Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 28

Today we woke to big blue sky and sun streaming through the window - lovely after yesterday's grey rain. Breakfast was in the quirky lounge with chairs and other furniture of mixed Victorian/ regency design. Some ornate gilding, carving, padding, coverings. Plus scattering of musical instruments and other objects... Plus a baby grand piano to be played if you know how! After breakfast we went out to wander, down Nevsky Prospect towards the Hermitage - which we came on unexpectedly having passed many other grand buildings. St Petersburg is full of grand buildings. We decided not to go in to the Hermitage today, but to wander further across the river Neva to the Vasilevsky Island. Wonderful views across the water to the hermitage as we walked. We had coffee from a stall which sold Ken a ... read more

Up at 4.15am tomorrow for an early flight to Heathrow and then St Petersburg!... read more

There was panic at the station (by Al )when we arrived at Irkutsk station in what we thought was adequate time and 1hour and 15 minutes before it was due to depart. As we looked up at the board to show which platform we were going to be on the only Moscow train was showing as departing at 13.22 and it was now 17:10 (we thought our train was due to depart at 18.22). When we looked at our tickets they said 13.22 also but the English directions from the travel company said 18.22. Aaarh we’ve missed our train!!! I went and asked a security guard if he could help as the information office was closed already. After a little while he returned to explain in broken Russian that the time shown was Moscow time not ... read more

Day 5 - On the Train - Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk We awoke in the morning to discover the rest of the train had vanished leaving us (two carriages only - sans locomotive) at a Mongolian station on the border with Russia. We were initially allowed off the train but then we were surrounded by guards while we waited for the next locomotive or carriages to join us? Our passports were taken away again to be checked by who knows this time? We spent the majority of the day being shunted around across the border and then waiting on the Russian side until 3pm in the afternoon before the rest of the train was added and the locomotives showed up. During this time there were no toilet facilities on the train and the only ones were on ... read more

Try getting that song out of your head... Ok so you haven't heard from us for a while. Germany and Austria kept us busy but we are trying to catch up. This will be interesting in internet starved Cuba... Stay tuned. After a long wait the Moscow blog is yours to enjoy. Moscow greeted us with a massive rainfall which literally flooded the streets. At one stage we were concerned that our taxi would get stuck in the floods. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the toilet in our hotel overflowed. Nice welcome Moscow! Moscow made up for it though. What a city! We spent most of our time in Moscow on foot exploring the city. According to my phone we did 14 km on the first day and we have come close to ... read more