Planning the trip

The initial thought was to travel to Denmark and revisit the areas we got to know while working there from February 16, 1978 through March 10, 1979. Kim and Curt Paul were both interested in participating in the trip. Over time Jude Friesen was added to the roster and during Thanksgiving dinner at Craig and Kelly's, Gloria said she would be interested particularly if the itinerary would include a visit to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

On Cyber-Monday, Curt Paul emailed saying that there were good airfare deals available and that he had booked to Oslo on April 18th, returning from Amsterdam on May 6th. I booked two tickets going Winnipeg - Toronto - Copenhagen on April 22nd, returning from Helsinki on May 5th. Later that day we spoke to Gloria and booked her ticket also. We all upgraded the overnight portion of our flight to Premium Economy. As of Monday, November 28, there were no ground arrangements and up to 6 people on the trip. Even with Kim and Jude F handling their own flight arrangements, there was much work to be done!

Based on Lewis & Kim's experiences with Airbnb, that option instead of hotel accommodation would keep the trip affordable. The Airbnb website provided the flexibility to select entire homes with lots of beds, bedrooms and bathrooms that would meet our needs. It took a few tries to hone my approach of selecting and telling our story before we connected with a great house in Copenhagen, close to the airport and able to accommodate 6 people.

The next challenge was booking the Russian portion of the trip. That timing would dictate dates available for other stops in Scandinavia. I couldn't find any information about the ferry schedule between Helsinki and St Petersburg and TripAdvisor information wasn't very positive. Without the ferry trip option, it would be necessary to apply for travel visas. The application process for Russian visas is notoriously difficult and expensive. However I found a site that provided a line by line explanation of the process and so we began. The first detail was to determine all of our out of country trips in the past 10 years. Using pictures, passports and Christmas letters, the maximum 30 information slots were completely filled.

Pictured below is the group on April 23rd at Tina's house on our first night together after everyone arrived in Copenhagen. I knew from the laughter and noise that things were working fine.

Things started to fall into place. The necessary letters of invitation to secure a visa were available from the Russian train company free versus $15 from most companies and they had a toll-free help line answered by English speakers in Florida. Tours by Locals, a company name found while researching Copenhagen had reasonably priced tour guides in St. Petersburg. I chose Irina Kochkina's tour package and booked her for 2 seven hours days on May 2nd and 3rd.
Airbnb bookings were made in Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki although the exact number of people was in flux. I booked SAS from Copenhagen to Oslo, Norwegian Air from Oslo - Stockholm and Stockholm to Helsinki and shared the itinerary with Kim and Jude F.

Below: Trip documents from the activities reserved from many internet searches over the months.
Above: Nothing like being prepared, and like Joe Friday always said

"Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts".

The Russian Visa office in Ottawa was very prompt and thorough in providing answers to my many questions which resulted in our applications being processed and returned without any problem.

Booked Oslo and Stockholm Passes, cars in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, the luxurious Akyan Hotel in St Petersburg and the Holiday Inn at the Helsinki airport .

I developed and shared a trip fact sheet (see above) and detailed itinerary with our group and was set to go.