SIS: Stranded in Switzerland?

It's our last travel day (or so we think) and we are all eager to get home to re-live our memories with our family and friends. But first, we must get (1) out of Russia and (2) out of Switzerland. Since we had no issues before, we didn't anticipate any issues on the way home. Wrong (as the subject line of this post has already revealed).

First, at the airport in St. Pete, our tour guide tried diligently to keep our group together during the flight check-in process. I don't know why that was a big deal for her, but she got into quite a spirited Russian exchange with an older woman who was trying to strong arm her way in the line. Needless to say, it was a bit uncomfortable as we tried not to make eye contact while staying unusually close to the traveling partner in front or behind you.

And then we get to customs. For some reason, I had the great idea to wear my hair all wrapped up - which I guess makes me look very different from the mulitple hairstyles shown on my passport and visa photos. Here again led to a very uncomfortable point in our journey where the Russian passport control guard looked at my photo, looked at me, PICKED UP THE PHONE, typed on the computer, looked at me again - told me to look straight at him, PICKED UP THE PHONE AGAIN. I could feel Stacy's eyes fill with worry as he and I were both thinking "what's taking so long?" But, since the subject of this post is not Stranded in St. Petersburg, you know I got through that one. Whew!

Then, we were off. Trying not to start our good byes too soon but feeling a bit sad all the same. Someone even suggested a reunion next year somewhere. How we love to be with the friends! So much so, that when we got to Switzerland and learned that our flight to the US was cancelled, we immediately started making plans for what we could do with our bonus day together. And here's what we did in Zurich, Switzerland: