Our last day in Russia's "Nothern Capital" was a more sedate one as we were both suffering with the amount of walking we had done over the last few days! We spent the morning being very cultural looking at Russian Art at the Fine Art Museum which was very interesting - then ruined it all by having a burger for lunch. We did go to a local company though, we didn't resort to one of the American chains. I have no regrets as my burger has jalapenos on it and I cannot tell you how much I'm missing having some spice in my food... After lunch we took a a boat trip (by hydrofoil - zooooom!) to a town called Peterhof where Peter the Great had a palace built. The main sight here are the hundreds ... read more

I'm actually writing this after just crossing the border into Belarus, a process that so far has taken 4 hours, so I'll hopefully add more when reaching Moscow! Arriving at Cologne station our train (EN447) appeared on the departure board with the right number and time, but Moscow was not listed as a destination. It turns out only one carriage goes to Moscow and after Warsaw this one carriage is connected up with other carriages from all over Europe to form the train to Moscow! Boarding was a simple procedure using a combination of basic German, English and pointing - something that served us well for the rest of the journey. After making our beds the rest of the journey passed pretty uneventfully until the Poland-Belarus border. On the Polish side of the border Schengen immigration ... read more

Well we've set off and Day 1 was a complete success! We safely arrived in Cologne at 16:30 after three trains and a short walk The day started early for a Saturday as my train to London left at the ungodly time of 07:20 but it was an uneventful journey and a standard tube trip across to St Pancras. There I met John and we checked in and passed through security - we think one point we thought we spotted Gary Linekar but neitherof us were100% sure it was him... The trip througth the tunnel was was equally uneventful though we did arrive our a few minutes late into Brussels Midi meaning a jog through the station to catch our connecting German ICE train to Cologne - all those lunch time at the gym have paid ... read more

A Trans-Siberian trip does require a lot of forward planning - mostly to support the various Visas we need to make the journey. Many of these visa applications required the exact location we will be in on certain dates otherwise they would not be granted. Just to keep things interesting each country has slightly different requirements and application procedures - fortunately it was possible to do each via the post rather than travelling to London to visit embassies. The only exception to this was China which I could apply for in Manchester - John however applied visa the post. For this trip we require 4 visas:

 • Belarus Visa (Transit) 
• Russian Visa (standard toursit)
 • Mongolian Visa (standard tourist)
 • Chinese Visa (dual entry tourist - as we're leaving for Japan after Beijing) Belarus
 This ... read more

Welcome to my blog for my trip to China using only trains (and then a little further on planes). I've decided I'd like to record both the run up to and the actual trip for those who might be interested - and myself to look back over in the future! So, before mentioning the plan I thought I'd give some background as to why. After a number of trips around Europe using only trains I've long since decided it is the most civilised way to travel - it's not so much that I'm a train spotter (or railway enthusiast!) but more that I'm fed up of being crammed onto a tiny plane after being violated by increasingly intrusive airport security. My recent trip to the New York reminded me of just how much I dislike this ... read more