Our information sheet concerning our departure from Russia came as a bit of a shock. POINT #1 was to put our suitcases outside our cabin door before retiring or by 02:45 AM. Well, that wasn't too difficult; we could always put them out before we went to bed to have them collected and to be put on the bus that would take us to the airport.

POINT #2 though, was not so easily dealt with. The continental breakfast, we were informed, would be served in the restaurant at 2:45 AM as well. And, it seemed, they were not kidding, for at 03:00 AM our bus would leave for the 30 minute drive to the airport. We made it through our very early breakfast and, despite being hardly awake, even managed to get on the bus which had our luggage on it. Then, after a 30 minute ride, we arrived at 0400 at an already very busy airport.

There had been warnings in our tour literature that we might find the customs officials fussy and difficult to deal with. However, everything went well and smoothly. Just possibly, even the officials weren't quite awake enough yet, or possibly, seeing us more than half asleep, they had decided that picking on us would be no fun at all. Our luggage was checked, we boarded the plane and at 0605 we took off into the darkness of the night.

By now, of course, trying to go back to sleep was hopeless. Looking out the window did not make much sense either. What, after all, was there to be seen? Latvia or Estonia in darkness? The Baltic Sea at night? Neither of these were likely to be very entertaining spectacles. It wasn't until at least a couple hours later that I could even see some traffic on highways down there, below us.

ETA in Frankfurt was 0700 (AM) local time. We'd spent some three hours on the plane and, during that time, it seemed, one hour had passed! Perhaps, flying during the day or through the night, such time-related miracles do not draw attention to themselves, but, this still relatively early morning, it did feel very strange. Somehow it appeared as though that global, that universal clock had ground - almost - to a halt.

In Frankfurt we had a six hour wait for our transatlantic plane. Even after trading in some roubles for Euros, even after having something to eat, (breakfast, lunch, whatever it may have been)and after looking at the window displays of fancy clothes or liquor, shoes or hats, not once, but several times, time, it seemed, had stopped advancing.

But enough about time, we crossed the Atlantic and discovered that being driven home in an airport taxi can be more tiring than flying a third around the world.

For all the fun and excitement we had had, it was so nice to be at home.

REMINISCING It had been a wonderful trip and especially after having taken some time to recover from that long return flight home, we look back with great pleasure on our adventures.

Our reminiscing has taken a number of different forms. Toward the end of our cruise, there had been a sign on one of the ILYA REPIN's bulletin board concerning a souvvenir DVD which had been assembled by a man hired for this very purpose. He had followed our various excursions and shot films of us wandering here or there , as well as of the sites that we were visiting. Having missed the showing of the film, we wondered whether it would be worth to buy one. We did - and are extremely glad to have spent the money. When people now ask to see some of the pictures we have taken, we offer to show them the film and they are 'blown away' by the excellent quality of the film and the spectacular places we had seen. Seeing the Hermitage, or Peterhof or looking at the Kremlin grounds in this way, gives a much more realistic view than what most of us can accomplish with even the best of cameras.

Furthermore, there have been two books which in their own way help to take us back to Russia. One of these is my own mother's autobiography, THE TIMES OF MY LIFE, which in its early, childhood chapters deals with historical events preceding the Russian revolution and thus give a family context to some of the events that had been mentioned on our tour.

The second book is a historically based novel by Debra Dean. It is called THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD. Even though it deals with the main character's life and experiences, it is mainly anchored around the fact that the main character was one of the guides at the Hermitage and experienced not only Stalin's marauding of its works of art to raise money, but also, describes events during the 900 days during which the Wehrmacht had laid siege to Leningrad (St. Peterburg) in its attempt to capture and destroy the city. During that time, the gallery staff of the Hermitage had made heroic attempts to remove, pack and ship these irreplacable treasures to safety in the Ural Mountains.

Now, having actually seen even just some of the works specifically mentioned in the novel and having now an idea what a monumental task it must have been to keep this treasure safe from the Nazis makes us appreciate and understand the workers devotion to the art as well as appreciate their work to save it for future generations - and us - members of that future generation.