Interesting turn of events

Yesterday (written Friday AM, I think) we left Tallinn enroute to St Petersburg. It was a long but interesting drive through the countryside.  We stopped along the way for rest breaks and we stopped in a small town for lunch at a quaint pub type cafe at the border.  On the Tallinn side, the guard came on board the bus and looked at each passport and then we were through.  On the Russian side, we had to get off the bus and Natasha said it could be anything from easy to hours, taking our luggage off and them going through it.  Our bus driver must be good as we had the easiest crossing Natasha said she had ever had.  We got off the bus and went through one at a time to the window where they scanned our passports and put stuff in the computer. For some reason, Jim and I both took a LONG time. I was nervous, to say the least.  Who knows what it was but eventually, the computer passed us and they stamped our passports and off we went. 

On the way to St Petersburg, Natasha told us that there was a wrinkle in the plans. The ship was not able to get into St Petersburg harbor for all the ice and they were having to send an ice breaker out to lead them in. Hmmm this bodes for an interesting trip and probably means some parts of the itinerary are not going to happen but we will see.  Rather than have us wait til past midnight to board the ship, they put us all (including the ones flying in to start the trip) up in a 4 star Ambassaor hotel and gave us dinner at a nearby restaurant. 
It was an exhausting day for whatever reason even though I felt like I slept half the time on the bus.  The hotel is nice and we are ready to go today in a little while and see what we were going to see today anyway here in St Petersburg.  Then we will go to the ship.  They will pick up our bags in a little while and take them there. 
For whatever reason, our room has some interference that would not let me connect to the internet on this computer. My cell phone worked fine but not the netbook. So we had to come out to the lobby by the elevators to write this. 
Not sure when I can do a blog entry again but will be doing them and will upload them when I can. We can get email on the trip but may have to use their computers. We shall see.