Kettering to Moscow


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April 1st 2012
Published: April 22nd 2012
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April the 1st finally arrived and after tearful goodbyes (Tina had said her goodbyes the day before) we set off to Kettering station excited & nervous, but overall more than ready to get the travelling started. Travelling light was the plan but we still seemed to have heavy bags and every imaginable travel accessory possible. If it said we needed it in the book then Tina bought it. If you add to that Mrs B's egg sandwiches then we were well laden as we boarded the train to St Pancras. After blowing half of our years budget on a cup of tea in St Pancras (in bowls!) we boarded the Eurostar destination Brussels. The stop at Brussels was only a brief one - we barely had time to make it out of the station and weren't too disappointed by that as the area outside the station was dirty and smelly. A quick wander around later we were back on the train to Koln (Cologne) and arrived in the German city in time for dinner and a wander. In Koln, in contrast to Brussels, we were greeted by a beautiful Cathedral and wandered around some pretty streets before settling for a pizza for dinner in a local kebab shop. Why not start as you mean to go on? With dinner out of the way we bought a couple of beers and waited for our first sleeper train on the platform. With relief it was comfortable and we had space enough to watch the world go by and get a reasonable nights kip.



We arrived in Warsaw and set out for our accommodation (this was briefly delayed by Marks miscalculation of how cold Warsaw would be - shorts off trousers on!) The Hostel was comfortable; we had a good look round Warsaw including the lovely Old Town which we both deemed would be well worth a "weekend break". The next morning it was off on the train again - this time a 36 hour one to Moscow. There was a massive panic at the station as we ran down the platform thinking we were missing our train. Once safely onboard the train pulled out of the station and then sat in a siding for 105 minutes - no panic needed! The train was again very comfortable if quite 1970's and we benefitted from a sink in the compartment - very up market. The two main incidents on the train were Belarus passport control (they assumed we were scared of flying and therefore using the trains) and the two hours spent changing the carriage wheels for Russian gauge ones. This train was also the scene of our first food purchase from local platform sellers. We both enjoyed the Blinys and platform food was a sign of things to come - a good change from pot noodles and cheese sarnies.


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24th April 2012

Great update
Hey mark ... Great blog and fantastic app .. Quite the professional travel journo ... There's a career in the making! Perhaps future match reports can be yours ... Jabs was only saying the other day how Strange it felt going in for his first season without you ... And u must have been feeling it too? But in sure you have had plenty by the looks of it to fill your time! Keep on trekking and enjoy .... Love to both x x x

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