 1 1/2 hours up the M42 and A46 to Lincoln and I'm in the house for 21:00. Overall about 8 hours travelling and 8 hours hanging around various airport business lounges, and once again thanks to the ladies at Westwood who book the plane tickets and sort out the cars at the Russian end.
Back to Russia 28/29th April.

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