Athena53:

Congratulations on your honeymoon! And on spending it amid the architecture of St Pete.

It is surprising for LTU to overbook at all in the traditional sense, let alone in this quantity, as they are effectively a charter-type operation with non-changeable tickets, and the issue may have been something other than a standard "overbook". Did they have an operational problem maybe; was an A320 substituted for an A321? Or a blunder by reservations? (not unknown). I think it is extremely unlikely they would have the same problem on return.

Also many travellers on your outward journey may have checked in much earlier than you on connecting inward flights, say from Munich. That won't apply on your return leg, where you are all starting at St Pete. And don't worry about the time taken for the check-in at St Pete (known as "registration" in Russia), where you line up at the terminal entrance for security first, before reaching the check-in desks in the "sterile" part of the airport. It's just a different way.

So don't worry. Enjoy your trip. Further recommendations for it in addition to the standards like the Winter Palace, courtesy of Ms WHBM, who comes from St Pete, are:

Yusupov Palace, downtown, for the architecture inside. Also this is where Rasputin met his end.

Smol'nyi Cathedral, on the inside of the bend in the Neva.

Peterhof Palace, out of town. Get the hydrofoil from the Neva embankment, takes about 30 minutes across the bay.

Go up to the top of St Isaac's Cathedral.

Mariinski Theatre for ballet.

Restaurants:

Idiot, themed after the Dostoyevsky novel of the same name and in the area it was set in. Moika river embankment 82.

Sunduk. Furshtatskaya str 42

Sladkoezhka cafes for tea and a cake, several about town, eg Marata str 1, just off Nevsky, close to your hotel.

It's a bit cold and unromantic this time of year for boat trips around the canals.

There's a photo exhibition, "Reality of St Pete, myths and illusions", on this week 3-10 October, at Manezh, Isaakievskaya square 1.

I'm sure that like all St Pete wedding couples you have had your picture taken in front of The Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great.

Enjoy the city. Leave that worry engine behind!

PS - what on earth are you doing, posting on FT during your honeymoon ??!!!

(Edited becaue all my painstaking Cyrillic transliterations of names were messed up at the FT end!)

[This message has been edited by WHBM (edited 10-04-2003).]