Into Russia crossing the Date Line

We had a very nice flight, views until the end of the sky....cloud formations, volcanoes, the lot. We even saw one active volcano and we could see smoke.

We landed in Russia after 04h20. 

The fuel truck was already waiting.

At least 6 officials came to the plane before we opened the door, 3 people, all at the same time, asked us for passports, how many liters of fuel have we used to get there?, they wanted signatures etc etc. 

Please, let us get out of our Immersion suits first, by the way we hate the suits by now...

We asked them if we could use the bathroom first and they accompanied us telling us on the way we need to hurry, they want us out of here as quick as possible because there is not enough space on the apron for other planes and this and that.

Dietmar went, again with one or 2 people, to the tower and me, I used the time to take out my tent to dry it in the sun next to the plane. My escort, I assume a safety officer, stayed with me all the time. All non-committal.

And than we waited and waited for the copy of the flight plan, we waited for 2 hours. Peculiar after they were rushing us in the beginning.

Note the airline luggage transport on the truck behind the car

All in all the stop went quite smoothly except during the waiting period Dietmar noticed his MINI iPad, the spare one he is using after the first one broke down, was missing. He had left it somewhere either on the toilet, or on the transit bus, or in the tower...the hunt began. We could do nothing because we were not allowed to leave the plane but our handling agent a very friendly young russian lady ran from place to place and eventually we were informed they found it in the tower.

Thank Goodness, the loss would have been a stopper also, no iPad, no go. We must be more careful...there is so much to think about and to remember. And it is actually amazing what events or happenings would have the power to make the trip STOP.

Now we have 6,5 hours to go over the Pacific to Sapporo/ Japan.